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Isola 2000
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

I can't believe that's 3 days skiing already done. Seems we only arrived yesterday! This is our 3rd year of coming here, following an impulse purchase of a timeshare week (on ebay!).

Isola 2000 is a relatively small resort in the Alpes Maritimes about an hour and a half drive from Nice (with an "interesting" last 14 km). The skiing is mainly cruisy blues and not particularly demanding reds and certainly not for those who want black challenges and off-piste adventures. It has a good snow record late into the season. As it does not seem to figure in the major tour operators' brochures it is quite quiet especially mid-week at this time. I expect it will be much busier in the French school holidays and later on.

We travel here under our own arrangements, so I do not have any tales about TOs to start off another 15 page thread. Laughing

Snow conditions on-piste are good with all runs open and we are again impressed by the standard of grooming. Off-piste is skied out, lumpy, crusty and generally no fun as the last decent dump was on the 14th. The weather has been variably sunny and cloudy with a little light snow yesterday. The forecast for today promised sun and that's what we got. A big blue and unbroken sunshine till about 3 in the afternoon when it started clouding over. Can't beat having breakfast looking out from your apartment on a promise of snow and sunshine,



or finding the promise fulfilled:



Lunch today was taken at a characterful little restaurant which is possibly unique in having a stall under the terrace which is home to a donkey. I suppose it must be used by now to the tramp of ski boots on the planks above it - it certainly doesn't seem neurotic. The only slight disappointment was the clouding over in the later afternoon which ruled out the planned happy hour vins chauds (€3 each and the second one free) at le Solarium, a little piste-side terraced bar. Too bad, we thought, as we skied past it on the way home - just as well there is gin in the apartment.

It is currently snowing a bit and the météo for tomorrow promises increasing sunny spells in the afternoon following a grey morning - so perhaps there willl be a pause vin chaud to finish the day.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

Yippee - it is still snowing and more than just a bit Smile
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

ccl, thanks for posting this! Sounds great! I have always fancied Isola, I have a thing for the sunny, southern, lesser known french resorts. I will move it up the list a bit Very Happy
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Nice report, thanks.
A few more pictures will make it even better Wink
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

ccl wrote:

We travel here under our own arrangements, so I do not have any tales about TOs to start off another 15 page thread. Laughing


Good grief - 17 pages now and still counting.

The weather forecasting for here seems to be accurate as to what is coming but less so about the timing. The grey morning that was forecast must have happened during the night and the afternoon clearing up came first thing. So another full day of sun and big blue ...and fresh snow. Madeye-Smiley So it was off right away to play on the run we knew would be unpisted one of the 3 blacks in the resort.

A great day's sport and yes, we made it to the deckchairs in the sun at Le Solarium in the afternoon in time for the Happy Hour BOGOF vin chaud

I'll post a couple more photos later, but a tartiflette is just about to come out of the oven, so I have more serious concerns. By the way, I refuse to post a photo with me in it on the grounds that the forum fashion police will be after me - no, not for wearing a fartbag (cherished as the memory of my splendid plum-coloured Nevica suit may be, it is but a memory of times past). The faint of heart must look away and not read the next bit - but I have to confess I was wearing sunglasses with my helmet. Shocked
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It is one of life's many mysteries that reblochon cheese will lurk in the fridge and let out a smell like an elephant farting every time you open the fridge door and then turn into something as irresistibly tasty as tartiflette.

Which has nothing to do with Isola 2000 in particular so here are a couple of photos.



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

ccl, Well it certainly looks white enough Very Happy It must be one of the few times this resort has been mentioned on snowHead s. Looks great.

Nice pics btw Toofy Grin
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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!

One of my 1st ski hols was to Isola.
They used to play music which could be heard all over the resort. When I was there it was mainly "Do the hustle" by Van McCoy. rolling eyes It was actually fantastic to ski to and I still imagine it when I'm skiing. Laughing
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Hello all, great pictures. And very timely post as we have been thinking about Isola for years. However, am i right in thinking a bad time to visit would be when Nice and Marseille etc. have their school holidays this easter (week begining 3rd April)?
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Another big blue today Madeye-Smiley Excellent on-piste conditions for the most part but off-piste was a disappointment. Tried a run down through the trees to the side of a piste and encountered breakable crust. Not nice. wink So it was more a matter of getting down it than of actually having fun on it - and of thinking that there are occasions when a snowboard must be better. The most difficult of the 3 blacks was mogully and a bit unfriendly today, but in effect presented the only on-piste challenge. It is a bit longer than the other 2 blacks which are really quite short pitches. I was surprised to see that Igluski.com gives Isola 3 stars out of 5 for advanced skiers. I certainly wouldn't agree with that. I reckon this is a fine resort for beginners and intermediates or even advanced skiers like us who for this week in our season are content to do mostly easy cruising. Our 3 visits to date have not coincided with any significant snowfalls so I can really only rate the off-piste from viewing, with envy, the number of tracks in the trees all over the resort. Looks good, but we're not talking Chamonix here.


A word about the "village" itself. Purpose-built in the 70s, there is no original village. The central building which fronts the very friendly wide green slopes which run from above the centre to below it, has little to commend it by way of attractiveness but it houses a goodly number of shops, cafes, restaurants, ticket office, tourist office, ESF office all in the one building so it is compact and efficient. The main door opens directly on to the slopes. The advantage of an indoor shopping mall is the you can do the shops and stay dry and toasty whatever the weather; the drawback is that outside there is absolutely none of the character outside that you get from on-street shops and cafes as in the neighbouring resort of Auron. There are 4 or 5 restaurants on the main slope as well. We can't answer for the après-ski but I can't see it as a place inclined towards late night revelry.

My previous photos were taken from the south side of the valley, the side the centre and all the accommodation is on. This one is from the north slopes looking down on the centre.



In answer to baillismith's question about April and school holidays I really don't know other than assuming that it will be busy as it is near a huge conurbation - Nice, Antibes, Cannes ... The few statistics I've seen suggest good snow depths well into April - last year there was a metre plus dump at the beginning of April.

The final photo is from the north side of the valley looking towards its head.

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