Etiole de Neige Hotel

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Stayed again in this hotel at the end of January 2008 which was a follow-on from our first stay there in January 2007. The accommodation is superbly located for ski-in & out. supplemented with; at certain times of the day, starting at 9:00am; a free mini-bus connecting the hotel with the Lift-pass office / Gondola Station and the Ski-School meeting point.
The bedrooms, fitted with min-bars, are on the generous-size with large bathrooms and having views either to the piste on one side or a vista-panoramic of the valley and mountains the other.
The staff are extremely friendly and welcoming reflecting, like it’s ‘sister hotel’ the Printemps, that it is a family owned and run establishment. Whilst hotel guests during our stay were from several European countries the overall atmosphere and friendliness was good.
Meals are based on self-serve style. Breakfast is the usual continental style with served coffee. Evening meals have a very extensive salad / starter buffet, choice of 2 hot pasta courses or soup, choice of 2-3 main course (meat / fish) dishes and choice of several sweet courses / ice creams, together with bottled water and inclusive local wine (Crystal).
Hotel bar prices are reasonable – superb cappuccino!
This being our 4th visit to this resort the slopes again were extremely quiet except for the weekends (+ local holidays I imagine).
The predominantly north-facing slopes are probably the best-groomed pistes imaginable with most very wide – this resort also being used by two British School Ski companies.
There are extensive snow-cannons to help ‘extend the season’, supported by 7 ‘piste-bashers’.
Although a modest sized resort there are 8 restaurants on the pistes, all reasonably priced, compared with those in French resorts.
Unfortunately on this occasion ‘The Wall’ (black run); which makes Val d’Isere’s Face de Bellevarde look tame, was closed. Two new red-runs had however been added since last season.
With 5.5 days of blue skies and no ‘flat-light’ this allowed us to make best use of the slopes – the resort living up to it’s nick-name of ‘The Blue Hole of Pila’.
An added bonus for us this time was the half-price lift pass for persons born pre-30/04/1948 (Mon – Fri,. only - excluding weekends / local hols & Xmas / New Year weeks) – see Pila’s own web-page for more details.
The Gondola which links the resort with Aosta is being closed from the end of March this year in order to allow a new / faster / larger gondola system, to be installed - ready for next season,