Cielo Blu Hotel

I could not recommend this hotel to anyone. During my stay my brand new expensive Coco Chanel perfume was stolen by a member of staff while I was out skiing. Although the reps did all they could to help, the hotel management were totally unhelpful. Suddenly no one could speak English and the one member of staff who could speak English told me she was not allowed to talk to me about it!
A school trip arrived and created havoc in the hotel, shouting in the corridors until the early hours - once again, when trying to complain, everyone lost the ability to speak English.
The person I was travelling with was vegetarian... his varied menu consisted of pasta and tomato sauce so we gave up eating in the hotel in the end.
The ski lockers were down a narrow path which turned into an ice rink. The path was steep and getting up the ice rink every morning was a job and a half. Guess what, when asked if the path could be cleared there was lots of shoulder shrugging and "I don't speak English"
Possibly the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. The only plus point was that the bed was comfortable although the rooms were very basic.

13 readers found this review helpful

A really nice quiet small hotel. Room was large enough for the 2 of us, very clean (maid service every day). Good clean bathroom with a nice shower. Also loads of wardrobe / cupboard space to put everything away. We also had a balcony with a lovely view. My only comment about the room is for any ladies - although the Neilson brochure said the rooms had hairdryers - they are those ones attached to the wall in the bathroom that look like an accessory to a vacuum cleaner! So pack your own! The food was excellent and we enjoyed every evening meal. You keep the same table for the whole week for both breakfast and dinner. Buffet breakfast is quite typical - choice of cereals, bread rolls, ham, cheese, fruit, yoghurt, jams etc. Dinner - you order every night for the following night. There was always 3 starters and 3 mains to choose from and there was always a lovely salad buffet that you could help yourself to as much as you like. The choice of dessert was always offered on the night. Cannot fault the food at all - really very good. On our last night they done a 'traditional italian dinner' with live music. The dinner was 5 courses and again excellent. The music was probably not what we were expecting - we thought it maybe some romtantic italian music but it was more like a one man band on an organ playing some very odd songs but it did make everyone smile! They also held a raffle that night with various prizes (local wines, food, hampers). I won first prize and had to dance (or try to) with the owner - Aldo!! Location wise the hotel is very good - you have a supermarket, pharmacy, bank and some excellent local bars all within 3 minutes walk from the hotel (see later). We got by in English - there was one waiter in the hotel that spoke very good English! The ski lockers are on the 2nd ground level - quite a find as no signs, just keep going down the stairs! The nearest lift to walk to from the hotel is a 5 mins walk (in ski boots and carrying your skis). Turn right out of the hotel and it's lift number 24 - Valbiolo.
I would recommend the following bars:
El Bait - 30 seconds away! A lovely little traditional / local bar, lively atmosphere, music and some good games you can play - Jenga, Connect 4, draughts etc!
Al Cantuccio - again a nice little local bar and a very friendly bar man. We also had lunch there one day and food was really good - the Torta del Nona cake was delicious!
La Botte - excellent choice of wines there - always good atmosphere. One of the only few places that showed live football, if you are looking for that!
Magic Pub - sounds awful and to be honest doesn't look appealing from the outside, but once inside at the back, it's quite a nice little bar especially for apres ski.
We also had lunch a few times at Pizzeria Alpi - excellent pizza's - about 50 to choose from all freshly cooked. It's in the town, down a little side street opposite the ski school office.
Now onto the skiing. There are 3 main areas - the glacier, Passo Tonale and the next village of Ponte Di Legno (there is a new gondala which connects Passo Tonale and Ponte Di Legno). I have circa 17 weeks skiing behind me whereas my partner only had 1 week, hence the reason why we choose Passo Tonale - the brochure rated it for beginners. First of all there was loads of snow and in fact it snowed nearly every day. However, most days the snow was so heavy and and or gusting winds the visibility was very poor and for beginners this was not good. Also, although there was loads of snow, they didn't seem to piste bash / groom the slopes and even going down some blue runs you encountered lots of bumps / mogules. Some of the reds were even worse - a great shame because if the pistes had at least been groomed you could have coped with the poor visibility and no doubt the runs would have been excellent. In fact they seemed to only groom the pistes once or twice the whole week. However the mixture of bumps / mogules and poor visibility was just not pleasant or enjoyable for either myself or my partner. Unfortunately we only managed to have one day of blue sky and sunshine and we made the most of that day and we went up the glacier.
The glacier is spectacular to see however the skiing was not really worth the effort of actually getting to the cable car - right at the end of the resort and you have to walk some of the way. You take the cable car up, from there the only way down is a black run - full of mogules. From the top of the cable car you take a chair lift up to one red run, which was a lovely little run - quite narrow more like a trail / track. From the chair lift you can also go up a drag lift to either a red or black run. The day we were there the red was only open but to be honest it was more like a black! Needless to say we didn't return to the glacier as it really only had one red run we could both do. Also note that on the piste map there shows a restuarant at the top of the cable car - there isn't one - the restuarant is at the top of the chair lift.
The other skiing area is Tonale itself, which is basically circa one mile long road with 11 chair / drag lifts running along it. It is not a 'normal' ski resort in that most of these 11 lifts do not connect to other lifts - you just go up and down the same lift / run - good for beginners I suppose if you are not bothered about trying different runs. But what I found frustrating is that you could not easily ski to all lifts - we spent alot of our time pushing ourselves across / shuffling / side stepping and even walking! Again not enjoyable especially just when you want to get home as the fog / wind was really bad. There are only 2 lifts (24 and 13) where you can get off one chair lift and then go onto another lift. At the top of 24 there are 2 chair lifts that take you to 2 red runs and a nice restaurant there. The blue run down (34) back to the village is good for beginners too.
Would recommend the mountain restuarant at the top of lift 13 - Nigritella but you can also reach it from lift 16 - Serodine and take the red run to it following signs for Bleis. Excellent pastas and weather permitting they have a BBQ - excellent burgers and hot wine (vin brule).
Another good thing - no long queues for any of the lifts - we were able to ski right onto most lifts.
We didn't manage to get to Ponte Di Legno because of the bad weather we had - we mainly stayed in Tonnale as getting back was a big task! We did however ski down a nice blue for beginners (18) which takes you half way to Ponte Di Legno where you can get the gondola back up to Tonale at the mid station.
Overall not bad skiing but I think we were just very unlucky with the bad weather which meant we couldn't ski as much as we would have liked to. For myself I wouldn't go back as not much for intermediates. But for beginners (1st or 2nd timers) I suppose it would be OK, if you had good weather and they groomed the pistes.
The resort itself was a lovely traditional italian resort - fairly quite but had everything you needed.

1 reader found this review helpful

Stayed here, in a party of 9, from 27/12/08 for 1 week.
The hotel is well positioned for ski lifts,shops etc. Tip=Turn right out of the hotel for the nearest lift. Also wish we'd have known about the lockers as it is hard work getting to the slopes when you're all kitted out like Neil Armstrong!
The food was very good,we enjoyed it every night.Especially the 9 courser on new years eve! Magical to have a glass of bubbly and some cake whilst watching the fireworks in the snow.
The slopes were great for our party as we were a mix of beginners & intermediates. Also fantastic scenery, quite breath taking in parts.
Good for other activities too such as iceskating & racing on scooter type skis.The kids loved seeing the huskies waiting in their kennels.
Another tip = learn some Italian before you go. Not a great deal of English is understood and it is the perfect place to practice a new language. The hotel staff and locals appreciate it when you try your "allo allo" type italian on them!
Only bad side was feeling very stuffy in a morning-don't know if that was the altitude or not. Also the stairs from the changing room at the hotel to the road were a bit dodgy especially for kids. Quite steep and no hand rail.
Overall we had a brilliant holiday and would definately go back.

1 reader found this review helpful

We have just returned from Passo Tonale as we spent Christmas there.My huband has been skiing before but neither me or my 2 children who are 12 and 15 had.We had a fantastic time and cant wait to go back. The food in the hotel was spot on every night with a choice of 3 starters an 3 mains an also dessert.Never had a bad meal and the waiter downstairs was so friendly and welcoming.The hotel was very clean an tidy and the maid came into our rooms every day and made beds.The hotel is only about a 5 min walk to the slopes or the village so it is ideal.They also have a ski room in the basement but we ended up renting a locker right near the slopes as the hotel is on a slight hill and it was hard work walking up and down in your boots and carrying skis ect.The hotel does not have a games room for kids as advertised in the First Choice book.
The only downside was there was never anyone to serve you behind the bar.It is a fab bar but didnt seem to have anything in stock or there was no one behind it to serve you.We would stay for about 15 mins then give up and go out.But that didnt was our complaint.Me and the kids dd the ski school which i would highly recommend.Our instructor was called Andreas and was a great teacher who broght me on no end.We had snow on Christmas day so that made the holiday even more special.
Oh and a special mention to George our rep.George was very new to repping and what he didnt know,he would find out for us and either text me or leave a note in the pigeon hole for us.We booked the night skidoo with him which my husband and son did.My son said it was the best!!
Like i say cant wait to go back.

1 reader found this review helpful

We stayed at Cielo Bleu for a week from the 29th March 2008, two adults and 1 child. We booked the holiday through First Choice, and flew into Innsbruck. The transfer time took 3.25 hours.
The hotel accomodation was perfect for us, we were given a room on the top floor, south facing, with a balcony. The room was small, but ample for a skiing holiday. The room was very clean, it was cleaned and beds made daily, and if you required clean towels, they were available.
The food was excellent, a choice was given, there was a lot of choice for the buffet salad, and different kinds of Olive Oils. We couldn't fault the food at all, or the service from the staff.
The slopes were excellent, with a good choice from beginners to intermediates, for the the advanced, we would recommend the Glacier and Pontedilegno. My daughter enjoyed her ski school, and really liked her ski instructor, Alice. I enjoyed my intermediate ski school with Erika, she made me think of my skiing technique. My husband had private board tuition, which he enjoyed very much, many thanks to his instructor, Alex. I also had an hours private board tuition on my last ski day with Alex, and I would recommend him for his patience, he had me linking my turns again within half an hour.
The resort is a small purpose built resort, with not much to do for the non skier, but it does have a few places for apres-ski, although, you could do the night skiing on a Tuesday and Thursday. People were very friendly, and most helpful.
We don't have any negative things to say about First Choice, and we were delighted with our resort rep, Fay Travers, who is very down to earth person. My daughter had left her DVD wallet in the minibus on the way up to the resort, we mentioned this to Fay the day before we were due to leave, and she had said that she would look into this. To our daughter's delight, when Fay turned up at the hotel with the coach back to the airport, she had the DVD wallet. Many thanks again Fay, at least we don't have to replace the missing films now.
We never got a chance to ski Madonna di Campiglio or Marilleva (where I learnt to ski for the first time) which is not too far away on the free bus from Tonale. We enjoyed our holiday so much, and couldn't fault the hotel or staff or First Choice, we have booked to go back next year, this time bringing friends with us. Roll on next year.

fantastic hotel definately recommend this ,it was very clean, clean towels and freshley made beds everyday.food was lovely four courses every night and the staff were very nice,we didnt have far to walk very close to everywhere including main lifts and ski school was couple of minutes walk.