Ski Resorts in Italy
Italy has always been a major alpine ski nation, but it became most popular with British skiers in the early 1990's when the exchange rate was very favourable.
Upmarket resorts like Cortina continued in their popularity but in general Italy has suffered from the increased patronage of the French resorts with their superior skiing and accessibility.
Maybe with the advent of budget airlines things with change.
Italy doesn't seem to have got it together as regards, lift systems and tuition, in the same way as most other alpine countries. Being more southerly and with generally lower lying resorts, they also suffer occasionally, from lack of snow.
They are taking steps to rectify these problems, with reports of improved lifts and artificial snow making facilities, being recorded regularly.
However they still lag behind other alpine countries in everything except apres-ski.
Party animals, who would like to do some skiing along with 'molto disco' will love this place.
Andalo
*** ** **
Medium sized resort which is better suited to advanced and intermediate skiers, than beginners. 31 well kept pistes served by 16 chairlifts, one tow, and two gondolas. Snowsure due to numerous snow cannons, even though fairly low level (2125 m top lift). The village has enough bars, restaurants, supermarkets, etc.to suit all tastes. Would recommend as budget resort for all but first year skiers.
James Masters
Canazei
**** **** ****
Canazei, is a charming village set in the Dolomites of Northern Italy.
Our flight from Gatwick was approx 2 hrs then a 2 hour transfer, the first hour by main road and the second through beautiful valleys and mountainous scenery.
We stayed in a Chalet, run by 3 Staff accommodating approx 25 people. which was in our opinion superior 2 star quality.
The Chalet was a lovely 10 minute walk into Canazei to pick up Ski Boots, Skis and Poles from the very friendly locals in the locker room – after 6 days skiing they could almost remember everyone’s locker numbers!
The resort is just a few lift rides up to the Sella Ronda, one of the biggest ski areas in the world 1200km of skiing (I read somewhere!)
There is a massive selection of runs, clearly signposted in all directions.
My partner had never skied before, and I am intermediate – we were both very happy with the different runs and also the more advanced skiers in our party had plenty to challenge them too.
An added bonus also, was that you could go onto www.dolomitisuperski.com and type in the number from your skipass and discover how many km you have covered over your holiday!
The instruction was excellent and they spoke good English, the only problem we had was that we weren’t sure whether to take lessons or not so when we signed up a day late we ended up in an Italian class! Not to worry – it was very amusing and the instructor was great, and we learned some Italian along the way!! On that note – we will definitely be signing up for the lessons next time!
The lifts were, generally, more than adequate. On some of the lifts there was maybe a ten minute wait at busy times which is not to be unexpected.
The village had a good number of restaurants and shops, some however were a little bit cliquey, I got the impression that a lot of the skiers there were Italian. We also visited a night club which wasn’t outrageously expensive and a good night was had by all! I can certainly recommend trying real Italian Lasagne, mmmm!
I would recommend this resort to anyone and everyone. It was a fantastic holiday and despite the chalet staff not being up to scratch I was not there primarily for the food and accommodation, I was there to ski and have a great time, and that’s exactly what happened. I sure if you had the legs, the money and the time to spend 3 weeks there you would find enough different runs and villages to visit to fill you time. What a beautiful location
Lindsey
