Advice from Paul ...
General comments:
"I've never caught the skibus before, although I've been behind it on a number of occasions.
By car, Isola 2000 is about 90 minutes, so it will probably be 1 hour 45 minutes by bus. Isola 2000 is not pretty - any ski guide will tell you this, but it's not that bad.
You can split the ski domain into three smaller areas:
'in front of the main apartment block' (domaine de Pelevos)
'over the back' (Domaine du St Sauver)
'Italian side' (Domaine du Levant/Col de la Lombarde)
The bus will drop you off in front of the main apartment From here, there's an old 1970's style egg lift which takes you slowly up to 2300 m and a self-service restaurant (average f ood, average price, nice view)
Instead take the fast 4-man chair lift (just down from the egg lift) From the top of this lift you get a good view of more or less the whole ski area. You can choose whether to go 'over the back' or stay in the 'in front of the main apartment block' sectors.
This time of year the sun doesn't stay up for very long, so skiing 'over the back' sector is a good idea early/mid-morning.
In the afternoon head over to the sunny side of the mountain - 'the Italian side'. Most savvy skiers know this, so try and get ahead of the pack. To get to the 'Italian side' take a green run down from the apartment blocks. After 300-400 m you'll see three chair-lifts very close together; two black, one white. take the white one, the run down is red, but flat (it would be blue in Meribel)
Some Restaurants:
La Vallette (see photo): In the 'over the back' sector, nice wooden chalet, open fire, good for a morning coffee.
Le Petit Chamois: on the piste in front of the apartment block (there are three or four restaurants here, all worth a try)
Madame Phok (unfortunate choice of name) Chinese restaurant at the lowest point in the 'over the back' sector.
Also, on the 'Italian side': from the bottom, take the black chair lift (next to the white one) Just before the top of this lift you go over a shack/restaurant. Get off the lift, turn right, ski to the restaurant. Food is crap, but nice place for early afternoon coffee/ vin chaud - always sunny.
Lifts/Pistes to avoid:
Long slow 4-man chair in the 'over the back' sector (not to be confused with nearby high speed chair) It is 20 minutes long, very cold, no reason to catch it because catching a fast 4-man followed by a short 2-man chair nearby, does the same job.
the 'home piste' to the apartment block is narrow and gets crowded before lunch and late afternoon - avoid this. This is the run which goes over the wooden bridge at the bottom.
Hopes this helps, let me know how you get on..."
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