Chatel ski area is over priced and a rip-off. They hiked their prices this year but, by January 11th, are still not fully functional but offer only a small reduction in prices; the children's tariffs are only 4 euros cheaper than the adult prices. In addition, three of the main lifts were not running in the morning, resulting in huge queues for a one-man button lift.

There is over-crowding on the pistes which results in dangerous situations as people come close to collision out of frustration to maintain their speed at all costs. There appears to be no piste security policing this.

Pistes are poorly prepared and the lift staff are ignorant and badly trained. One chair lift operator continued to brush ice high up off the canopy of the loading area as we slid forward onto the moving conveyor belt, resulting in everyone getting covered in small sharp pieces of ice - nice one Chatel, top marks there for customer care then! There is evidently an attitude problem towards the heavily paying customer. The whole experience makes you feel bad and with children in tow it is not enjoyable.

My advice: go elsewhere, try one of the smaller family orientated resorts nearby where they are glad of the custom and prices are more realistic to what you are getting.