The group. Me, 15 weeksish skiing, wife, 2 weeks skiing, daughter #1, 2 full seasons skiing, daughter #2, 9 weeks skiing. (Wife only 2 weeks for medical reasons. Now cleared to ski)
Flight 6.00 am from Manchester. Landed in Turin. Transfer only 1 1/2 hours. Ski from 1,00 pm on arrival day.
Accommodation Hotel Biancaneve, Sestriere. All booked as package 2 1/2 weeks before departure through Igluski with Nielson. The hotel is described as a tad shonky on Tripadvisor. Well, we thought that it was fantastic, especially considering how little we paid for the package. The staff were super friendly and welcoming. We booked a room for four but were given two rooms with a connecting room which was the access to the bathroom. Breakfast was standard continental, afternoon tea and biscuits were standard and the four course evening meal was more than plenty. Buffet starter, pasta course (sometimes bland but very filling), meat course good to excellent (except for the river perch. WTF! A small mushy fish that tasted of muddy fish. Thankfully I had a delicious seared beef thing unlike the rest of our party who all opted for the perch. They described it as a 'wrong fish') Pasta and meat courses are a chosen the night before from three options each. Avoid the perch!!!!!! The coffee could be better, especially as we were in Italy. Water at dinner comes in a 75cl bottle @. 3 euros. Overall food good and staff fantastic. The Hotel is a seven minute uphill walk to the nearest piste but a ski bus stops outside the hotel. The bus could be more frequent. The hotel has a deal with a ski hire shop for ski and boot storage. The shop is a three minute walk from where the bus drops off. The other guests were a lovely bunch as well. Never spent so much time skiing and socialising with other guests before. In contact with a load of them since we got home and discussing other trips. Never happened like that in France. Not sure why.
The skiing. Well as you can imagine, I was obsessively checking every weather website in the lead up to our trip. We were very lucky. As out rep (top chap called Giles) told us on the transfer, there had been a reasonable dump a couple of days before we arrived and it was going to be good. He was right.
The pistes in Sestriere, Sauze d'Oulx and Sansacario were kept in excellent condition. The Olympic run was exceptional. Even on day five there was an unlimited amount of untracked off piste right next to the pistes including tree runs. This consisted of about a foot of real powder, although in places there were bits of grassy vegetation poking through. A few lower runs did have a few small bits of gravel appearing at the end of the day. On the last day many of the pistes did get a bit scratchy and icy with not so much grip. The last day (Saturday) did suffer from queues on a few of the lifts, max maybe 10 mins, but only at peak times. The lift system is generally not as fast as the French mega resorts but is certainly more than adequate. Would be lovely if it were possible to ski down from the top of the gondola to Sestriere rather than download.........but we did see many tracks that looked like some folk had. More local knowledge required maybe? We spent 3 days skiing with our rep, including on his day off! What a star. Guiding by reps is apparently illegal in Italy as well now. Shame. Having a hooning human satnav to follow makes such a difference.
Compared with France, the piste map and the on piste signposting leaves a lot to be desired. On the first day our family went up to the top of Sestriere. We set off down a blue run and after about 300m it suddenly got steep. Really steep. Mu dear wife, who hasn't skied for years became rather anxious. "You'll be fine " we chorused. Then I spotted the BLACK piste marker poles. The blue piste had inexplicably turned into a black. No warning. Damn. Wifey clocks the black marker poles and shrieks "YOU'VE taken me on a black" Daughter #1 and I immediately say "No, it's a blue" and then both daughters and I ashamedly fall about laughing. Wife not happy. CShe then takes her skis off and attempts to walk down the slope next to the piste. It is rather steep. Daughters and I realised that such a walk would destroy wife's legs for the week , we had to come up with an alternative way of getting her down. Ended up with her holding on to my ski pole and her sliding down on her belly with me side slipping and acting as a brake. Both daughters failed to treat this incident with the seriousness that was due and both almost wet themselves watching it and obviously filmed it as well. Looks of absolute incredulity form passing skiers were hard to ignore. The black then turned into a blue again and my dear wife then nonchalantly picked herself up , clipped in and skied to the bottom. Another couple in our hotel hit the same problem. CWhy on earth have a blue turn into a black with no warning.............except for entertainment value
Other stuff. Bombardinos, fantastico! Coffee up the hill from 1 euro. Toasted cheese and ham sandwich or amazing big square of pizza up the mountain, 2 1/2 euro, Soleie Boefe (sp?) mountain cafe...best atmosphere and prices ever. Lifties all smiling, happy,helpful and welcoming. Don't ski on the hill after 5.00pm or the bad man will get you and fine you.
Pinkies Bar for apres in Sestriere is the one everyone bigs up online. We thought it was rubbish. No atmosphere and overpriced. Go to Kovo instead. Better in every way.
70cl bottles of 94% pure alcohol for sale in minimart for 15 euro
Overall, a super friendly and affordable large ski area that makes the French megaresorts look like an unfriendly ripoff. Not going back to France any time soon.
Can speak passable French. Was embarrassed by my lack of Italian. Going to start some Italian youtube tutorials.
Loved it.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 28-01-15 0:40; edited 3 times in total
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Thank you- sounds like you had a good time.
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?
Great review thanks. Husband and I are desperate to get over a bit further in the milky way. Ive stayed in Sauze D'oux when I was on my 3rd ever week of skiing and needless to say we tried to get as much out of the resort and the area as I could manage at the time, but barely touched the sides. I'd love to go back and check out a bit more!
To add to my original post, Sestriere, Sauze d'Oulx and Sansecario are plenty for a week. To get over to the rest of Via Lattia takes and age on lifts with no skiing. We were offered a day in Monte G but decided that we had enough locally without spending 45 mins on a bus each way with an extremely early start and 25 euros for the trip.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
stayed in sestriere this jan, and took the day trip to montegenevre. fab powder day
stayed in montgenevre last year, and felt it was better somehow than sestriere hard to put my finger on why but i wasn't the only one who thought so.
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Poster: A snowHead
