Higalik Hotel

We stayed at the Higalik for a four night break over UK half term. The hotel is pretty new and presents well with a smart reception and responsive staff. However, there are a few things that let it down. We had two triple rooms for parents and two teenage children. One room had a balcony and a bathroom with both a bath tub and walk in shower, while the other (at the same price) had only a bath and no balcony. The bath shower didn't even have a bracket to be able to take a stand up shower. This is pretty poor for a premium level hotel. Elsewhere, the hotel is built into the mountain which requires switching lifts if you are above the 5th floor. At busy times of day it can take a long time to get up to your room or down. The spa was also extremely busy and didn't have adequate capacity for the size of hotel. On the plus side, the buffet breakfast is good and the staff friendly and helpful. Overall, though we didn't think it offered great value for money.

I was so excited to stay here then my mother fell gravely ill and has now been in the hospital for two weeks. The hotel wouldn’t even let me move the dates of the stay given the extreme circumstances. This is unbelievably cruel. I understand the room was non-refundable but to be so discompassionate given what I’m growing through is heartbreaking. I couldn’t recommend more to avoid this place

The Hotel Higalik is a beautifully decorated hotel in the alpine style. The decor is very fresh and the hotel is clean and well laid out. Our room was great, with plenty of storage for our luggage and enough hangers in the wardrobe. A nice touch is the Nespresso machine (pods are provided but we bought decaf ones from the supermarket just up the road). Unusually, the hairdryer was excellent so no need to bring your own. The only thing missing is the ability to cast video from phone to TV (sound worked but not video). The spa on the 5th floor is absolutely lovely, with views across the snowy valley. Breakfast is absolutely fine - the usual choice of eggs (cooked on request), bacon, breads, pastries etc. Food-wise, we were disappointed that snacks and meals were not available in the hotel after breakfast. There is a restaurant that is next door to the hotel but it is a formal affair with a limited menu and quite expensive. If you want food or drinks during the day this is your only option uses you go into Les Menuires. One thing to bear in mind that it is a 20 minute walk uphill to the village centre, but there is a free ski bus or you can ski from the door down to the chairlift then ski into the village centre. Food and evening bar options in Les Menuires are VERY limited. We ate in most of the restaurants and the quality was awful. The best meal we had was a takeaway pizza from Pizza Patrol, who delivered to the hotel. The restaurants in La Croisette are generally dirty and crowded. Jack’s is good for a drink and they had live music and a friendly atmosphere. So, if you’re just going for the skiing/boarding it’s a brilliant place, but don’t expect good food or any nightlife. There are the usual French alpine options - raclette, fondue, tartiflette etc, but not much in the way of apres snacks or good casual dining.

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).

On the piste (decent location ) and nice bar/restaurant attached but some not great features such as they charge for parking €35 euros a day which is alot when x7 days, and also the snow on the ski in ski out melts and there is a very muddy walk back to the hotel which left all our boots covered in dripping mud - not at all what id expect from a 4 star hotel Breakfast good and decent options but on one morning the bread was stale and leftover from the previous day and had already been cut Rooms fine but cheaply done and staff mostly friendly

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.