The resort of Serre Chevalier consists of 4 small villages spread along the valley floor, with all of the slopes located on one side of the valley above. All the runs are interlinked by lifts and there is a free bus (available with lift pass) that connects all 4 villages. The first and largest village is Briancon, which is located at the extreme left of the resort. Despite being livelier than some of the other villages it's a bit too far away from the slopes for my liking. Chantemerle and Villeneuve seem to be the more popular choices, especially amongst the tour operators. These two villages seemed quite similar to me, both having a good atmospheres and being located quite near the lifts. The final village where we had chose to stay was Monetier.

"OPEN THE DAMN LIFT"

Oh the sweet sense of anticipation

The village was fairly similar to all the others, maybe a little smaller, however it had plenty of small hotels, shops and bars to keep us amused. Monetier was reasonably cheap when it came to bar prices and supermarket food. However, the restaurants were quite expensive, although there were 2 cheaper places selling pizza and crepes. These were quite enough for a week but we were glad of the kitchen in our apartment. There are a couple of bars in the village, but we spent most of our time in the English run bar on the main street (predictable I know). There seemed to be more nightlife in the other villages, so if you want your choice of bars and nightlife I'd consider staying somewhere else.

The longest hike we ever did. This is situated just above the Cucumelle lift and accesses some of the sweetest runs in the resort

The terrain above Monetier is the best (according to the locals and seasonaires anyway) so it makes sense to stay either in Monetier or the next village, Villeneuve, to avoid a long haul to get to the good stuff in the morning. The terrain above Chantemerle and Briancon is probably not that different to that above Monetier, but it is served by a horrendous collection of draglifts. And believe me, they're no ordinary draglifts. Firstly, they move at about twice the speed of a normal drag, and the acceleration at the start is enough to send even the most seasoned skier crashing to the ground. They also have a tendency to go up v.steep slopes and occasionally even go round sharp corners. If you can handle the drag lifts in Serre Chevalier, you can handle any lift in the world. No, all in all I'd stick to the right hand side of the resort, there's plenty to keep you amused over there anyway. A lot of the people who live and work in the village have lift passes that only cover this side of the resort, which works out slightly cheaper. I would definitely consider this when I return next year, especially if the weather was similar.