JANE SLADE discovers a new-style French ski chalet holiday designed for couples and singles seeking home comforts with hotel-style service was sunk for divers to explore.

I’ve always fancied having my own snowy bolthole with a roaring fire and hot tub for just me and my close friends.

Memories of sharing a chalet in Meribel with a group of fun-loving Royal Marines and doing the same in Courmayeur in Italy with a posse of fireman who drank like fish and never slept, may have been great at the time.

However, I now prefer a more sedate kind of ski holiday, with a bit more space and plenty of creature comforts.

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This is where VIP ski comes in.

In the French Alps it has just opened four club-chalets, where you can book a double room and enjoy such luxuries as hot tubs, fine wines and food cooked by a Gordon Ramsay-trained chef.

Chalet holidays have always beaten self-catering and hotels hands down.

These more stylish versions which include three meals, unlimited wine and chalet staff willing to shuttle you back from the slopes when you’ve missed the last bus, take on a whole new dimension.

You can also pay for your lift pass, ski lessons and even ski hire in advance, so you waste no time getting on to the slopes on your first morning rather than languishing in long queues.

I stayed in France’s premier resort Val d’Isère at VIP ski’s Club Bellevarde, a beautiful, super-sized deluxe chalet with traditional pine-clad walls, big picture windows, two staircases and lots of comfy sofas catering for up to 24 guests.

The 12-bedroom Bellevarde has a spacious sitting room with antique furnishings, big-screen TV and large DVD collection.

This was a favourite crash zone of ours after a punishing day on the piste, as well as, or instead of, a soak in one of the two outdoor hot tubs.

Talk about indulgence. One evening I even booked an in-chalet massage (£33 for 30 minutes).

Club Bellevarde’s bedrooms were very welcoming and the modern en-suite bathroom was agenerous size too.

I particularly liked the nice quiet corners downstairs where you could curl up with your iPod or a book before dressing up and joining the throng for champagne cocktails and canapés and the unmissable four-course dinner.

We enjoyed mouthwatering fare every night, such as pea and mint risotto followed by pork tenderloin, rounded off by bread and butter pudding or citrus sorbets.

There was always a veggie option, a vast platter of cheese and choice of fine red and white wines and we ate round a big oak table.

Also available is a free ski hosting service where a staff member shows you around the mountain.

It is a time-saving way of getting to know the runs.

Purists deem Val d’Isère the finest ski area in the world, with more than 300km of piste.

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Its couloirs, powderfields and cross country routes certainly suit all abilities.

With fast, modern lifts, including a giant gondola and funicular, whisking you to three big areas, you can quickly access a fantastic variety of runs which goes some way to justifying the £216 for a seven-day lift pass.

There’s plenty of off-pistepizzazz and partying too in the bars and discos of downtown val, which is strung out in a necklace of bright lights along one main street between La Daille at one end and Le Fornet at the other.

Flashy designer shops and restaurants sit alongside the more relaxed, rustic establishments, making Val d’Isère an interesting mix of contemporary and traditional styles.

When it comes to hotspots, VIP chalet host John Tar recommends La Graal, a big seventies-style disco towards la Daille, open from 10.30pm until 4am.

My favourite has long been the Blue Note, a sophisticated blues bar near the old town with live music uWntil 2am.

Wandering through the old quarter, which is all that remains of the small hunting village once owned by the Dukes of savoy, past the 16th-century church under a moonlit sky, makes a nice contrast from the throbbing pulse of Dick’s T-bar, which has just opened under new ownership and where long, long ago I used to strut my stuff until dawn.

GETTING THERE

VIP Ski (0844 557 3119/vip-chalets.com) offers seven nights at Club Bellevarde, Val d’Isère from £889pp (two sharing), catered chalet basis (breakfast, tea and dinner).

Price includes return flights from Gatwick and transfers.

Free lift pass offer for Express readers (worth £216).

Valid for bookings at Club Bellevarde made by December 17, 2011, for departure March 4, 2012.

Quote vip-express22.

French Government Tourist Office: 0906 824 4123/franceguide.com