Snowsure: 3.7
- Occasionally gets enough snow for skiing
- Is often closed due to a lack of snow
- Occasionally suffers from a lack of snow
- Rarely suffers from a lack of snow
- Bardonecchia is snowsure even in the poorest seasons
Visitor reviews for Bardonecchia Ski Resort
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(NOTE: Reviews may be edited by our content team for the purposes of ensuring accurate and relevant information)
(NOTE: Reviews may be edited by our content team for the purposes of ensuring accurate and relevant information)
Latest
February 03, 2009
dano from
United Kingdom
dano from
United Kingdom
For a snowboarder Bardonecchia offers a great mix of all that a snowboard is good for. A great snowpark (when it was open) with loads of fun obstacles to injure oneself, a whole mountain (Jafferau) as a back country powder magnet, and loads of tree runs through the mostly intermediate, quiet and well groomed pistes in the main area. However, if you were a boarder just interested in one type of riding, the resort might start to tire.
The resort is quiet during the week and the evenings are so quiet in the town you could hear the snow fall, but there's enough cheap pasta and pizza to keep the low pound-euro exchange rate in check. I stayed at Campo Smith which was ok; not great, but had a great view of one of the only ungroomed black runs which provided much entertainment.
On the real downside, the weekend is an utter nightmare at Bardonecchia. The density of people on the slopes seems to increase tenfold with a constant stream of ski schools and Turinese locals cluttering the slopes. The lifts, that are nice and quick, turn into 30 minute frenzies which, I found, completely frustrated the last day in the resort. I would recommend getting blasted on the penultimate day and go and watch the weekend snowboarders at the half-pipe rather than follow a ski school all day.
That said, I would put Bardonecchia high up on the list of places to go back to as I like a relatively varied boarding resort. However, I do realise that if the conditions are against you: no snow, icy, cloudy then the experience could rapidly go downhill. Fortunately, 2009 provided the best snow in 20 years for Bardonecchia. 7 snowflakes out of 10.
February 12, 2008
jill race from
United Kingdom
jill race from
United Kingdom
February 06, 2008
Nigel Cooper from
United Kingdom
Nigel Cooper from
United Kingdom
Good value resort for beginners/intermediates.
Went 27/1/2008, stayed at Rive Campo Smith Apartments. Has a great time. Last week of low season so great value (£1250 for family of 4 incl flight, tuition, lift pass and kit - Thomson, booked November).
Apartments: Great location on slope next to ski school. Clean and comfortable. Great views of slopes. Excellent 5* restaurant on site but v.expensive. 15 minutes walk to nearest SPAR type shop! But on free ski bus route. However, most shops only open at 4pm and bus stops at 5:45, so plan your shopping. Apts have lockers on site. English style pub opposite apts with good restaurant and ambience.
Resort: Smallish resort, v. quiet in low season (dead at night generally), but looked like it would get very busy in high season. Not particularly pretty, but not ugly either, and relatively quiet/traffic free during week. Carnival on Saturday night with excellent fireworks and fancy dress candlelit descent - do not miss! Good raclette meals (melt your own cheese at the table) a speciality.
Skiing: Good number of blue and red pistes, uncrowded during week, but busy at w/e when locals arrive. Nothing much for experts. Nice picturesque wooded runs on generally wide pistes. No snow while we were there and warm, so it got icy, but the runs are high enough so that they're not too bad. Plenty of cannons to help as well. Good friendly ski school, excellent for kids, good English, and technically excellent, but most don't have conversational English, so can sometimes get confused when you ask them questions. Blue slopes are STEEP for blues and can be tricky in comparison to other resorts, especially if icy. Lifts are good and appear to have been modernised since 2006 Olympics. 2 4-man chairs take you to the top of the Mt Colomion, or 1 in Melezet.
Location: 1.5 hours from Turin and no hairpin roads - access straight from the motorway. Turin airport too small for the amount of traffic, so long check-in/security queues (2.5 hours just queueing on Sunday am), but clean and modern. Well connected to local area for sight-seeing by train/car to Turin etc.
Summary: We had a good time there, the kids loved it, great value off-season, we'll be booking again for next year.
March 05, 2007
ROGER from
United Kingdom
ROGER from
United Kingdom
Just back from Bardonecchia (18/2 - 25/2/07). Stayed at La Quiete, a small family run guest house 5 mins from the pistes (loads of good food but apartment a bit dated). Everyone was very friendly and helpful throughout the resort. Only snowed on last day but pistes had ample man-made snow and were refreshed every night. Bit icy in places but adds to the excitement. Excellent restaurants on the slopes.
First time daughter and I tried snowboards. Olympic Snowboard park is a must-see. Also had a go on the Olympic 4 man bob. Gotta be done if you have the chance. Hard but enjoyable week and cannot wait until the next time.
January 10, 2007
joanne from
United Kingdom
joanne from
United Kingdom
Went to Bardonecchia over New Year in to 2007. Stayed at hotel Des Geneys and had a wonderful time. This is a wonderful family run hotel the staff are friendly and helpful, paticularly Alfredo the waiter. We were a large group of 17, 5 of which were children the hotel catered for our every need although not the hotel of choice if apres ski partying and drinking is your thing but family friendly it certainly is. The hotel decor is a bit 1970s but is clean and well run. The skiing was fantastic not a lot of snow while we were there but the snow cannons were used every night and the pistes remained very well maintained. Most of our group were beginners or intermediates and the runs were ideally suited to this although some of our group have skied for many years and did not get bored. I would highly recomend this resort and hotel
December 05, 2006
nick maye from
United Kingdom
nick maye from
United Kingdom
Went to Bardonecchia twice in 2006 over Xmas and again at the end of March and was accompanied on both occassions by my seven year old son. We had an absolute ball, the pistes were in excellent order with the added bonus of fresh powder for two days on the March trip.
This was my sons first trip and he loved it, the ski school is excellent there are also loads of really good restaurants that are real value for money .Everyone is exceptionally friendly and goes out of their way to be helpfull.
The runs are ideally suited to intermediates but I have been skiing for over twenty years and didn't get bored.Jaffrau is a real gem and well worth a look particularly as there is now a spanking new gondola to replace the precarious old chairlift.
If you have kids bardonecchia is brilliant, ok the skiing isn't that challenging but you could always sneak a day over the border in France as its only a stones throw.
February 25, 2006
Joe from
United Kingdom
Joe from
United Kingdom
Yea, I agree with you Sue, the Hotel Rive was realy good. We stayed in apartments as a family. The apartments look right out over the black slope (unkept.) We went on boxing day and there was plenty of snow. The lifts are quite old but they do their jobs. When we went was obviously a busy time and this resulted in perhaps having to wait 20 mins for the bottom 4 man chairlift but this was only needed once a day because, once up on the mountain, the other lifts had no queue at all. The only setback for staying here was the 15 min walk to the centre of the town to get food and the limited challenging runs. However, comparing this resort to Austria, I think that the runs are generally harder for their colour than what they are in Austria. The skiing was really good and all credit to the piste mentainence team; they do a great job! The black run down from mid station was really good and a good challenge for anybody but there was only this one run! However, there was a short bit of black (unmarked) from the top down to join the top of the red run (this cutting off the scenic blue slope). Overall, our family of 4 had a great time. However, skiing for blue and red runners was really good. Personally I'd have liked a few more challenging slopes but we did get to ski by the 2006 Olympic snowboard halfpipe and seeing it back on TV was really good! The weather for the week was very good. I recommend this place if you don't know where to go, go here! I liked it, and I hope you do as well!!
I'm sorry if any of that didn't really make sence, I have written it quickly, and I should really get back to doing revision for my GCSEs. I hope you found that review useful, post a comment in the contact page if you want to know more, not sure what that is, but I'll have a look when I submit this!
January 16, 2006
Sue Langley from
United Kingdom
Sue Langley from
United Kingdom
I have just come back from an excellent ski holiday in Bardonecchia. We stayed in the Hotel Rive (Best Western). This is a first class hotel, the rooms were superb; it is a 4* hotel seemed more like a 6*. It has a free gym, sauna,and turkish baths. All of the ski lifts have been modernised,the ski-ing was great and the snow was good. They have plenty of snow cannons if needed.There was only 1 black run,but there is a great selection of reds and blues. I would definately reccomend this holiday, it was a dream.
December 11, 2005
Steve Persons from
USA - California
Steve Persons from
USA - California
Bardonecchia, What can I say, it is classic Italian. I have been to Bardonecchia 8 times in the last 10 years. The skiing is the best in February or March. Check the snow report before you go, as it can be a bit thin. Selected runs have good manmade, but most of the mountain is natural snow. When there is snow the terrain is super fun. Nice tree glades and always changing terrain. The locals are friendly and town has many great places to eat and drink. Night life can be a little slow during the week. Weekends are always fun, good local musicians. If the skiing is not so good in Bardonecchia you can drive up to nearby Sestriere for some higher altitude skiing. I have always enjoyed Italy, not only for the skiing, but for it's people and food. The best place to stay, in my experience, is the Hotel Larici in the residential area of town. Enjoy.
February 11, 2005
MossideMookie from
United Kingdom
MossideMookie from
United Kingdom
Jan 2005.
My Third ski/boarding Trip To Italy was not impressed with This Resort At All.
Stayed In Hotel La betulla ( exellent Food ) Very Basic Rooms Ect.
Snow was Poor Grass and Rocks Showing Through, even Know most lifts Were open.
What was Very annoying about this resort was it seemed They only Cared About Weekend visitors, ample snow cannons But only realy used for the weekend local Crowd when they Needed to be used All week,Seems they Could Not be botherd To Open the Half pipe either.
people around the town in main very surley and very unfriendly, Piste Are uncrowded During The week But very Busy at weekends same Goes for the Town Its self in general, not a place for appres Ski If thats what youre Looking For not much to do besides ski.
Resort Is de vided into three ski area's you can interconnect bewteen two of them if snow is good.
Colomion the mian area and where the majority of easy piste are, accessed by a four man chair easy for novice to use , then another two four man chairs ( right hand side off first lift) you ski down to these in order to access Higher Runs and or ski down to Melezet 'Snow permitting' left hand side is two sets of red runs one of wich is world cup run accessed by a poma lol.
Melezet also accessed by four man chair if youre a beginner get off a first station two nice easy runs left and ride side of chair, Top of this range is all Drag/poma's.
Jaffreau the Hightest of the three Areas is accesed by a very old dodgy lift indeed ( needs replacing), you have to carry youre ski's can be very off putting for a beginner, most runs are not for beginner's either, beware of the (lack of) safety barriers accident waiting to happen.
Final Thoughts dont Bother, Head For the dolomites instead
Nearest