Dormio Resort Les Portes du Grand Massif

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!

We stayed in Ancolie 10 apartment which had great view over the whole valley. Peaceful. Quiet. Beautiful wood with high ceilings. The half hoard had friendly staff and good food. The resort manager’s black lab, Bella, was adorable. Other guests also brought their dogs.

A good holiday for skiing. 12 of us stayed at the Dormio Apartments (self catered) with nice views overlooking flaine and ofcourse the awesome Mountain range. Apartments are fairly well kept, clean as you would expect. Could have done with more and thicker pillows but thats a minor point. Skii rental and Restaurant was literally 20 meters away next door. Also they have a pool, sauna, steam room and jacuzzi but i personally found the pool and jacuzzi to be a little cold, possibly due to the energy saving measures in place across France due the Ukraine war. The bus is just a walk down the path that takes you to different stops around the resort and to the skiing area. Also they built a path from the apartments allowing you to ski down through the trees to the main lifts which is awesome. The resort has Bars/Restaurants dotted around the mountain you can ski or snowboard too if you fancy a steak, chicken and chips and a beer :) Shops close early around 8pm compared to other resorts ive been too and sometimes difficult/expensive to get Taxis around the resort in the evening...likely to encourage walking. Shout out to the Resort manager Mirjam for kindly offering to pick me up in Sallanches and dropping me off right to the door of the apartment; after i flew to Geneva and the 1hr 40 minute train journey from Geneva Gare Cornavin Station. Its difficult to find a last minute transport or taxi to Flaine from Cluses, magland or Sallanches so this was really appreciated! Definately plan couple of days ahead if your thinking of travelling by train, taxi or coach because transport can be limited to Flaine. If you plan to travel in your own vehicle definately take winter tyres, tyre chains and a jump pack as backup as we learned the hard way trying to get out of flaine :) Overall, in my experience it was good and would recommend to anyone. Get your Boots on and give it ago!!

If you enjoy après-ski DO NOT STAY HERE as it is located approx 2.5 miles out of Flaine the last bus is approx 6.20 give or take 10 minutes if you miss the last bus you will NOT get a taxi ( There seems to be a taxi war going on between Dormio Resort and Flaine) the staff failed to tell us this and we missed the last bus home after our first day skiing. We ended up walking at least a mile with Ski boots & Skis in tow until we decided to stand in the middle of the road wave a taxi down and begged a lift by offering 80 euros for a 1.5 mile trip safe to say we didn’t make that mistake again. As half board guests we were given one toilet roll for the week, no change of towels or sheets. This holiday was booked with Sun Web there was not a rep in sight and the staff were not that helpful, the food was ok (Average) Flaine is a lovely resort and the Skiing was great, Would I stay at this resort again - No!!

Do not book this resort. We had booked in good faith from the uk. Unfortunately France shut its borders and we couldn’t travel. This resort has behaved in a disgusting manner. Trying to make us rebook at a higher price, refusing a refund and generally trying to capitalise on covid. Please think twice and book an alternative resort. This wasn’t just our experience, we had family booked at the same time Absolutely disgusting behaviour