J2Ski Holiday 2014

Tony_H wrote:You were?

Yeah, i thought she was still there....

I thought I'd write something about the contrast between Tignes/Val d'Isere (where we went last year) and our recent group holiday in Folgarida/Madonna di Campiglio, for those people who may be considering going to either resort but haven't been before.

I reckon I had just as much fun on both holidays, but Folgarida is a real contrast to Tignes.

Geographically, Folgarida is in Italy in the Brenta Dolomites, at a much lower altitude to Tignes, and the lift and piste linked area is only half that of Tignes (150 Km versus 300 Km) so it's a much smaller resort.
Hence most of the pistes in Folgarida are tree lined whereas only a few of the lower ones are in Tignes. I should imagine it's for this reason that the pistes in Folgarida are generally much narrower than in Tignes. So when we were in Folgarida we had the curious experience where there were very few lift queues but the pistes were quite crowded, especially at bottle-necks like at a particularly difficult section of a red run. However, we were there during Polish half-term, and whilst there was a special lift pass discount, and when they had the best snow they've had for years - which may have had something to do with it! The slopes in Tignes, on the other hand, were practically deserted when we were there, with no lift queues at all. This was presumably because we were there in the middle of January. When I went back there at the beginning of March it was much more crowded.

The slopes are far easier in Folgarida than Tignes, and I should imagine that was why there seemed to be very few advanced or expert skiers/boarders in Folgarida. What I noticed was that in Tignes I was one of the worst on the slopes, whereas in Folgarida I was one of the best - so in Tignes I was continually being overtaken whereas in Folgarida I had to keep overtaking slower skiers and boarders. There was however plenty of challenging ski-ing in Folgarida - what with the powdery bumps, the crowded slopes, the poor visibility and the few difficult black slopes (like that unpisted black 70 one where we were the only people on it!). I think the advanced and expert skiers go to Folgarida for the off-piste ski-ing, and I saw some local Italians who were there for that on the final Sunday.

The ski lifts in both resorts are very good. The only time I went on a drag lift in Folgarida was on the slalom course. Most of the lifts are modern chairlifts (some with covers) and gondolas. There are a few old chairlifts, annoyingly positioned at the main links between Folgarida and Madonna di Campiglio. And in Tignes I can't remember going on a draglift, although there are a few up on the glacier.

Folgarida is a much cheaper resort than Tignes. It cost us around £150 less in Folgarida (£700 versus £850), for the flights, transfers, a week of half-board accommodation, ski hire, and lift passes for 6 days ski-ing. And the mountain restaurants are miles cheaper in Folgarida than Tignes, with much better quality food and drink. A cup of tea costs around 5 euros in Tignes, but only 1.60 euros in Folgarida. And you can buy a very good lunch for around 10 euros but it would cost at least 20 euros in Tignes.

There is less English spoken in Folgarida than in Tignes - presumably because not many British people go to Folgarida. This did make things slightly difficult for me in the ski hire shop (because I don't know any Italian) and I had a few awkward moments in the restaurants, plus it was harder making the hotel booking.

In both resorts we stayed in the cheaper, more peripheral villages. It is quite a long way from Tignes Les Brevieres to the glacier above Val d'Isere, and although we did manage it with time to ski on the glacier, have lunch, and come back, it does make for a long day. And in Folgarida it is likewise a long way/takes a long time to get from Folgarida to the ski-ing above Pinzolo. We would have been more central if we'd stayed in the far more expensive village of Madonna di Campiglio rather than Folgarida, and Le Lac (for example) rather than Les Brevieres. We were however trying to ski/board on a 'budget' and staying in a peripheral village is one way of doing this.

Folgarida is much harder to get to than Tignes, from the U.K. and this may be why not many British people go there. There are far fewer flights to Verona (the nearest airport to Folgarida) than there are to Geneva (which is not the nearest airport to Tignes but it's the one we were advised to use). And there is a similar problem with the transfer buses to Folgarida as compared with Tignes. It takes about 3 1/2 hours to get to Folgarida from Verona airport on the public bus, and about the same time to get to Tignes from Geneva airport on the bus. There are a few package holidays available to Folgarida but there are far more to Tignes.

One similarity between Tignes and Folgarida is that both ski areas are made up of different villages and it's nice because it gives you a sense of travelling when you go from one to another, and the landscape varies. I would say that Folgarida is prettier than Tignes, and it doesn't have the hideous apartment block architecture, but on the other hand it doesn't have the lake either. Both Val d'Isere and Madonna di Campiglio have their 'wealthy' skiers and fur coat brigades (I met some very smart ladies on the slopes in Madonna di Campiglio when the sun came out!)

Tignes is more snow-sure than Folgarida, because it has high altitude ski-ing and the glaciers, but the snow record for Folgarida is pretty good (I checked before we chose it!).

Folgarida felt like a very 'safe' resort, presumably because of the trees and the way it's sheltered from the wind and because the pistes are much easier than in Tignes. I didn't feel nervous ski-ing in poor visibility in the fog - there was no way I was going to fall over a precipice or get lost off piste. The pistes are very well marked (apart from that one section on black 70!) and if there is an 'edge' they fence it off with netting, and the signposting is really good so it's easy enough to find your way around. Tignes is a much more 'scary' place - with wide open pistes exposed to the wind and it would be very easy to find yourself 'off-piste' ski-ing there in the fog. Plus, the pistes in Tignes are much harder. It really did feel as though a red piste in Folgarida would be a blue in Tignes, and so on.

I think we were very lucky we'd picked a fairly low resort this time. I'm sure if we'd been in a high altitude resort a lot of the upper lifts would have been closed because of the avalanche risk as a result of the very heavy snowfall. As it was they only shut the top section of one gondola for a couple of days for this reason, and the rest of the resort was fully open and all the lifts opened on time in the morning.

As I said, I had just as much fun ski-ing in both resorts. In Tignes we skied much faster on steeper pistes and travelled far greater distances. In Folgarida we had to learn how to ski slower and more controlled in order to negotiate the powdery bumps and slower skiers/boarders. If I had a chance I'd be very happy to go back to either resort.

Excellent review Ally, Thanks! :thumbup:

I recon this might be a very helpful resource for people who'd want to decide between the Tignes/Espace-Killy area and the "SKIAREA Campiglio Dolomiti di Brenta Val di Sole Val Rendena"; or for those who already went to one of these areas, and would be interested to go to another!

Moved to Active Hotel Garni, Folgarida - Admin

. Things are looking up. The cold has now set in and the snow cannons are generating white stuff. -)

http://www.snoweye.com/grabs/0085/98.jpg

Here's a webcam photo of the Lago Nero in the Sauze ski area, taken this morning. You can see the snow cannons working hard! :)
I took the photo from here:
http://www.sauzeonline.com/sauze-doulx-webcam/

That's a great run. Hit 60mph taking it straight from the top :)

There's a video here, of someone going down it, but I'm afraid the commentary is all in Italian (not surprising really!).

http://www.vialattea.it/language/en-US/Ski-Area/Video-delle-piste/Pista-29