Dormio Resort les Portes du Grand Massif

Stayed half board in 3 bed apartment with 3 friends. Loads of space, well equipped, amazing views of Flaine Ski Resort from balcony. Breakfast was superb self service buffet with plenty of choice. Dinner was good. Three courses. Drinks to pay for. Bus service great. Not an apres type town but we weren’t after that anyway. Highly recommended. Would love to return.

Seven of us comfortably shared a chalet which would have been a bit cramped with the maximum of 10 occupants. The beds were very comfortable, and all four rooms had en suites with bath and shower over. There was a big dining table to seat 10, and comfy chairs for five or so. The kitchenette was fairly well equipped and had an enormous fridge/freezer and a dishwasher. Downsides: strangely, there were plenty of pans but most had no lid. The lighting in the living room is very dim - adequate for sitting around, but a strain for after dinner card or board games. Tips: you get three dishwasher tablets and a tiny tube of washing up liquid, and when you run out of those you have to head to Spar to buy more. If we’d realised, we’d have taken some with us which would have been much more economical for a one week stay. No food at all is left from previous guests, so take your salt and pepper with you! The resort facilities are excellent and close at hand - restaurant (see separate review), and swimming pool with sauna, steam room and gym. The hot tub and the snooker/pool table were out of action during our visit. The resort is high up above Flaine. All but beginners can ski from near the entrance down tracks to the resort, and the free shuttle bus stop is just outside, about 100m from the heated ski lockers in the garage. For the return, catch the bus from Flaine Forêt, or use lifts and tracks to get almost home, and take the bus for the final stage up the hairpin bends. We would all recommend this accommodation if you’re mainly interested in the skiing and the local facilities - there didn’t appear to be evening transport to get into Flaine if nightlife is more your thing.

I stayed with a friend and his two grown up lads in a 3 bedroom apartment which was perfect for our group. We had great views of the whole resort bowl and the golf course behind. Snow conditions permitting, it was ‘ski-out’ using a path just across the road that connected to pistes lower down in resort. Be careful of rocks here as the snow melts! The resort is definitely not ‘ski-in’ as stated, as there are no lifts or pistes above it. The location is isolated as the free ski bus stops by around 1830 and there are no public taxis in Flaine. The walk back from the centre would be difficult in ski boots as it is essentially 3km up the steep winding public road. Après-ski therefore is limited but there is a supermarket within about a 15m walk and a decent restaurant (Ancolie) with 24hr pizza vending machine outside less than 10mins walk! Booked on half-board terms through SunWeb, we had access to the restaurant for breakfast and dinner. However because it was very quiet, food items were reused from day to day including the hot breakfast buffet which was reheated still in its serving tray from the day before. This included the boiled eggs, sausage and bacon which concerned me in terms of food hygiene. The restaurant was closed one night due to staffing issues. We were given good warning of this and offered an Italian takeaway delivered to our apartment with wine, which we found perfectly acceptable. On the whole food was good, often traditional Savoyard fayre and definitely couldn’t complain about portion size! The resort has a great spa, pool and gym with floor to ceiling Mountain View’s that will help revive weary limbs after a hard day’s skiing! On balance the resort gives you more independence from a traditional hotel with the benefit of half board if required. There is a bar with a large lounge and pool table. Opening hours are limited, there is no lounge service outside of these. Guests would definitely benefit if Dormio ran a subsided shuttle to the centre, or even a free one as offered by other hotels in the resort!