Higalik Hotel

Higalik is a fairly new multistory hotel with high standard and spacious and comfy rooms offering fantastic ski-in/ski-out possibilities at the entrance of the village. Daily cleaning didn't work well for us - it quickly turned into daily bed making and we had to empty the bins ourselves. Not the biggest of issues. More of a challenge was the spa with saunas and a heated pool - a real gem and something to look forward to after a day on the mountain. But as the pistes close at 17, and it takes some time to get the skis into the lockers and change, no allowing children after 18 means there are quite some disappointed family members kicked out shortly after coming in. I realise there are quite a few who appreciate a kids free time at the spa but a very simple solution is to change the time to 19 and keep the spa open until 21 and everyone will be happy. No none of us could use the facility more than 20 mins as we hardly could tell the kids to go back to room while we enjoyed ourselves- If you arrive by car it can't be missed as it is just after the first roundabout when entering Les Menuires. Depending on the time of year there are either plenty or no parking spaces on the street. The hotel however offer garage parking for a hefty fee... If you are not on half-board (we weren't) you need to realise it is a 15 min uphill walk to the centre where most restaurants and bars are. While the breakfast room is open at night there is nothing but drinks served instead the hotel offers two dining options in the next door building - the very good bistro Telemark, where half-board guests can choose some dishes from the menu. Worth noting is that also HB guests will have to make reservations. And as it is quite a popular place one better book early. The other option is the small deli that also offers delicious pizzas, fondues and platters in addition to all the wines (including their own), cheese, jams etc they offer. We tried both places and were very happy. Telemark is not a cheap place though... Also next door is an Intersport shop where skis can be rented If you consider renting rent online ahead of arrival for a sizeable discount. Intersport also offers ski lockers (fits five pairs with boot heaters) at the entrance to the slope where also ski passes can be bought (or collected if booked online) from a machine. If you are a family of four it makes most sense to book a family pass (200 Euro less).

The most disappointing hotel experience. On the day of arrival, 27th December we didn’t had staff at the reception. When they arrived, none of them spoke fluent English, so it was difficult to communicate with them. They didn’t had the parking for the guest, so we had to search for a parking spot in the middle of the night around the hotel. We had to walk more than 15minutes from the parking spot until the hotel. The Wi-Fi is not good and the phone in the room didn’t work. Next day - 28th December, we tried to eat in the telemark restaurant (a restaurant of the hotel) and they said that it was fully booked with reservations from the hotel and outside of it, during the all week. We tried to book dinner in other restaurants but everything was fully booked. So without any options for eating, we had to order a take away pizza. It is not admissible that kind of situation, not having a restaurant in the hotel to support the guests. We complained about the lack of options for dinner and the hotel reception informed that there would be a restaurant available in the hotel (bar area), for the next days. Next day, when we arrived to dinner it was terrible! They didn’t have our reservation, they made us waiting 15minutes (after dinner booking time) because the restaurant was not ready. Bad organisation, lack of options to eat, staff disoriented. We asked for a fondue and it was disgusting we didn’t eat it, it was a pan with melted cheese and sliced pieces of bread. At the end of dinner, we asked to speak with the management because it was unacceptable what was served to dinner for a price 40€/person. A crazy lady - Flora Sades (one of the managers of the hotel) that was working in the dinner room, closed me and my boyfriend in a room and threatens to expel us from the hotel in the middle of the night. Stating that from the moment that we arrived at the hotel we were just complaining about everything. Since then it has been getting worse, the rooms have not been cleaned, towels have not been replaced. The maids disturbed the guests even with the- do not disturb sign on the door. The bedroom has a temperature that we cannot control, so we had cold in our room. The breakfast was really weak for 4star hotel, if I want a boiled egg I have to cook it, the fruit options were really poor only orange and limes, fruit salad, and sometimes we had a pineapple. For a ski hotel, where the breakfast is one of the most important meal, it was really poor. Bad bad experience!!!!! We payed a lot for that!!! And the staff is terrible with bad attitude with the guests. Only Mateus was the nicest member of the staff.

Arrived late morning from an international overnight flight followed by shuttle to the hotel. Was greeted by a surly woman at the reception desk who went out of her way to be unhelpful. We finally got to checkin at 1700 and as traveling as a group of friends had 3 rooms booked. We had to wait for over 30mins to checkin as only 1 person on reception duties with a queue for 4-5 people waiting and multiple (I counted at least 5) managers/owners wandering around and chatting without do anything to help. All of us book the same room type. The other 2 rooms were identical with nice balconies and shower+bath. My room has no shower and no balcony, yet I was actually charged more for my room over the 6 days than the other 2. The bath has a shower nosel but is a handheld design which for someone wi3gh back issues is a struggle. Went to reception to request a room change. The poor girl on reception (who was really nice) went and spoke to the managers. At this point I should point out none of these multiple managers even got off their chairs to come to talk to me and left the poor girl to defend the hotels stance that the rooms are all identical but some have showers and some have balconies which to me.means they arrived not identical! Was told the hotel is completely full so no other rooms available..... there is a chance another room could be available from tomorrow. We will see! Not a great start to a week long ski trip in the French alps that we have been saving for over 12months to do