Snowsure: 3.4
- 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
- Kalavryta Ski Resort is snowsure even in the poorest seasons
Visitor reviews for Kalavryta Ski Resort 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
January 04, 2012
drew from
Greece
drew from
Greece
December 28, 2011
drew from
Greece
drew from
Greece
Am looking forward to the new season and I hope the staff attitude towards paying customers improves this season as well a reliability and speed of the lifts (I also got stuck on the 10th of March this year and got lousy attitude from staff) I also hope they update the pass system soon similar to Parnassos because several times my pass got tatty and they refused to let me on the lift and it took me an hour to sort out a solution.
Swore last year I wouldn't come back but I'm going tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
March 22, 2011
Aris from
Greece
Aris from
Greece
I would like to comment on an area that needs improvement. This is the place where people are waiting to get the lift, especially at the waiting area of lifts for Styga and Thetis. The surface of the land is not straight and people are hitting each other. I believe that it is very easy to put somebody to dig the area and create a straight surface.
March 13, 2011
Anestis from
Greece
Anestis from
Greece
Indeed, the infrastructure in Helmos ski-resort did reach new heights. However, the human resources remained the same, disappointing. Not only are they indifferent when asked for help, but also they are offhand, rude and tend to scorn visitors at any given time. I would be very lenient if I considered them inadequate even to herd the goats of Helmos mountain range!
Last Thursday (10/03/2011), my friends and I set off for Helmos ski resort. We paid the €15 ticket fee and board on the first lift at 11:00. Suddenly it broke down. We, and the rest of the skiers, stayed confined to the obsolete lift for 45 minutes!
The lift was announced to be out of order and so the 50% of the mountain pistes. When we claimed for compensation, the staff was laughing at us and they said that no refunding was possible. When we asked to speak with the administrator of the resort, they were completely sarcastic and they all alleged to be the administrator themselves. It was a parody! As you can figure out, we couldn’t even communicate with such ignorant people.
Shame on them, shame on the man who bears the title of resort manager, shame on these speculators, these filthy business cons who take advantage of their monopolistic character and eventually the naïve visitors.
I wish I didn’t have my cottage in the area so I could avoid visiting this resort for the rest of my life!
March 01, 2011
Long time skier from
Greece
Long time skier from
Greece
I visited Helmos a few days ago for the first time in a couple of years and I'd like to congratulate the resort operators for seriously improving the overall experience there. The pistes were wonderfully groomed and the equipment looks well maintained despite its age. Piste staff is courteous and helpful.
However, having said that I'd like to point out two issues that negatively affected our visit.
First of all the issue of cost. Though I realize the ski season in Greece is short and prices are high in order not to operate at a loss, the prices in the cafes are extortionate. 4,5 euro for a tiny cappuccino is disgraceful.
Secondly, the staff at the ski rental building at the resort must have missed the customer service training because they were rude and arrogant. My girlfriend and I (both very good skiers) were each given a pair of skis in obviously terrible condition (for double the price compared to ski rental shops in the town of Kalavrita) and when I (politely) asked for a newer pair the staff member seemed very displeased that he had to go to the trouble of unmounting another pair. When I pointed out a specific pair, he said "what, you want me to take down all these skis so I can get you the one you want?" That is simply unacceptable. Also, when we returned the equipment, the same guy asked my girlfriend (who had dropped one of her batons on the floor while giving the equipment back): "Did we only give you one baton?" in a very sarcastic manner, even though he had seen the baton fall to the floor. Unfortunately, this is a frequent occurrence in tourist resorts in Greece, where staff somehow feel it is a privilege for you to be served by them instead of the other way round.
I hope the resort managers are able to sort these issues out. Other than that, (not including the snowboarders who cut up the snow and take up half the pistes by sitting down wherever the feel like ) we had a great day :)
February 13, 2011
Nicholas Vembos from
Greece
Nicholas Vembos from
Greece
A new season has started at Helmos ski resort. A little late, I'd say, but at least it did!
Excellent powder off-piste and very well prepared pistes.
I see a lot of good new things happening there and and once again, I keep my fingers crossed that this is the time and that good things will keep on happening there!
The snow park is excellent with super neat kickers, a very nice thick rail that anyone can ride and a huge balloon that makes jumps and tricks easy even for noobies!
Guys, grab your video cameras and run at the park. You can catch very professional videos and pictures of yourselves airborn!
And the best is that the balloon if for free while last year it had a per day charge. At last a good playground for all has been formed.
I am so happy about it, so happy.
I can't wait for the weekend to come!
Cheers to all guys and happy rides!
Nick
January 26, 2011
Kalavrita Ski Center Management Team from
Greece
Kalavrita Ski Center Management Team from
Greece
We would like to inform you that the ski season at the Kalavrita ski center(Helmos) started as of today! At first we want to introduce ourselves. Since this winter we are the new management and operating team at the Kalavrita ski resort (the company was recently restructured to an S.A.). We are very thankful for all your comments and we are committed to do our best to make your visit in our ski resort a memorable experience. We also want to inform you that we have changed a lot of things this year; let us give you a few examples:
We put all our staff through a customer service training, starting from the cashier till the ski patrol.
We invested around 100 k Euro in building a new fun park, improving the lifts, renewing the building, etc... but please understand that we are not able to build all lifts new in one season. We are talking about 3-4 million Euros for one new installation! Of course the installations are not new, but they are in a very safe and, for their age, good condition. All lifts have been checked by specialists, who have provided all necessary certifications!
We hope we could be able to give you some more context in the future. We hope also that we will continue receiving your feedback, especially about your feelings after a visit on our mountain.
Thanks and nice ski days.
March 09, 2010
DIMITRIS from
Greece
DIMITRIS from
Greece
I have been skiing at Helmos mountain for the past 15 years. The only reason that I have been doing it is because it is the nearest resort to my home (only 45km). It is a very beautiful mountain and it has every potential to become the best ski resort in Greece.
Unfortunately, it is the worst ski resort in Greece and that is because the lifts are very slow, old and probably dangerous. They brake down continuously and as an engineer, I can easily understand that as they have almost no maintenance.
The most important disadvantage of this mountain is the people working for this resort, especially the people at the parking and at the lifts; they are very rude. They do not help at all and especially on weekends and holidays (don’t visit the resort that days!) they constantly delay to open the resort and hurry to close it and go home. The people operating the snow-ploughs work maximum 1 to 2 hour per day all together. I have never in my life experienced such bad services anywhere else.
As for the web side…. don’t believe the web side! Paragliding, endurance skiing, snow tubes, snow park simply do not exist! There is, from time to time, something like a snow park but please don’t try it as you will probably harm your self and maybe end up at the hospital. As for the height of the snow, they don’t say it, they prefer the customer to go to the resort, pay a pas (25 euro at weekends!) and only then he can see if the snow is suitable.
I really hope that things will change soon and until then I will try to visit other resorts even if they are far away from my home.
March 03, 2010
taliban from
Greece
taliban from
Greece
A ski resort consists of three elements. The mountain, the infrastructure and the people. So, one at a time:
1. The mountain:
It is really beautiful at Helmos and quite high for Greek standards. The pistes are basic and with no specific difficulty. For example, the main blue resort run, begins with a steep part [red] which often frustrates beginners. A couple of red runs begin with really flat parts, where even well waxed boarders have to walk.
The obvious off-piste options though, are quite interesting. A few mellow hills close to the resort, a big, steep open face under the Styga chairlift, a couple of small natural pipes, and a face with trees and wide gullies on the right side of the double drag lift give the boarder many options, depending on his ability, the snow quality, the weather and of course the lift operation status.
If you are prepared for some easy walking, and possibly a bit of adventure, there are also some very interesting, not obvious off-piste routes, to discover.
2. The infrastructure:
It is bad, even for Greek standards. It would be very easy to start joking about the slowest lifts on the planet, but for me it is not funny any more. Would be nice to rebel against the cappuccino price [4.50€] but I do not care.
My belief is, that the resort was designed by people who had nothing to do with mountain sports, and that is why the two base lifts are useless, offering 200m of vertical ascent in about 10 minutes, not counting the queue wait. Actual descent time for these two? From 45" if you "straight line" them to six minutes, if you walk down on one foot, carrying your mother in law.
For the same reasons, the top of one lift is not high enough, for a boarder to reach the bottom of the next one without walking and on a weekend or holiday, the queues can be lifetime long [10-45min]. Anyway..
Now, if you take a look at the resort's web site, you will find out about some very interesting extras like paragliding, endurance skiing, snow tubes, moguls ski, Snow Park and even an MX race track. Well, I have never seen any of these on the mountain [although there is a terribly maintained [dangerous] park, from time to time]. Probably the web designer made all these up..
So, considering all these I would suggest a reasonable day-pass price of 7-10€. Reality though, makes me sound ridiculous, since lift passes cost 15-27€..
3. The people:
Oooh, the people. It is really embarrassing, since they are ireeks like myself, but I have never, ever met, worst -well paid- workers in my life. I don't care if they are rude, because I am 1,90m tall and weigh 90kg, so they aren't rude to me. But they are useless. They do nothing. They do not need to be there, they do not have to be paid, they do not need to exist as parts of the resort team. For sure trained monkeys, would have done a better job..
As a conclusion: I would definitely suggest a visit to Helmos, under a few golden conditions.
Never on a weekend or a holiday.
Never when the wind blows faster than 25km/h.
Always with lots of patience, a couple of sandwiches, and a bottle of water in your pack.
The mountain is nice!
PS
What is mostly disappointing, is that in the last five years, no progress at all has been made. Things just keep getting worse.
Would be really something, if us, riders could boycott the resort for a whole season, just to make things move a bit in the right direction of privatization..
January 28, 2010
Chris Georgantzos from
Greece
Chris Georgantzos from
Greece
I don't know where to start. Maybe from the parking personnel who tell you to park the car so close to each other that at the end of the day it is very difficult to unpark and you have to unpark passing cars by centimeters in the snow or icy tarmac, why are they there? The snow center opens at 09.00 although the site mentions at 08.00. We waited from 08.45 to 09.00 in -4 celcius for the ticket person to roll her cigarette in the warmth of her shelter. Why can't they issue tickets or even open earlier than 09.00 - science fiction. Coffee or snack prices 5 euro each. In Austria prices in the snow center concerning snacks are much cheaper. Not to forget the outdated lifts that need 13 minutes to get you to the piste (that's for the faster Styga seated lift). You spend 13 min in the lift to ski for 10 minutes, each round perfect. I try not to use this ski center (Helmos) at all but because of its proximity I use it 3-4 times a year. I would like to use it more but the condition of the pistes means you need all-mountain skis most of the time. Shame, if nothing worse.
Nearest