J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Irish-Skier

The ski school at the other Andorra ski resort domain "Vallnord" has just as good ski schools, Arinsal has great speaking instructers and great apres ski.

A luxery hotel here would be Princesa Parc, which you can book trough many ski operators, try directski.com.

True true, but im sure Gstaad won't mind me promoting them.

Having trouble with the camera :evil: Thank Goodness it's still got it's warrenty.

julidoherty wrote:We're going to Pal-Arinsal for New Year.... can't wait...(even though most of the posts on j2ski are quite negative about Arinsal!!)
Julie

Yes most things on here are negitive, but most is due to the lack of extensive ski area for intermidiates, your a beginner, you will thrive in Arinsal due to their excellent ski school, and there will always be snow on the beginner slopes, i'd say by the end of the week you wil have learned so much at the Arinsal ski school, you will have the confidence to try Pal, and even( maybe) Arclais- the have geat strolling blue and green runs which by the end of the week you will master)

Small but you get the picture...Extensive ski area.



The beautiful rich town.



Empty slopes.



Glacier 3000- skiing all year round, no suprise.



NOTE- Pics taken from google, will upload some of my own soon.

Went there March 07...

Rather limiting i'd have to say, but the resort Arclais is a true gem, id rate it very highly, as highly as Livingo to be honest, yes its remote, but the snow is nearly always powder due to the 'bowl' shaped slopes, and any off piste lovers will be at home here, with lots of available action at the La Coma side, there are some good views too.

Overall
Arinsal= Bad slopes, good food, cheap
Arclais=Great
Andorras capital= Cheap, cosmopolitan, fun
Transfare= 4 hours, not bad views.

There the luck of the Irish :)

Anyone else been lucky enough to ski Gstaad?

Gstaad- Two hours by train trough beautiful scenary to get to the resort, the ski pass covers around 300km of runs, they have a glacier which means snow is a sure thing, its a nice relaxed resort with lots of celebs living them, James Blunt ect. They also dont really get many package holidays going here, so you have the slopes pretty much to your self.

The Glacier is open as we write, and the other resorts included on the lift pass(which also includes trains and buses to get from A to B) are planned to open on the 13th of December.

Go to http://www.gstaad.ch/en/winter/gs-index.htm to book and more.

Thanks for that.

Yea I went there when I was a teen(Time flys). Back then they didnt have snow machines so the bottom of the slopes suffered from poor surfaces, but a friend told me about how they upgraded alot latly, and the new ski bus/train system seems to be great. The glaciers views are stunning and the fact NO-PACKAGE holidays cover it really means it's quite, it is really unbeliveable, people think Gstaad and then immediatly after they think its out of the budget, toatally not, I book bed and breakfast in a Sannermoser, was £450 for two of us, and the flights to Geneva were under £300 for the two of us, ski pass is around the 150 mark and boots and skies the same, add a return train journey from Geneva to Gstaad, around £900 and add in food, about £1100, the same as a holiday to the busy French resorts.