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Cervinia / Valtournenche Parking and Lift Pass

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Hi,

We are heading out for a long weekend on Thursday and have a hotel booked a little bit down the valley from Cervinia so will be driving on a daily basis. I've been trying to do a bit of research on the parking situation near to lifts and can't find a great deal. Can anyone recommend which lifts in Cervinia itself have large car parks near the bases and if you know whether they are paid or free (don't mind either but I only speak about 3 words of italian so don't want to get caught out Very Happy ).

I am led to believe that the Gondola at Valtournenche has a large car park which would be handy as it's a few minutes closer than Cervinia for us and hopefully a little easier accessed if weather is bad but it seems a bit of a trek over to the main area so probably only going to park here for a day or 2. Does anybody know if there is a lift pass office at the valtournenche gondola or am I better going into Cervinia itself the 1st morning?

Also with regards to the lift pass the intention is to buy a 3 day area pass however I cannot find any resource that shows exactly which lifts are covered by this and which require the international pass. I am ssuming the lifts up to Plateau Rosa and Theodulpass are covered by the Cervinia pass even though they appear to top out just on the swiss side of the border?

Loads of questions I know but any help would be much appreciated snowHead
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I skied over from Zermatt and loved the sunny skiing and long lunches on the Italian side, but can't specifically help re. parking on the Italian side. I do remember a big car park next to the Gondola at Valtournenche, a good spot to access the ski area if you're staying lower down the valley, you can download to there if the run down to Valtournenche is suffering in the sun. If you wanted to get to the further reaches of Zermatt, you might want to drive up to Cervinia for quicker access to the border though.

The Cervinia pass will let you get up to the border at Testa Grigia/Plateau Rosa & Theodulpass, you can drop back into Italy from there, but you won't be able to drop into the Swiss side as the lifts back up won't be covered. The prices for the Cervinia & International 3-day passes look to be €115 & €150 respectively with a €33 supplement for a daily International upgrade to the Cervinia pass, which means if you wanted to cross into Switzerland on 2 out of 3 days, it would be better to buy the International pass from the outset.

There is a lot to do on the Cervinia side, but it is mostly tame and cruisey. If you're at all adventurous AND the weather permits, you will want to drop over to the Swiss side. The super-high Klein Matterhorn cablecar itself and the stunning view from the top would be worth the extra €35, you can also stroll into the glitzy yet rustic Zermatt village, ride the Gornergrat train up the mountain and have a go on the testing reds & blacks as well as all the yellow itineraries on the Swiss side. I'd be disappointed to go to either Zermatt or Cervinia and not get a taste of the other side of the border.

My advice would be...if the weather looks settled, sunny and calm go for the International pass and head to Zermatt in the mornings leaving some time to play in Cervinia on the way back in the afternoons. If it's windy, or poor vis, get the Cervinia pass and upgrade for 1 day if the sun comes out.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
There is a large free car park at the telecabina base in Valtournenche. There is also a ticket office. In our experience accessing the area from Valtournenche is hassle free and can be a quiet alternative to the occasional scrum in Cervinia. You can ski back down to the car park on what is allegedly the longest pisted run in Europe (measured from the top of the Kleine Matterhorn) but if this isn't open you have to download in the telecabina. If you end up in Cervinia town at the end of the day there is a bus back down to Valtournenche. An international pass covers the lifts you mention.
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There is a car park near enough to the Cretaz chair lift in Cervinia town. Its never too fast to get over to Zermatt anyway, even from Cervinia, and Cervinia would be a 15 min further drive up the valley than Val. That said, the way to the top via Val is a bit fineckey and involves a drag. Can't remember if, once you get the drag to the top, you can ski directly in to Zermatt or if you then have to ski back to Cervinia to get the top lift into Zermatt.

FWIW I was there twice recently and preferred the skiing in Cervinia. That said, it is worth it to go over at least one day to see the Matterhorn from that side and to get the highest ski lift in Europe.

Car park in Val is very big and will presumably accomodate everyone. Carpark up Cervinia way not so big but there don't tend to be queues / crowds there anyway.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Here is a trip review I posted on another forum which may or may not be helpful to you:

Resort views are stunning, Italian Matterhorn

I love skiing in Italy and I love the italians, much nicer and more charming than the french and austrians, slightly less efficient that the austrians. Food is delicious on the slopes and reasonable, their culture seems to be to ensure affordable food no matter what you are doing. Hard to get a bad meal on the mountain or elsewhere. I bought a bottle of water in a bar in nearby resort of Pila, on the slopes, one euro, couldn't believe it

Lift system is good and almost all very quick, very few queues

Slopes long and gentle, nothing crazy steep, a few nominal blacks that might be regarded as steep reds

But there are very long descents to make up for the lack of steeps, longest descent in Europe is from top of Zermatt to bottom of Valtourneche, with one rude interruption of a hundred meter ski lift

Resort is at 2000m and has access to highest ski lift in Europe so is snow sure

Link to Zermatt - SEE NOTES BELOW - personally i preferred the skiing in Italy and wouldn't bother getting the pass again, BUT, it is worth doing at least once so you can see the Matterhorn from Switzerland side and get the highest ski lift in Europe (3900m), good views from observatory at top, breathlessness, experience Zermatt if that floats your boat

Slopes initally very gentle in Zermatt, then improve, you can prob ski the entire resort if you got over early enough but if you get stuck you'll have to stay the night as taxi home 600 euro

Everything in Switzerland absurdly expensive, turn off phone, leave wallet at border

LIFT PASS NOTES:

I STRONGLY ADVISE that you consider buying lift pass on a daily basis. We noticed there was a significant discount if you bought a multi day pass but I think they want to lure you in. International pass is 57 per day (covers Zermatt) I think local pass is 43 (maybe even less?). One off upgrade for a day is 30 euro or something. It worked out that if you were going to go over more than one day it made more sense to get the international pass for the whole time you were there.

BUT the resort suffers from wind which causes lift closures. We went for 4 days, bought the 4 day international pass and the entire resort, not just the Zermatt link, was closed for the next three days.

Now here's the catch - they wont give you your money back, they will only give you another voucher for the missing days that you can use in the next year (hence why I came back). I think if you get insurance when buying you can in theory recover some money via the insurance company.

Here's the second catch - if you buy the local pass, which is cheaper, you can ski for free in the other resorts in the Aosta valley (i.e., Pila, Montrosa, La Thuile, etc (possibly Cormayeur)) which will probably be open even if Cervinia is closed. BUT if you buy the more expensive international pass you can't. We then had to drive to Pila, one hour each way, and buy another pass to ski. This was galling as if we'd just gone local we wouldn't have had to. This can only be the Swiss' fault. Hilariously, the international pass is more expensive if you buy it in Switzerland.

So all in all a highly enjoyable resort, skied off piste on second trip, guide from tourist office, very enjoyable, quite a lot between the pistes and a lot of gullys and the like going down through the centre of the resort. Also heli skiing.

Pila was good too, very cheap, could ski it in half a day, had a few lovely runs from the top with very good off piste options (apparently avalanche prone) but the top two chair lifts were appallingly slow

Real potential to do a lot of skiing in the Aosta valley, about 5 resorts I'd like to visit here
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@8611, good stuff there re the passes...buy daily according to the weather/lift closures...hoping it's sunny and calm for the OP though to make the most of those views!
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Thanks for the replys people. I'm hedging towards just parking at Valtournenche each day now. Roughly how long does it take to get the lifts up and then ski down to the main area? Also how difficult is the red down? My wife was ok on most reds in Alpe D'huez however she does get nervous and I'm wondering if it might be a bit much for her first run on the first day? The where to Ski and Snowboard book notes this as being the section of steepest reds in the resort although also suggests the pistes are generally overrated and pretty much all comfortably skiable for an average intermediate.

That sounds like great advice in the lift passes also, I've been looking on twitter and there's been a few closures in the last week!
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Red back down is not that difficult unless snow is poor and/or it's busy, as it can be quite narrow in places. Good fun though when in condition, and you get the impression that you're skiing through folks' back gardens at some points! There is also a road crossing involved. I'd estimate accessing Ventina in Cervinia from Valtournenche taking about 40 minutes in total.
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