 Poster: A snowHead
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As I couldn't find one for the Grandvalira area, so figured I would write about my recent trip
To give some background we went in the last week in January 2016, with depths of 40cm at the base and 70cm at the top. The weather the entire time we were there was spring like, above freezing, and getting up to highs of 8 deg c on most days. The coldest it got was -1 Deg early one day, but that did not last long. I got burnt and even struggled in the heat one day. Myself and my partner are both intermediate level skiers and we have only been skiing for 3 years.
Ski Area: The Ski area is said to have 210km total, but only 180km was open when we went. We were attracted to Soldeu because of the amount of Blues and Reds available, but I have to say the entire resort was great with very good lift systems and the 5 areas were well linked which meant you could ski around and explore very easily (as long as you are comfortable at red level runs). There were plenty of blue runs though in Soldeu and El Tarter which had enough to keep any beginners busy. One comment I would have is that the grading on Reds is sometimes a little soft, they are probably more like tough blues, and to give you an idea of that, there were some blues that were tougher than some of the reds. Also being able to ski down to the resort is really good, even if it does get chopped up.
Queuing: There were very few queues. Lifts open at 9, and we never queued more than 5 mins at the main Gondola. There were other options with new queues at all though. There was only one bottleneck that we found which was in the Grau Roig area, most the time this was less than 5 minutes up to both Pas De Las Casa and back to Soldeu. The only time we had a real issue was on the final day where the lift back to Soldeu broke down for 30 minutes. We went away to ski elsewhere and came back when it was running again but had to queue for close to an hour to get back up as the lift was operating at 1/4 speed.
Piste Management: The piste management was amazing as it was above freezing and there was not much snow to begin with, they managed to keep the snow fresh and if you are like us and got up early the snow conditions were really good. Towards the end of the week there were some stones showing but for the most part it was still very good.
Lessons: Simply put the best lessons we have ever had, ranging from some at Tamworth Snowdome, to the other two resorts we have been to. The teacher provided the perfect amount of detail and spotted some flaws in my technique that I have had since the start. I was in the 3rd level (out of 4) so we were learning to do steeper slopes and carving etc and it really was amazing and more importantly lots of fun. One thing I would recommend would be the grandvalira explorer package which is a small upgrade that gives you one full day (normally you get 3 hours a day) of teaching so you can explore more of the area
Hotel Bruxelles: We stayed at this hotel based on recommendations of the food and we stayed half board. It is a small hotel around 50m from the Soldeu gondola. The rooms are small ish, but the beds are comfy and showers were really good. The rooms were pretty hot, even though they had a thermostat no matter what we did it was still too hot. If you can get a mountain side view I would do it as a "street view" was noisy. I would recommend ear plugs, we brought them after reading reviews and slept without any issues (bar the heat). There is no wifi, and that was a bit annoying but hardly a killer. The food was really good and if you don't like the menu choices they will swap it for anything. One day I was feeling a bit unwell and didn't eat all of the meal and they were very keen to offer alternatives etc. The food is also plentiful and I don't think I ever finished everything. The breakfast was a little disappointing and got boring towards the end of the week (Toast, Croissants, Fruit and Cereal). One great bonus of this hotel is that you get locker at the gondola station, which means no walking in Ski boots!
Overall holiday rating: 8/10
I would definitely go back to Grandvalira and also the hotel, so I would guess that shows how much I rate it. [/b]
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great report @seekstris, I went for a weekend in Soldeu at the end of Jan too and was tempted to post a report but you've done the job nicely.
I agree completely about the piste management - the quality of the slopes is impeccable, especially considering that it's not been a vintage year in terms of snow depth. For beginners it's a fantastic place to learn, and intermediates will have the run of the mountain.
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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?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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nice TR @seekstris,
I'm counting my sleeps to disappearing off to ET in March 
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