I totally agree that we must keep this gem a secret :-). We have been in St Martin, end of January, for almost 10 years. Staying at the beautiful Chalet Gypse ski-in ski-out and with max 20 persons at the lift opening at 09:00. You will get used to the bitter cold in the St Martin; 2 chairlift since the sun is still below the ridge.
We had ski holidays in Courcheval and Mottaret for several years and having skied into St Martin many times we decided to give it a try as our holiday base and we loved it.
While keeping the small resort feel it also has lots of apartments available to rent, nice hotels, good restaurants and friendly bars. Great for a growing family.
We love it so much we bought our own place here and believe me, it's a lovely place to visit in the summer too if you like walking.
December 25, 2012
Wendy Dave Simpson
from
United Kingdom
We have been going to St Martin for about 7 years now.
Lovely village and not too noisy, great for families.
Would highly recommend great location.
Looking forward to holiday 28 December 12.
Visit Dahlia pub in village, nice friendly staff. Great place to relax at end of day.
St Martin, the place to be!
We love St Martin (St Martin de Belleville). It is absolutely as we imagined - a small, pretty mountain village that has retained it's charm & character, yet has everything you could wish for, including a beautiful spa & 2* michelin restaurant.
The gondola whisked us into the heart of the skiing, which was perfect but we also had the benefit of the really quiet local slopes. There was so much doom & gloom about the snow last year, but not a problem for St Martin & the vast 3 vallees to ski in. Can't recommend St Martin highly enough, but then again maybe that is the charm, that not so many people know about it!
If you want to go to the 3 valleys but avoid the crowds-go to St Martin. After a season in Les Menuires, skiing the whole 3V area, St M was by far my most favourite place. At the end of the day, the run back to the village is always a pleasure, especially if you go via Jerusalem-even in high season this glorious red run may well only have half a dozen people on it. Plus, after a dump of snow, there is great intermediate off-piste on the top half of the mountain above the village.
There are some lovely restaurants in the village itself, which is very attractive.
Only downside I can think is that, in high season, the queues for the 4 man St Martin 2 chairlift half way up can get very long from about 3-4pm as everyone who comes over from the other resorts have to get back. We stayed for half term 2008, and unlike other resorts at that time of year, the 9am lift queue was a civilised 5-10 mins max compared with 40mins elsewhere. I've also skied there on 24th April, and while it did get very mushy on the main runs by the afternoon, first thing they were great as everyone was avoiding the low resorts. Had the place to myself!
St. Martin is a beautiful village set in the vast ski area of the three vallees. There is nothing better at the end of the day than cruising down the red run 'Jeruseleum' and stopping for a drink on the way down. Small but fun social scene. Once visited i promise you will be hooked!