 Poster: A snowHead
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Trying to decide between the above two. We're two blokes in our mid-thirties going for a week from 22nd-29th March. Had flirted with the idea of skiing in St Moritz, but need to keep costs (relatively) down. We love skiing in Italy and both of these have been on my radar for a while. Staying in a 4* hotel, costs are broadly similar for the two resorts (mainly because transfer to La Thuile is significantly more costly than Flyski Shuttle to MdC, which negates the costlier lift pass and ski hire).
We are both intermediate skiers who love fast long red descents, but happy on simpler blacks and willing to push ourselves on harder ones. Uncrowded pistes that don't get too chopped up are probably more important than steepness of runs. Our favourite resort has been Monterosa, where we had a blast down the long uncrowded slopes). Not interested in nightlife. A variety of restaurants would be nice, but generally we're quite content with good pizzas and pastas.
From my research, it appears the pros and cons (for us) of the two resorts are:
La Thuile - very quiet slopes, north-facing, snowsure slopes, but prone to being cold/windy. Village not as charming or pretty as MdC
Madonna di Campiglio - well groomed slopes, more spread out ski area (so more sense of travel), more wooded slopes, bigger town with more charm and greater variety of eating out
As we're going a bit later than we usually do, I'm currently inclined to favour La Thuile as snow conditions more likely to be better and the cold/wind of Little Siberia should be less of an issue later in the season.
Anyone been to both to give me some guidance on comparing the two and whether my impressions are correct?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@suggul, as I understand it, La Thuile does some good discounted later season ski passes (really hoping that will be repeated this coming season as we have booked there for April)
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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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My vote would go to Campiglio. Nicer scenery, great range of skiing, from cruisey to tough on piste, great selection of mountain restaurants. I've not skied Campiglio late season, but they have a good proportion of pistes protected by snow cannons and slopes which face all aspects.
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@suggul, I have been to both and both times in March with excellent snow conditions. I would say the ski areas are of a similar size but La Thuile has less below the tree line so it's not so good in bad weather. La Thuile is linked with La Rosiere which I found to be considerably busier, therefore poorer snow conditions. Much better (and cheaper!) food on the mountain on the Italian side too.
La Thuile is a small village around 20 mins walk from the lift station (or use the ski bus). There is a hotel/apartment complex at the base station but it is rather soulless. The village itself has far more charm and a few nice restaurants. Madonna is a sizeable town with lots of hotels, shops and restaurants. The ski area connects with Folgarida and Marilleva and is very varied with lots of tree lined runs. From Madonna you can do day trips to other Trentino ski areas on your lift pass, from La Thuile, you can do the same with other Aosta valley ski areas.
On balance, I enjoyed both, but I'd probably prefer to return to Madonna from the two.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I'd prefer Madonna - more pistes and more variety (and I find the link across to Rosiere from Thuile a bit tiresome). And better scenery. Take the lift across to Pinzolo - a nice area for a day out with a challenging black down to the bottom station. We stayed at DV hotel which did a very good deal at the time.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I've done both. Quite like La Thuile, but Madonna ticks a lot of boxes. Going to its neighbouring resort of Folgarida in January.
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Ditto on Madonna, I liked Madonna best because of the variety and the village. Pinzolo both times had the black to the bottom closed (not sure why) but the schumacker is always worth a good spin.
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Thank you all for the considered responses. Looks like the overwhelming opinion is to go for Campiglio.
The DV hotel looks good. I was also looking at the Hotel Chalet del Brenta, which is a similar price. Anyone have any other hotel recommendations? Looking for something under £150/night for 2 people.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Having been to La Rosiere and skied into La Thuile and done Madonna on a number of occasions I found a lot more to love about Madonna, whilst both claim 150km, the skiing at Madonna, when you take into account the Folgarida area feels more extensive and the town of Madonna is far better than either of La Ros or La Thulie ..... no competition for me
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'm considering the same resorts at the same time  @suggul, I hope you don't mind me joining this thread with my question
Can anyone comment on the average snow conditions at the end of March? I love skiing in Italy, but the fear of water-skiing in the afternoons makes me consider resorts like Obergurgl/Obertauern instead.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@suggul,
I have been to MdC a couple of times before. A short trip in 2016 and then a full week in 2017. Absolutely loved the skiing and the resort. As for hotels, we stayed in the Bonapace in 2017 and have recently booked up to go there again, end of Feb 2020. This year we paid £828 for twin rooms on booking.com, half board for 1 week (£414 each). The food is really good and the barman has to be a star attraction as he is enormous fun. The spinale lift is not too far to walk (about 10 mins in ski boots) but they had a minibus on hand to give us a lift there every morning whenever we needed it. We could also phone the driver at the end of the day to pick us up but never bothered with that. We also used the swimming pool and saunas just about every evening.
As for Pizza, well there are some amazing pizza places up the mountains on the Folgarida side. One particularly good mountain restaurant was at the top of Monte Vigo. The top floor of that restaurant had a guy making pizzas in the middle of the room to order and they were extremely good. Most Pizza's were 10 euros and very large.
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Thank you all for the responses. I've booked a week at the Biohotel Hermitage from 14th to 21st March for £483 each B/B (albeit in the smallest rooms). Can do HB for £180 extra each, but I think I like the idea of trying different places to eat when in a decent sized resort. Although set out of town I loved the views from the hotel and they have a shuttle to the slopes. It is a cancellable booking, so I'll check out the Bonapace and see if that's better value.
Managed to book for the week earlier by coming back v early on the 21st, so more relaxed about snow conditions. Sounds like they're having a fantastic start to the season, though
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