A writer for The Guardian Travel just proved you don't need ski-obsessed friends to get a week on the snow — you need a chalet full of strangers. He joined a Friendship Travel trip in Les Deux Alpes, a French resort served by the new Jandri 3S cable car that now reaches 3,200 metres in 17 minutes (down from 40), and came back with a ski gang, some high-altitude runs on the Glacier de Mont-de-Lans and, crucially, actual sleep away from a wakeful toddler.
Friendship Travel has been filling chalets with solo skiers for over 20 years. The formula is simple: a private room in a shared chalet, travel, most meals, group ski lessons sorted by ability level, and hosts who organise without hovering. The week in question had 17 guests — nine women, eight men — mostly aged 35 to 65. The mix ranged from first-timers finally strapping on boots to a retired nurse from Cumbria grieving a partner, and one regular from Bridgend who has racked up more than 90 solo trips. The operator's founder, Colum McLornan, says solo holidays are now one of the fastest-growing segments in the industry.
The group split into ability levels each morning, and smaller cliques formed naturally — advanced skiers blasting blue, red and easy black runs together, with the safety-in-numbers effect most welcome on off-piste stretches. Evenings meant après-ski at Skandal, which reopened in 2025 with an extension and a DJ on a packed terrace, plus chalet WhatsApp pings for drinks at the Polar Bear Pub. Dinners were three-course affairs around one big table.
There's honest detail here too: group dynamics take some navigating. Don't be the latecomer at the ski lockers, don't claim the same breakfast seat every day, and yes, buying your own wine will get you judged. And not every dinner companion is a highlight — one conversation about printer cartridges reportedly went on a while.
Practical bits: booking equipment hire in advance saved the writer €40, and Eurostar provided return rail from London to Grenoble, a low-hassle option for UK travellers. A seven-night package with a private room, daily breakfast and afternoon tea, dinner with wine on five evenings and six days of group ski lessons costs from £1,820 per person; you can save by sharing a room with a same-sex stranger.
If your friends don't ski, your partner doesn't ski, or you simply want company on and off the piste without the awkwardness of a singles label, this kind of trip does the social heavy lifting for you. The verdict after the week: he'd do it again.
