Italy half term HELP!

A snowHead

Hi there,

Wanting to take the family skiing in Feb half term (19th feb) I love France but know it will be rammed. Last year we went to Sestriere, lovely but not great for the younger beginners in the group. So again this time I’m looking for recommendations for Italian resorts (it seems quieter) that happen to have lots of blues!

Just trying to avoid the queues as much as possible…

Thanks Smile

A snowHead

We went to Pila one half term. Really liked it!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@Clairey1975, bear in mind that many Italian ski areas are a bit short of blue runs, but Italian reds are usually easier than French reds.

The obvious choice is Alta Badia (Corvara or San Cassiano) in the Dolomites.

Other ski areas which come to mind:
Madonna di Campiglio
Folgaria (not to be confused with Folgarida) - as long as the more accomplished skiers aren't looking for a big area

Austria could be another option?

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Would Austria be quieter than France? Cool

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Some areas more than others will celebrate Fasching.
Maybe better known to some as Mardi Gras.
Shrove Tuesday.
A week of carnival before Lent.
I think that this year it coincides with some English school half term holidays

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

@Clairey1975, La Thuile, loads of easy runs on the main plateau, and more once you progress, if your looking to keep costs down, you can stay in Pre St Didier in the valley, there are buses up and down, there’s also a swimming pool open a few evenings and a Spa, but only for over 14yr olds, and it’s priciey. There are a few hotels in PSD and an apartment complex where we have stayed, and would recommend, there’s no supermarket in PSD, nearest are in Courmayuer or Morgex if you have a car, using buses would be a pain.

Alta Badia has the biggest area of blues, with many great restaurants on the pistes and the best scenery. Ski area on a high undulating plateau so lots of fairly short blue runs, then a blue down to the valley except into La Villa (red or black options, although a flat blue gets you most of the way). Enormous interconnected wider area on the Superski pass, fast lifts and not been ridiculously busy when I’ve been at half term.

The downsides are there’s not many difficult runs or easy access off piste. Not much natural snow fall so often sunny. And it’s hard to go anywhere else after you’ve been.

Resorts are:
Corvara and Colfosco on the Ronda.
San Cassiano and La Villa a few lifts off it. Pedraces/Badia way down a quiet valley.

The other connected areas have a higher % of reds and blacks but still easy skiing in great scenery.

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I’ve done trip reports on here at 1/2 term from both San Cassiano (2018) and Madonna (2020) so you can check out both and see what looks better.

My recollection from the trips is the queues were far worse at Madonna. Fortini probably worst (which has since been upgraded) but frequently caused me to divert to another lift, I hate queues.

Between Corvara and San Cassiano you could spend days pottering around on easy blues and still find new ones, without ever needing to check the map. At Madonna, there is no real blue option from the top of 5 Laghi or Spinale gondola so your basic beginner will quickly find themselves on steeper slopes when travelling around the resort, even in the Madonna sector. The very long blue is the dreaded 66, surely doing it once is enough to get you preferring the red options! There’s a couple of very flat runs to avoid (primarily 6) in Alta Badia but nothing as flat for as long as that one. On the flip side, Madonna was probably the week my partner and children improved the most, so maybe this works.

The runs at Madonna are generally long, much more so than Alta Badia. I definitely rate the on piste food options higher for Alta Badia, there are loads more restaurants, though I do remember an excellent pizza restaurant, but in Folgarida so a definite red either way to ski there.
At night in Madonna they organise a lift on a piste machine to a different restaurant every night. We enjoyed it so much we did it twice. You have to make sure you understand where the pick up/drop point is so you don’t have to walk too far. I’m pretty sure you can do this in La Villa up to Moritzino but in Madonna it seemed really well advertised. Maybe because we were in an apart hotel?
For a lively town, Madonna is way better, it is an actual town with lots of restaurants and bars.

For views and ambience, both areas are exceptional and you won’t go wrong with either. The sledge run is excellent at both. Longer at San Cassiano, better view from the top at Madonna. Definitely take an afternoon to try it out if you can.

snow reports

Thanks! Very helpful. Can anyone recommend any budget accommodation at Badia area?

I have a few questions first.
How many people? What ages, ie how many children? IIRC under 8s got a free lift pass if buying with an adult.

What sort of accommodation, hotel, apartment, something in between, chalet?

How ‘budget’? If you want accommodation on a budget there will be some compromise, what would you not mind compromising on? Access difficulties, cramped accommodation, self driving, cooking at home in the evening?

TO or DIY?
How may want access to an enormous ski area and how many are happy with just a decent size?
Where are you coming from? There are 4/5 airports giving reasonable access in 2 countries so many flight options and variables.

Try checking out the altabadia.org website, pretty good for accommodation options (mainly the self-catering ones on there, check they aren’t assuming you are driving). TOps like Crystal def go to Corvara but there are way more DIY options. You may want to think about which of the villages you like the look of the most.

You know it makes sense.

5 people. (3 are kids, 1 is age 6) Would hire a car. Don’t mind a short drive to the resort. Don’t need a huge area to access, just cruise slopes and some nice mountain restaurants for pit stops. Ideally self catering but the option to nip out for a pizza Eh oh!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

https://forcelles.it/en

This is where we stayed in San Cassiano. Lovely breakfasts. Short walk (3 min) to gondola. Had a 2 bedroom Apartment suitable for 5 (3 singles in 1 br, double in the other) with adequate kitchen and great views. Sofa wasn’t the most comfortable. More than decent pizzeria (Tiac) almost directly across the road. Supermarket in the centre of the village a 10 min walk away.

Check Booking.com for other options as well but often cheaper direct and think I found it on the local TO website. Think there are a couple of apartments a bit closer to the gondola but this was easily walkable, if leaving most equipment at the ski hire by the base station. Might be a bit much for an average person to carry 3-4 kits back to the ski room.

A snowHead

@what...snow, i am reading threas as considering Italy and somewhere reachable from Venice for Feb 2024 (A-level year hence needing Feb half term)

When you say Madonna you found busier and suffered from lift queues, are you able to quantify hiw badly it queued?

We did Bansko one Feb half term and that was a never again and found the more than 1hr we had allowed to get up the gondola woefully insufficient.....

We have done Radstadt, and visited ski areas from there and yes quiet busy it was doable and we would go to that area again (if we could get affordable flights!).

We did Champoluc last Feb half term (GCSE year) and found queues non existant at times on some lifts. Just one lift suffered from quiet a scrum (was a crossover point you had to use it no matter which direction yoh were skiing in around area).

Serre Chevalier at Feb half term was very busy and some lifts very bad but it would have been acceptable if we werent tied to and using ski school.

Any ideas how it compares to other ski areas?

A snowHead

@NickyJ,
At 1/2 term, I’ve only been to Ruka (Finland), San Cassiano, Soldeu (Andorra) and Madonna. None of them have been as bad as those experiences.
Here’s the TR
https://www.snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=3549685&highlight=madonna#3549685

Unfortunately the pictures have disappeared as I used the snowmediazone, which is currently down. If I get a mo, I’ll stick some on another post, and if the football is really boring later, I could edit some in.

You will see a few moans in there and I’ve summarised where the main problems were at the end. In a way it’s a function of the topography. Think of a horseshoe with 5 lifts coming out into a ring of mountains. From L-R they are Spinale, Groste, Fortini, Pradolago and 5 Laghi. The road (Madonna to Folgarida) goes between Groste and Fortini and there is a 2 way bridge over (ski to Groste, magic carpet to Fortini) and this is quite a way out of town, the other 3 lifts all start on the edge of the town but G and F are near the (separate) complete beginner area (Campo Carlo Magno) a mile or so away. Our accommodation was just below Fortini but there is a ski run into town at the back, which finishes at Spinale, making this the easiest access point for us. Fortunately the ski school I booked met there (this was entirely luck, some meet at Pradolago). I rarely met significant queues at any of the 3 town gondolas. But ski school ended at Groste, pretty handy for going back to our apartment but the 2 lifts there were a 6 man chair and an old 6 man gondola and they always had big queues. The upper section of Groste (another 6 man chair) also always seemed to have a big queue but offshoot chairs going elsewhere in this sector were much better. I believe Fortini has been upgraded to a gondola since our trip, Groste seemed to need a bigger one too! Away from this area, queues were much less of an issue.

There is only one route over and back to Folgarida/Marilleva and a couple of pinch points when you get there too, especially the fast chair above the gondolas at Folgarida where you could see all the chairs going up half empty, causing the queue to balloon, quite frustrating. There is a very slow old chair which you can take instead and just reach a track to another old chair which will get you on the way back instead. The worst queues were in the 20 min ballpark so I would not let them put you off.

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Have you considered Jasna in Slovakia? I have been there in half-term in 2013 and stayed at https://chaletslovakia.com/ which is run by a British couple.

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Here’s some photos of Madonna. Looking at the photos there’s a clip of my son skiing. It’s over a minute long and there’s no one else on the piste, so it can’t have been that busy! Had a look at the new piste map. Looks like the new base for the replacement Fortini is on the same side as Groste so the bridge is just used to get from Pradolago to Groste area.

looking over Madonna

ski school congregation at the top of Spinale

the view from Chalet Fiat (at the top of Spinale)

skiing Amazzonia, an easy black run in the Pradolago area

about to get a lift home from dinner

looking up Vagliana. an old slow chairlift means a quiet run down

waiting for the other half of the family near the top of the sledge run

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@what...snow, thankyou! Also looking at ski school congration that looks much quieter than others we have seen at half term.

For others (apologies to OP for the hijack!) But anywhere else that should be on the list for going to for feb half term 2024 with flights to Venice as the base?

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re Madonna, they have changed the lift layout at Fortini and replaced a 6 person chair with a gondola now on the same side as the Groste Gondola. It used to be a bottle neck and often a bit of a scrum, especially late in the day, but we didn't have any problems last year. But that might not mean much given it was Covid and late Jan but the lift capacity must be a lot higher. IIRC new Gondola also goes a bit higher than the old chair lift which makes it quicker to get over to Marilleva as you miss a chair lift.

so now both lifts are on the lower side of the bridge, the bridge is 99% one way traffic (down from Pradalago area) but they still have the moving carpet for those who need to go 'up and over' e.g. to get to accommodation.

Our least experienced skier was a ca 55 yr old snow plougher and she didn't have any major problems with any of the blues in Madonna but the very top section of Cinque Laghi is a bottle neck and I'd say not suitable for nervous beginners (it's only about 30 m but is narrow and gets busy even after they made it a bit easier a few years ago).

Genuinely interested to read people views as we went though the same process and decided on Madonna because we thought it would be better for beginners plus some of our group are on tight budgets and MdC is cheaper! Love both areas for different reasons, this season we're doing 3 weeks AB, and 1 week Madonna. Maybe 2024 we'll look at AB for the group trip.

For us the big advantage of AB is the access to the Dolomiti Superski and it's strategic location in the top corner of the Sella Ronda giving easy access to not just the SR but other resorts e.g. Kronplatz and Cortina, we like to head off for the day rather than stay in the AB ski area but if you have some of the group/family in morning lessons you are more limited.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@NickyJ, I think the most accessible ski areas from Venice are the 15 Superski areas

https://www.dolomitisuperski.com/en/home

followed by the 8 Skirama areas

https://www.skirama.it/en

So just the 23 to look at then!

Of the Superski areas Arabba, Alta Badia, Val Gardena and Val di Fassa all link together seamlessly via the Sella Ronda, a signposted route around a mountain, Piz Sella. If that’s not enough, Alpe di Suisi/Seiser Alm is linked via a funicular under Ortisei to Val Gardena and Marmolada links with Arabba. Alta Badia links to the 5 Torri area of Cortina with a short minibus ride, 1 way. The ski back involves horses. Civetta is a short bus from the back of 5 Torri and if you’ve managed to exhaust all that, Kronplatz/Plan de Corones is a short bus from another one of the Alta Badia villages. The whole combo has the lift-linked size of the very largest French areas combined with slightly fewer than the enormous number of resorts available on 1 pass in certain areas of Austria. There’s loads of info on here about the pros and cons of each village/area but feel free to ask any questions, there are many SR disciples on here.

Civetta is one of the closest areas to Venice and the motorway and I assume is fairly sizeable as Snowheads run a yearly trip there, to the village of Alleghe. San Martino and San Pelegrino-Falcade also look like moderately sized areas on the south side of the mountains.

Kronplatz is bit further up the road than Cortina and also seems a decent area in its own right with a few trip reports on here, lots of gondolas, apparently. North of there, the 3 Peaks/Tre Cime/Drei Zinnen also looks a decent size but may be more accessible from Innsbruck as you are now close to the border with Austria. There are other moderate sized areas that I’ve not even started investigating but I expect someone on here will have tried them at some point.

The Skirama areas are a little west and more easily accessible from the A22 motorway and from Verona and Bergamo airports but not out of the question. The largest is Madonna-Marilleva-Folgarida + Pinzolo (a hefty gondola ride from a Madonna mid station). Passo Tonale-Ponte di Legno, Folgaria-Lavarone and Andalo/Paganella are all smaller and less fancied areas that are still large enough to feature in TO brochures and most have some trip reports on here.

Rich, yes I had a look at the new piste map and worked out how they had reconfigured things. Nice to know it may have improved the situation. It’s a great area, lots of variety in a small space.

After all it is free

@NickyJ, we’ve been to San Pelegrino-Falcade, not a bad medium sized area if you aren’t looking for the larger Sella Ronda circuit and an easy drive from Venice. Also the smaller but very good Alpe Lusia area and is not far as well, you can buy a combined lift pass for the two.

Good summary from What...Snow. If I had a choice of flights Innsbruck is a better transfer to Kronplatz via the Brenner Pass if you're staying at that end of the Dolomiti Ski area.

I've been on several short breaks which has meant an out Innsbruck return Venice and although the first part of the run home is spectacular as you head east to Cortina it does seem at times that you aren't getting anywhere anytime soon

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@what...snow, @ster, thanks both.

@Uncle Rico, I trying to keep to flights out of UK from either Bournemouth or Southampton if I can.

Bournemouth gives me Geneva or Venice
Southampton gives me Geneva or Salzburg*

However Salzburg is with BA so release those flights at £2k for a family of 4!

We did Geneva Feb last year and if we could avoid that airport for feb half term, that would be nice! Also want to avoid France due to them also have school holidays. Though I guesd I should also consider Switzerland? Do they have a conflicting school holiday? Frankly though, love Italy Smile

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@NickyJ, I’d say it's in and out of Venice stay at the eastern end and if time permits or you just fancy it have a day out to Kronplatz 20 mins or so by bus then up Piculin.

Have a great time although Austria bound this year big fan of this area and Italy

snow reports

@NickyJ, If either of your preferred airports fly to Milan, it’s just over 4 hours drive to Val Di Fassa, 3 hours easy motorway and the final bit on a quiet but windy road from Bolzano or Trento, Milan car hire should include chains as std, or you can get winter tyres from the big 6 car hire companies, I’ve used Hertz and had free upgrades from small car to Audi Q6. I did this trip last winter, however this season I’m going via Venice as flight was cheaper and it’s a shorter drive and hopefully easier for a solo traveller.

I've found smaller ski areas in the Southern Dolomites to be fairly quiet at HT. Smaller Italian resorts tend to be busy with locals and daytrippers at weekends if the snow's good and the sun is shining, but pretty quiet all week. Fly in and out on a Sunday for cheaper flights and miss the busiest day! wink

If you don't mind a short drive each day, somewhere like Predazzo or Moena in Val di Fassa (best accessed from Verona or Bergamo) with access to Alpe Lusia (27km of skiing), Latemar (49km) and Passo San Pellegrino (67km) ski areas would be nice, really easy skiing on the blues at Bellamonte and Passo San Pellegrino. And Carezza (68km), further up the valley and up the pass, was practically deserted on a midweek day during HT 2022. At the head of the valley at Campitello/Canazei/Alba there's access to the huge Sella Ronda circuit (circa 500km). This does get busy in mid-Feb with week-long visitors, but it's quietest day is Saturday changeover day. Another reason to fly on a Sunday!

From Venice airports, Alleghe or Falcade are good spots with medium size ski areas on the doorstep. If you stay at one of these or anywhere in between, you can ski both. At Falcade it's prob best to drive up to Passo San Pellegrino for the easier skiing and at Alleghe, beginners may have to download the gondola. From Alleghe you can do a daytrip to the Cinque Torri & Hidden Valley, using the skibus from Pescul to Fedare.

Also from Venice, staying a few miles short of Cortina d'Ampezzo at Borca or San Vito di Cadore saves a packet. Drive 15 mins up to Cortina for loads of easy progressor blues at Socrepes/Tofana side and blissfully empty slopes at Cristallo and the deserted 7km of easy reds at the frozen Lake Misurina.

You can check out all these resorts on this useful website: https://www.bergfex.com/italien/

One rider to add to all this is that the OP's HT week 18th-25th Feb 2023 coincides with the pre-Lenten carnivals: Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) in UK, Fasching in Germany, Carnevale in Italy, Mardi Gras in France, etc. This means that Catholic parts of Germany like Bavaria have school hols and some parts of Italy have a long weekend until the Tuesday. Venice also gets pretty busy at Carnival time, so not sure how flight prices are faring, but the costumes on parade are amazing.

Check out who else is off school that week here and see the bar chart further down that shows the expectation that week will have the gretest number of skiers of the whole season:

https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=156939

You know it makes sense.

@NickyJ, here’s some photos from 1/2 term 2018. Im keen to hear more about Champoluc, any particularly good hotels? Any tips? Definitely one for a future 1/2 term

Ski school meeting at the top of Sorega

Main Street San Cassiano, so busy

The view of Sella and Sassongher from Alta Badia

Gran Risa into La Villa, best run in the area

Skiing into Corvara: Costes chair queue on the left, Boe ahead under Sassongher, Borest just visible behind the works

Heading to Plans-Frara, just above Colfosco, en route to the pass to Val Gardena. Val Mesdi slicing through the north side of Sella

On the south side of Sella at the Belvedere di Canazei, looking down Val di Fassa from the pass to Arabba

Skiing back to San Cassiano, a lovely, easy blue to finish the day, definitely not a cat track

Alpenglow on the surrounding mountains, taken from the apartment

Bonus trip to fairly quiet post-Carnevale Venice is an option

This area is under 3 hours drive from Venice Airport. If it’s snowing I’d advise avoiding the passes after Cortina as >2000m, better to go via Belluno and Arabba, passing Civetta region. Sat Nav loves to take you via Cortina for some reason Confused

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@what...snow, sent a number of PMs apologies for spammig you Smile

Thanks for the post Smile

A snowHead

No problem. Ask away if you have any questions. I have different flight options: Manchester to Treviso, Bergamo or Malpensa on Ryanair, Manchester-Malpensa or Manchester/Liverpool-Venice on easyJet, Manchester-Turin on Jet2.

Treviso is quite handy, very small and 30 mins up the A27 towards the mountains from Venice. Does push you to heading further up the A27 to the eastern side of the Dolomites (Civetta, Cortina, Arabba, AB, Kronplatz). Just these is a decent range of great options that will take years to explore.

I haven’t headed to anything more western, even Val di Fassa looks more accessible from the A22. We did Madonna from Bergamo and spent 2 nights in Verona before heading up the A22 to Trento then into the mountains. It’s very nice having a couple of days on a city break, spending the money you saved by not flying Saturday! The problems with non-standard Sat-Sat are accommodation and, worse ski school group lessons. These tend to be Sunday pm and Mon-Fri am. We did manage an extra night in Madonna so I took the kids to Folgarida and back on the Saturday, which was great.

A snowHead

...Kronplatz is very good for beginners Very Happy

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Yes the dutch really favour austria, also good to know there are areas in Austria that are really well known for skiing such as Ischgl, Arlberg, Mayrhofen & Gerlos, Saalbach, Sölden to name a few so especially in these areas expect many dutch during our holidays.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Strangely

the British still (just) favour France - I believe it's swinging back towards Austria as being the most popular for UK skiers.

After all it is free

@buchanan101, Judging by the replies to questions on where is best for whatever reason, UK skiers are completely France obsessed! The vast majority of responses suggest somewhere in France, and often exclusively so. It seems the majority have only even skied in France, which has always puzzled me. There are responses suggesting other nations of course, but far fewer in number.

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There have been a load of Italian recommendations recently, often with mouth-watering photos, as in this thread. A lot more than there would have been, say, 12 years ago. That's a really noticeable trend on SHs - many more Italian threads. But as, historically, France has been the biggest destination for British skiers, a preponderance of French recommendations would be logical. Especially as lots of requests are for "ski in/out" and France has more, at reasonable cost, than the rest put together.

Help!!

Italy half term HELP!

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