The Best View In Shymbulak: Le Mont Hotel Review

Le Mont Hotel (formerly Sneg) is a cozy lodge nestled halfway up the main slope of Shymbulak Mountain Resort. You’ll find it next to the exit from the Combi 1 chairlift. With a fantastic deck, it is brilliant for summertime eating, but during the winter, when its a bit too chilly to be outside for too long, you still get gorgeous views. And if you pop by you’ll see plenty of visitors on the deck taking advantage of the stunning scenery. In the colder months, you’ll enjoy staying inside the restaurant, with its wooded interior, and take in the fabulous view down the slope and across the city.

looking down over a ski slope with some small mountains to the sides and a cloud covered city in the background — The spectacular morning view from our room down Combi 1 slope.

We stayed here in February 2025, and also had a night there a year or two ago when it was known as Sneg. Both times we stayed there with our children. Previously we stayed in a Lux Room, whereas this time we stayed in a Standard Room, though I feel like when we booked we did ask for the Lux room. We were on the bottom floor this time as we were, I believe, on our previous visit.

As you’d expect from a mini hotel, there are only a small number of rooms and all are named after famous mountains. We stayed in Matterhorn, on the lower of the two floors of rooms. There are two Lux rooms, both located at the end of their respective corridors. The one on our floor was Khan Tengri (the tallest mountain in Kazakhstan) and on the floor above was Everest. All rooms lean heavily on a wooded theme. There is wood everywhere, but given this is a ski lodge, it works.

The rooms

Le Mont, self described as a mini-hotel on their website, is smaller overall than Shymbulak Hotel (the hotel down at the base). Despite the hotel’s compact size, the rooms we have stayed in at Le Mont/Sneg have been larger than the rooms we stayed in at Shymbulak Hotel. In a previous stay we put both our children into a single trundle bed that we hired for the night, and they slept top to tail. On our most recent stay, the children were bigger, and so we hired two trundles, which both fit easily in a standard room! The bathroom was also bigger. And if you can book a Lux room, it will have a sauna which is pretty great.

A hotel room at Le Mont Hotel with 2 trundle beds positioned outside a bathroom. — The standard room had plenty of space, enough for 2 trundle beds. Excuse the unmade beds (this was the morning we checked out)!

The water pressure in the rooms is strong and the hot water comes on quickly. We had plenty of complimentary products such as shampoo and shower gel, and dental kits, though no shower cap. The room was warm and the beds, including both the trundles and the queen (I think!) were comfy enough. There were two arm chairs and a small coffee table. There is a mini bar but it didn’t come with a price list, or a clear indication on what might be complimentary. In any case we didn’t touch it!

For anyone with safety concerns, your evacuation from the room is ensured with a wooden and rope ladder on your window. It is securely tethered with a climbing connector to the wall. From the lower floor, it doesn’t look like it’s very far from the ground outside.

The view

You might be wondering why I’ve chosen to give this review the title I did, considering there are several hotels also on the mountain! And I can’t deny they’ve all got stunning views! But Le Mont has a great advantage, being halfway up the slope, on the cityside. It’s not so high as Tenir, which is also located on the mountain side of the slope, and whose views are limited to the mountain range side of the mountain. The Tien Shan mountains are majestic to be very fair! Shymbulak Hotel has rooms looking both up the slope and down toward the city and both are pretty. However, there’s some thing so lovely and consistent about the view you get from Le Mont. You see half the slope and the gorgeous mountains that cradle the resort. You also get a glimpse of the city on a clear day. Magnificent.

Anyway, I stand by the title. Le Mont has the best view of the Shymbulak hotels.

The wifi

There is wifi which you can ask the staff to log you into. The coverage and speed is ok but if you’re on the lower floor then it can be a bit patchy. This reminds me of our previous visit to the hotel when we brought along a baby monitor so that we could have a drink in the restaurant after the children went to bed. On that occasion the monitor’s signal was very poor, which we suspect is because of the thick foundations of the building. Anyway, I reckon the very thick walls might explain the poor wifi signal on the bottom floor.

Where to eat while staying at Le Mont

Le Mont has a restaurant, which you see when first enter the hotel. The rooms come with complimentary breakfast in the restaurant for two, which starts at the oddly late time of 9.00. Given there were four of us, we had to pay for the children’s breakfasts. The hotel restaurant is lovely and does the usual ski resort fare. You’ll find pelmini (small meaty dumplings in broth), beef stroganoff, and borsht. If you are eating at the restaurant, the toilets are on the floor below. This can be a bit of work if you’re wearing ski boots!

The restaurant is a bit expensive, and the portions small, even compared to other restaurants in the resort. But if you’re staying at Shymbulak and have a lift pass you have the freedom of the mountain and can eat where you please! We ate our meals on the first night at Le Mont and then went to the excellent Chalet the second night.

If you wish to eat dinner elsewhere on the mountain, keep in mind the chair lift has particular operating hours depending on the day. You’ll only be able to move up and down the mountain if they are running night skiing. You will also need to have a pass that allows you back up the mountain. The chair lift operates over the lunchtime period without pause so you can head up or down the mountain. If you go up, you’ll find the fabulous Syn 32 or the Yurt. If you go down you’ll be in Shymbulak Village where there is a decent selection of great restaurants.

Is Le Mont Hotel right for you?

Le Mont is a great hotel. However, if you’re staying in winter and wish to ski, do consider your requirements. The chairlifts do run in the mornings before the official opening time, but be warned that they may stop randomly. They start again about 8.55am and then stay on for the day. This can be an issue if you have a 9am ski lesson for a child who cannot ski the main slope yet. This is easily solved by booking a 10.00 lesson for your kids instead. Of course we HAD pre-booked 9.00am lessons for both our children for each of the mornings we were here!

If you are staying at the hotel to go night skiing, check which days night skiing takes place. Night skiing during the 24/25 season is on every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. We made this mistake on our first time staying at Le Mont (back when it was Sneg).

Le Mont appears to be under new management in 2025 and so, understandably, there are a few teething problems. For example, I found the communication when booking our room to be a little lacking. After receiving no response to a WhatsApp message asking about availability, I booked our room in person when visiting Shymbulak for a ski day. I was sent no booking confirmation, despite requesting one. We had some minor issues resulting from this lack of responsiveness but we did get a room and had a comfortable enough stay. I expect that, with time, management will find their footing and things will run better. In the meantime, the staff are all very kind and friendly, and those in the restaurant were happy to speak English with us. When we requested the trundle beds they were brought down very quickly (we appreciated it the speedy service!).

How to get to Le Mont Hotel

The timing for getting to the hotel, given its location on the mountain, is quite critical. Ultimately you should be boarding the gondola from Medeu by 4.30pm. To reach the hotel you must take the chairlift from Shymbulak Village, as taxis cannot access this high up the mountain. According to Shymbulak’s website, Combi 1 (the chair lift connecting Shymbulak village to Le Mont Hotel) usually stops at 5pm, so to get to the hotel you need to arrive at Shymbulak village before then, perhaps 4.50 if you want to be comfortable. The gondola from Medeu up to Shymbulak takes about 20 minutes so you should be boarding it by 4.30pm. Of course if its a night skiing evening, then you can probably be more relaxed about getting to the hotel!

A woman in ski gear stands in front of the snowy entrance to ski lodge Le Mont Hotel — Standing on the deck outside the entrance to the hotel. The room you can see through the windows is the restaurant.

To check in you simply visit the restaurant, which serves as a reception. All the rooms are downstairs from the restaurant.

What do I know about Shymbulak?

I’ve been living here and visiting Shymbulak since mid 2021 with my family. Visit my About Me page to understand more about my perspective. And check out my Kazakhstan page to find out more about why I think why you should travel to Kazakhstan!

Also, I have the following blog posts on skiing generally in Kazakhstan!