Welcome to our home in Samoens. We hope you have a wonderful holiday. Please enjoy our home as if it were your own.

Our family, Bruce, Judith and our sons Finlay and Callum first visited Samoens in 2009 as part of a multigenerational family holiday. We had a fantastic week in the mountains. Finlay, at the tender age of three,  was signed up for a week of ski school, Judith and I, along with our siblings had a great week of skiing in the Grand Massif and the boys’ grandparents enjoyed trips up the gondola each day where we all met for a post ski school lunch followed by afternoons where Judith and I skied and grandparents explored the village with their two grandchildren. After a few years Callum was hot on his big brother’s heels learning to ski and these early holidays cemented Samoens in our minds forever and we’ve since returned every year.

In 2018 we were in the fortunate position to purchase a chalet and we’ve now lost count of the number of times we’ve been back.

Samoens is a beautiful place at any time of the year and on top of being a great place to ski, with easy access to both the Grand Massif and (if you have a car) the Portes du Soleil ski areas, it makes for fantastic summer holidays and lovely quiet off-season breaks doing all the usual things possible in the mountains.

We hope you have a lovely holiday 

In this guide you’ll find lots of useful information covering the chalet and we’ll also share some things that we find useful to know in order to enjoy the local area. We’d also love to hear what you think of the chalet including any suggestions you might have that might improve guest enjoyment. Please also let us know what you’ve enjoyed doing whilst you are here and anything you might suggest that might help other guests enjoy their stay. If you find anything in the guide interesting or helpful or there are things you feel are missing, please also feed this back to us so we can make improvements. Please note that if you stay at our chalet more than once you may be liable for a discount. Please ask about this when you book through our marketing partner Alps Accommodation as they manage this aspect for us.

HEATING – The chalet is heated by a gas boiler. The thermostat can be found to the left of the fridge. Please use this to set a comfortable temperature. Please do not adjust any of the boiler controls yourself. The heating and hot water system in the chalet has an unconventional set up and it is easy to mess things up completely, resulting in no heating and no hot water. If you are experiencing problems please get in touch using the phone number(s) above.

HOT WATER –  The hot water should be on when you arrive. In most cases you should be unlikely to run out of hot water, however in the unlikely event the water runs cold, which can happen if you have lots of very long showers in succession, it should be warm again by the following day.

TOWEL RAILS – Each bathroom has a towel rail. Please only use these for towels. If you have wet clothes to dry please use the airer which is stored in the boiler cupboard. In winter, you can turn the radiator in the hall up full and close all hall doors and this area gets nice and cosy for drying clothes.

TV/MUSIC/GAMES – There is a TV on each floor. They are all smart TVs giving you access to the various streaming services. Please try and remember to sign out of any streaming services when you leave the chalet. There is a soundbar in the main room which you can connect to via Bluetooth. Whilst the chalet walls are quick thick, please remember we have neighbours who live on either side.  Lastly there is a small selection of children’s games and also Sony PlayStation for your use.

COOKING – We love cooking and so we’ve tried to ensure the cooking area is well stocked with equipment. You should find no shortage of pots, pans, dishes and utensils. Additionally, if you have a nosey around the shelves and cupboards you’ll find a fondue set, a raclette, a slow cooker and an air frier. When using the fondue or raclette machine, please be careful to ensure nobody trips over the power lead. There is power underneath the dining table to allow for short cable runs but please be careful.

COFFEE – you’ll find both a Nespresso machine, a more traditional Espresso machine with a milk foaming wand and a cafetiere. Life is too short to have bad coffee. There’s also a tea pot if you like your tea a little more civilised than a tea bag in a mug.

GARDEN –  The garden can be accessed from the back door in the downstairs bedroom without the ensuite. The garden is nice and flat which makes an excellent foundation for a snow man or igloo in winter. Please be careful not to bring in lots of snow through the downstairs bedroom. In summer, the garden gets the sun in the morning and there are a couple of loungers for a bit of morning relaxation. The sun moves round the front in the afternoon. There are chairs out front or you can take a couple of the plastic chars from the balcony out the front. Please do not attempt to take the loungers out front. It’s far too easy to damage the walls on the way up the stairs.

SMOKING – The chalet is no smoking throughout, including the balconies. Once you pass the front door you are in a smoke free zone. That also includes vaping. If you want to smoke or vape, please do so outside the front door. There’s a table and chairs there for your comfort.

BOOTS / SKIS / SNOWBOARDS – Please do not bring boots, skis and snowboards into the chalet. There’s a lockable ski locker just outside the front door and there’s a boot rack in the garage. The boot rack can blow room temperature air through your boots. They won’t be cosy but they will be drier than when you left them. Make sure the boot rack is plugged in and press the button for 3 hours of airing. If your boots are soaked you can take the liners out and put them in the boiler room to dry out.

WET CLOTHING – Please do not put wet clothing on the radiators. Turn the radiator up in the hall and put wet clothes on the clothes drier or the hooks. There are also hooks in the boiler room which also gets nice and cosy. The clothes drier can be found in the boiler room.

LAUNDRY –  There’s a washing machine in the boiler room. Unfortunately, the chalet does not have a tumble drier.

SAFETY – The property is equipped with smoke alarms on each floor, a carbon monoxide detector on the ground floor, a fire blanket, fire extinguishers on each floor and a first aid kit.