Anyone been to Pila?

owing to a late change of plans we are now offto Pila 7th March and having never been before I'm looking to see if anyone has any experiences of the resort or area that they can share.

I can't offer gifts in return but you can have my gratitude by the boatload :lol:

freezywater wrote:

I can't offer gifts in return but you can have my gratitude by the boatload :lol:

Damn, I was fully prepared to lie in return for gifts :D

:x :thumbup:

We went to Pila nearly 10 years ago, so things might have changed, but we had a great holiday for all sorts of reasons. Went in early Feb so uncrowded. Not a large ski area but it worked well for us as it was the first time I felt confident on reds - and there are several really wide red runs through the trees. For a break from the slopes you can take the gondola down to Aosta for some shopping, etc. but this only ran during the daytime, so in the evenings you would need a taxi. Pila is very small but friendly. The only thing we didn't like was the evening stroll from the top to the bottom of the village as it either involved walking through the underpass amongst the traffic and fumes, or trying to find our way through the main complex and we got hopelessly lost every time!
I think we flew in to Turin and the transfer time was about 2 hours, perhaps less.

Agree with the above it is an easy drive on quite motorways once you get out of Turin, 2hours is about right, Aosta and turn right if memory serves

thanks all

Pila is one of my favourite resorts and I've been there three times over the last few years and I hope to make it four next year - it's small and quiet rather than big and brash like many others. The lifts are pretty modern with most now having "magic carpets" with more planned - even the baby/nursery slope has it's own 50m magic carpet which you just stand on - not a tow bar in sight! Queues are very rare except of course for the 10.00am ski school rush - other than that hardly any.
It's a popular resort with English schools for their ski holidays so avoid at half term/easter etc - however apart from a lot more English accents on the slopes they're not really a problem as they all stay down in the valley in hotels/hostels and catch the gondola up from Aosta each morning.
Good place for beginners and intermediates but any blackies will get bored very quickly - snowboard park is quite good as well if you like that sort of thing.
Probably the one thing that I really like is that once you get away from the base area most of the pistes and very wide which means that there's plenty room for everyone so not too many collisions etc

senior trip went there last year (junior one went to kitzbuhel) and they had a blast-masses of skiing available-was even closed one day due to too much snow so they had to go to Courmayeur which is supposed to be awesome