Hemsedal - Quick Review

A smallish (by mainland Alpine standards) resort with 40-45km of pistes

Pros
Friendly
Lots of English spoken (which helps if you cannot speak Norwegian)
Good lessons, especially for kids (lots of fun)
Reliable snow
Good-sized accommodation available (c.f. usual French apartments)
Runs for everyone (green, blue, red and black)
All runs lead back to resort
Good for park rats
Great for families

Cons
Expensive to eat and drink
Piste prep not the best
All runs lead back to resort (some people don't like this)
Can be cold and foggy
The only place I have experienced wind and fog at the same time
Not huge mileage for those who love that sort of thing
Only one ski hire shop so no competition and relatively expensive

Overall - 9/10 for our family

I would agree with most of those except to add that it's also good for late season as there is snow 'til May, if the British tour operators go there. For some bizarre reason many stop in March. Also say that when we have been at Easter some apartments can be full of students and young people who are very noisy and very drunk, so be careful.

All Norwegian resorts suffer from a lack of vertical. Makes for nice ski touring but you can feel like you are continually on a lift if you are sticking to pistes. Still super long season and if you like your drinking you will never be short of friends in Norway.

Dr. Mole
I'd agree re season. UK TOs not yet into Scandinavia so short season with TOs. I guess that they'll increase season length soon. Good point re drunk students. We tend to book cabins which are a bit more expensive and less likely to have students, bless them. Vertical is not big but doesn't bother us too much.