Just home from an amazing fun family trip to Vaujany. Our family consists of mum, dad, and 4 kids aged 16-20. This is what we got up to. Day 1 Early P&O ferry to Calais, then an easy 5 hour drive to our hotel just south of Toul. Top tip: we stayed at the Crezille Hotel, big family rooms, swimming pool and huge breakfast, not too expensive (£150 for 6 of us). Day 2 Easy drive the rest of the way, arrived early afternoon to be greeted by lovely friendly reps. Appreciated the upgrade- thank you! Easy walk (40 mins each way) to the Cascade waterfall- well worth a visit. Top tip: do your big supermarket shop in Vizille before you get to Vaujany, as the little village shop doesn’t have much and is a lot more expensive. Day 3 Really pleasant walk into town the long way round (past the Villette lift station), coming back the short way! In the afternoon we went to the French version of Go Ape, in Oz en Oisens- slightly dubious attention to health and safety which we appreciated, lots of different routes to try out, from green (kids) to black (almost impossible). Plus a string of 5 zip lines all included in the price (22 Euros). Top tip: The direct route to walk to Vaujany takes just 15 mins (20 mins to get to the lift). It is an easy walk, relatively flat. Day 4 We purchased a 6-day lift pass and took the lift up to the top station and walked back down to the mid station. This was not far in distance but was quite a difficult descent going past the refuge hut. Top tip: You can get a “family” pass for 6 days at a much cheaper rate than individually; a family just has to consist of 2 grown-ups and a random number of children/ young adults- they didn’t seem too fussy!! The whole area lift pass with bike permits was about 73 euro pp. Day 5 We rented out the kit and had a go at the Via ferrata by the Cascade waterfall. There are two routes, an easy one and a very difficult one. The kit costs 14 euros pp; if you need a guide then you are looking at at least 60 euros pp. As two of the kids are experienced climbers we used them as our guides! Definitely “Type 2 fun” (= fun you experience in retrospect rather than at the time). It was an exhausting and hot climb down before we collapsed. Our two intrepid climbers then went off in the evening to tackle the difficult route which they said was great fun as it was right next to the waterfall. The rest of us went down to the dam for a relaxing swim. Top tip: Take lots of water for the Via ferrata- it is about 2 hours long but then another hour or so to walk out. Day 6 We rented mountain bikes from a lovely shop in Oz, with a huge selection (much better than in Vaujany that just had electric bikes). Then up to the DMC gondola as the bowl in Alpe D’Huez has a lot of downhill tracks to play on- we started on the greens but progressed to the blues- the blacks looked terrifying!! Top tip: make sure the lift pass is for the whole area (not just Oz/ Vaujany) as this does open up the easier runs in Alpe D’Huez. You can also save 2 euros per pass if you already have a plastic lift card (the nice bike man gave us 6 for free). Day 7 A second day biking, as it was so much fun. It takes about 30 mins to do a complete run (including the lift back up again) so lots of time to try out all the routes. From the lift you can watch the spectacular crashes (one of them was mine). Top tip: if you rent the bikes for consecutive days it makes it cheaper- 30 euros for the first day, 20 euros for subsequent days. Day 8 We took about 7 or 8 lifts over to the far side to Villard Reculas and then hiked round the corner to Oz. The boys then continued on the walk back to Vaujany but the rest of us caught the lifts back! Top tip: its quite good fun getting a chair lift downhill, especially if you are only used to getting them going up when skiing! The one we found was from Signal down to Villard Reculas. Day 9 The boys decided they wanted to hike to the top of the mountain and back again without using the lifts- to the top of the second station from La Villette- a total of 33km and 1.6km height gain. Us normal people just did the lake walk (including a lush swim at 2000m) and a trip on the gondola to Pic Blanc, followed by an afternoon hike down from the mid station back to the chalet. Meanwhile the two climbers found a fab multi-pitch above Lac Besson which they said was a lot of fun. Top tip: don’t get talked into a mega hike up the mountain. That is what the lifts are for. Day 10 We drove to a place called La Grave, about half an hour on from Bourg, to go canyoning with No Limits. Cost 50 euros pp- well worth it; a lot of fun (again slightly dubious French health and safety!!!) Top tip: this canyoning trip is apparently more interesting than the canyon in Oz so worth the extra journey. Day 11 Back to the No Limits place for a rafting trip, when booked with the canyoning you get a reduction so was an extra 36 euros pp. This was fantastic fun and for me the highlight of the trip. Our guide, Remi, was a lot of fun- very charismatic and ensured we all enjoyed ourselves. If you want a tame version you can raft in the Veneons river, but this is grade 2 rapids (we did grade 4), although that trip is a lot cheaper. Finally we (at last) found the sports centre at Vaujany and went ice-skating and swimming. Top tip: your reps can get hold of a Discovery Pass for you, which entitles you to discounted entry to various things such as swimming and ice-skating. Day 12 Up early (after an impressive thunderstorm display) for the 8-hour drive back to Calais- very do-able in one day, including stops and breaks it took us about 10 hours. Top tip: if you are booked with P&O as a standard ticket, you can catch an earlier ferry if you make it, for no extra fee (subject to availability). Many thanks to Jamie and the team at Ski Peak- excellent customer service, stunning chalet, awesome trip. Now I need a holiday to recover.