We stayed at the Hotel Christina in La Plagne with Mark Warner in early Feb 2011 and overall, the experience was superb. We are a family of 4 with the children being 18 months and 3 1/2 years.

Flights and transfers: Not bad - surprisingly good leg room on the BMI charter flight and a 3.5 hour coach journey is never going to be wonderful with little sprogs but the ski hosts who meet the guests on the busses get through a lot of admin and info so it goes quickly enough. We paid a £25pp supplement to fly from Heathrow at more attractive times which was great although there's a bit of waiting around at Geneva airport (upto an hour) for a flight from Manchester.

Hotel and rooms: Pretty good. The rooms are not luxurious but they are not unpleasant in any way either, just pretty basic. The bathrooms are generally quite small (we saw a selection!) but clean with plenty of hot water. Most of the room admin is done on the bus so there's nothing in the way of checking-in on arrival etc which is good. We were initially put in a vey small room - albeit with a lovely view and balcony - which would have been fine just very cramped however there was a note on the dresser from the manager saying that they weren't full that week and if we were prepared to sacrifice the view & quietness, they had a much larger room or an interconnecting double room available which we could have at no charge. This was a nice touch and was not prompted by a complaint or any angling to change - obviously in peak weeks this is unlikely to happen. We had requested a quiet room when booking and the first room was in the front of the hotel on the 4th floor, so it was quiet, but there was barely enough room for a double bed, a pull-down bed and a cot - let alone luggage and clothing for 4. The larger room we saw was enormous - easily big enough for all of us and with a massive, sunny balcony however it was also in the front of the hotel right above the bar so would have been noisy. The interconnecting rooms (which we ended up taking) were 2 fairly small rooms with a bathroom each and plenty of space and the added advantage of the kids being in a seperate room! In future we will definitely consider the cost of booking interconnecting rooms, it definitely contributed to a relaxing holiday.

Childcare: Excellent. Our 18m old was in her element with the nannies and other little ones having fun all day long. The staff are superb. The 3.5y old also had a great time with great staff who also dropped him off and picked him up from ski-school every day. La Plagne is/was the only MW resort which takes 3yo at ski school which is the main reason we went there - it's not so much of a ski-school, more of a kindergarten on snow but they spend a reasonable amount of time on skis gliding down a little slope and ours was able to do the easy button on the very shallow beginners area with us by the Saturday and ski down between our legs or holding our hands. The evening drop-off creche is a great service too and the kids love all going to sleep in their little 'dorm'! On the last day, our 3yo decided to drink a load of calpol just after breakfast and the multi-lingual staff were excellent in getting medical advice - even if the final peace-of-mind was only provided by a close relative working in A&E back in the UK. He wasn't allowed in childcare for the day which was entirely fair-enough but they did allow him back for the evening creche. Note - NHS direct will not help you if you tell them you're abroad - call them from a mobile and don't tell them you're in France!

Food & Drink: Very good and plenty of it. If you're expecting haut cuisine you'll be dissapointed but it's all good, hearty stuff with one or two really very good dishes here and there and the wine was eminently drinkable. Afternoon tea, served from 4ish every day, is a big selection of cakes, biscuits and soup - you won't go hungry if you forgo lunch!

Ski hire - Good. MW have negotiated a very good deal for 6 days ski hire but the shop doesn't have the best range of skis available. If you're a ski-geek and want specific models/styles you may be better off going through skimium or skiset - make sure you pick a local shop though - all of Plagne Centre is easily walkable from the hotel.

Ski hosts - Excellent. They really do know the mountain intimately and where the good slopes are. They judged the ability and willingness of the group very well and tailored the speed and stops very well. All of the groups (leisurely, intermediate and fast) meet at the same place for lunch with a big group booking - usually on the best, sunny tables too - so everyone can catch-up. If you're skiing on your own or didn't sign up for the hosting in time, you can still add yourself to the lunch booking.

Skiing in La Plagne/Les Arcs - Excellent for beginners and intermediates, pretty good for advanced. The pistes are in general well graded and are on the easy side of the grade - i.e. you'll never be cruising down a blue to be confronted with a vertical wall of sheet-ice, the reds are mostly fairly cruisey with a steep-ish pitch here and there and the (few) blacks are usually steep in one or two places and left to get mogully (if you catch the black down underneath the bubble from Plagne Centre on a morning when it's just been bashed, it's a truly wonderful run!) Les Arcs is less suited to beginners but intermediates upwards will love the big, fast, red motorways over there - it is a bit of a mission to get to although the runs in the trees down to (and past) the Vanoise Express are lovely. There is an amazing amount of list-accessible off-piste in La Plagne - when we were there (Feb '11) it hadn't snowed for 5 weeks so it was usually not worth venturing off the corduroy as it was all hard-packed and badly bumped but there were still some good little gullys and alternative descents that weren't too bad - also the skier-cross tracks are great fun, there's 2 above Plagne Bellecote and one over in Champagny. The pistes were not very busy when we were there - it was just before the French & then UK 1/2 term rush and the queues were correspondingly short - even so there are a couple of bottlenecks which I'd imagine could be a serious pain in peak weeks - the lift (and only route back) from Bellecote back to Plagne Centre being the main one - we had 10-15 minute queues there late in the day.

Lastly, the on-mountain restaurants we stopped at with the hosts were very good but very expensive - even by Alpine standards. Being greedy, we had a decent lunch every day and paid €40-odd per head for the pleasure (and that's for a pint of shandy and a steak and chips for e.g.) but if you stock up on a decent breakfast then you really only need a snack at lunchtime to see you through to afternoon tea in the hotel!

All things considerd, the Mark Warner experience in La Plagne is excellent: Something for everyone skiing-wise, superb and well-organised staff and more than acceptable food and accommodation.

Chalet hotel Christina

We stayed here for a week's family skiing with Mark Warner. 

The hotel is ideally located next to the slopes - truly ski-in, ski-out. We had a piste-side room, which had the advantage of great views (especially of piste bashers for our 9 year old son) but the disadvantage of significant noise all night from the same machines.

The hotel is cosmetically tired, with scruffy paintwork and missing handles on drawers. It is, however, reasonably clean. The shabby decoration is the only significant downside of this hotel and if that kind of thing annoys you then you should look elsewhere. The bathrooms were an exception. They appeared to have been recently upgraded and were absolutely fine.

The hotel food was generous in amount and adequate in quality. Breakfast was good, with sausage, bacon and eggs available every day along with porridge, cereal, fruit and good French bread. Afternoon tea included soup and a choice of cakes. The evening meal had three choices for each of the three courses, and everything was perfectly edible. The quality of the wine was fine.

The staff were, without exception, excellent. There were enough of them that help was always to hand and they were friendly, helpful and efficient. The childcare staff were particularly good.

I have deducted a star for the lack of free or reasonably priced wifi. There's just no excuse!

We would stay here again.

As an ex hotel employee, I knew what to expect: the location is amazing - when conditions are right, you can ski right to the bottom step! The hotel is very comfortable, but getting a bit tired in parts. However, the staff this year were some of the best I've encountered. Nothing was too much trouble, and everything was delivered with a smile. The customer service team were great, and the chalet staff were brilliant at meal times (they put up with a lot of banter!). The food was really good this year (some interesting combinations on paper, that really worked on eating!). We really enjoyed ourselves, and would like to thank all the staff for making it a great week!

What a holiday - My first Mark wanrner holiday and I am sure it will not be my last. I am already looking inot going back next year. Previous reviews are correct the rooms are very tired - but you don't spend much time in your room when you are skiing! If the bathroom had been as tired as the rooms I would not have been happy however the bathrooms are nice/ clean fresh and comfortable. Staff coudl not have been more lovely with the children and reactive to our needs however they were never over fussy or intrusive. Skiing was fantsatic the location of the hotel to the piste was super however the ski school was located slightly down the hill - not far but in ski's to get the kids back up to the lift was not fun!!!