A great ski area once you get to it. The passes are divided into 3 areas with the "evasion pass" covering all routes and about 450 km of pistes. The St. Gervais pass is about 100kms. We stayed at a hotel next to the train station. The morning trek requires a coach to the cable car station (approx 10 mins, longer journeys are to be expected at weekends) then to Betex in the cable car where there is a ski hire shop restaurants and beginner slope and a further cable car to get the non-beginners skiing. You can ski all the way to the cable car station snow permitting but this was not possible end of Jan this year (2007) due to the late start of the season.
The area around the train station seems quiet and ideal for families. The only life appears to be in the Terminus Hotel run by Snowcoach. Also the French have introduced smoking laws inside public areas so the non-smoker no longer gets " fogged out" except when entering designated smoking areas.
Slopeside restaurants are expensive 18-25 Euros for a main course although the portions are large. They do a children's menu with portions for 12 Euros which would suit the average adult diet.