Calm down, Val d’Isere is not the new ‘Magaluf on ice’

Just because Gaz from Geordie Shore went there doesn’t make it common


Val d’Isere, everyone’s favourite ski resort, has been widely trashed as “the new Magaluf” in the newspapers today in their latest attempts to stir up a media storm over nothing. They’ve attempted to paint the resort as a classless destination for debauchery and binge-drinking calling it a “hotbed of drunken antics” and blame its decline on “boozed-up Brits.”

They provocatively mention “revellers passed out in the snow,” students being “encouraged to join in sleazy sex chants” and “boozy food fights” while quoting angry locals who blame the British for all their problems.

It’s a completely different vibe to grotty Magaluf

Exeter Snowsports society’s “Tigne-Age Dirtbags” themed party has been criticised by out-of-touch journos for its “chavs and teen mums” dress code when really they should be recognising the greatest Wheatus-based pun ever. Jokes aside, potentially misguided fancy dress themes aren’t representative of a descent into the kind of drunken anarchy likening a place to Magaluf would suggest.

Val d’Isere is full of Surrey residents, double-barrelled surnames and Canada Goose jackets – if they weren’t stolen at St Andrews’ Welly Ball. The Daily Mail are making it out to be a budget holiday destination full of youngsters lured in by cheap drinks and package holidays. Personally, I’d like to know where these ridiculous drinks deals are found. You won’t get much change out of €10 for a pint at La Folie Douce, and even then “budgeting” is a term used on a holiday in neighbouring Tignes or Val Thorens, not Val d’Isere. Neither of those resorts get the shocking media coverage though because everyone already knows they’re full of anarchic uni ski societies. So why is it so shocking when some of that spills over into Val d’Isere as well?

Shagaluf, as it’s infamously known, is full of self-proclaimed “lads” in Nike huaraches and vests from River Island emblazoned with images of an American city they’ve never visited, shuffling their way towards the cheekiest of Nandos. Not quite the same as a week on the slopes.