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  3 of 5, "Good for a weekend - not sure about 11 nights" 01/04/2008 @ 13:19:49 |
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| 3 members have given this review an average rating of 4.67 of 5 |
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| Price Paid |
| For two £1600 inc lift pass |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Inghams |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
We booked to go to Kimberley with Inghams. They advertise Kimberley as great for families and beginners, but I would disagree with that, for reasons which will become clear. We had a good time in Kimberley, but not a great time... Here is what I think anyone planning to visit needs to know:
The town
We stayed in the town, at the Kimberley Inn. The slopes were around ten minutes away by the local shuttle bus, costing $2 each way, and not free as we were told. That said, the bus was punctual and most days we were the only ones on it, the drivers were all helpful and chatty. As Stuart said, the town is Bavarian themed, which is a bit odd. It is very small, with one square (The Platzl) housing most of the restaurants. Food-wise there are a couple of schnitzel houses which were OK, a good tapas bar (Green Phoenix) and a few others varying from chinese to chicken and ribs. The best place we went to was the Sullivan pub, two doors down from the Kimberley Inn. Awesome food, superb value, great beer, and daily specials. Look out for Monday's wing night! Be careful if you are in Kimberley on Mondays - the Sullivan seemed to be the only thing open. The thing about Kimberley is it is a town with a ski resort nearby, not a ski town if you see what I mean. I don't think the town is truly set up for long haul tourists yet, more suited for weekend trippers really. Due to local licencing laws it is difficult to go out for a meal if you are in a family, a lot of places don't let 'minors' in after 8pm!
For those self-catering and willing to cook, there were two supermarkets in town, the nearest to the base area would still need a trip on the shuttle bus, that was the Mark Creek Market just opposite the Kimberley Inn. There was also a very well stocked drug store which also sold cameras and accessories, snack type food and any type of painkiller which takes your fancy.
Accommodation
The Kimberley Inn was fine, but not great. The place was undergoing a major refurbishment but unfortunately we were put in a room which had yet to be done. That said, it was comfortable enough, but on the second floor with no lift (it was being installed while we were there) - not much fun trekking all your gear up on a daily basis as there are no slopeside lockers to hire. The hotel restaurant was also closed for the duration of our stay, which was a shame as it was supposed to be good. I would reccommend staying at the Marriott (Trickle Creek) slopeside, as it looked of a good standard and was totally ski-in ski-out.
The hill
We found Kimberley not to be great for beginners, as stated by Inghams. We knew there weren't a high proportion of green runs, but thought there were easlily enough for us to improve on, or so we thought. We found the pistes poorly signposted and got totally lost ending up looking down something very steep wondering how we were going to get down. The conditions while we were there were OK, had two days of snow, but other than that things were a bit icy in the morning and then turning to slush in the afternoon. (We arrived 1st March so didn't expect total spring conditions but the temps at the base area were on average 5 - 10 degrees.) The main thing about Kimberley is it is very quiet. On occasions we would have the whole run to ourselves. Not too sure how someone of an advanced level would get on - they would probably have got around the whole mountain in a couple of days, Kimberley is quite small compared to other resorts - there are only 5 lifts.
We did have lessons, I had a group lesson and ended up on my own! My instructor was great, patient and dead friendly. I would reccommend the board school. My husband skied, he said his lesson was good too, but I don't think he was quite as impressed as me.
As I said, we had a good time but not great, and wouldn't rush to go back here. It would be good to do as part of a road trip, Kimberley is only an hour and a half from Fernie, and they are big local rivals, as we found out at the ice hockey match we went to between the two towns... A massive brawl erupted in the crowd and a bloke got his teeth knocked out and a few were arrested! Typically, the week after we left there were two massive dumps of snow, that would have transformed our holiday but them's the breaks!
So all in all, go there for a weekend, or midweek for a few days, but think carefully before booking for a long stay. The transfer from Calgary takes ages too, but rumours are that in a couple of years a major airport expansion is taking place in Cranbrook, which is ony 25kms from Kimberley. |
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| Strengths |
Quiet quiet quiet
Really friendly people
Night skiing/boarding Thursday - Saturday
Kokanee Gold - yum
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| Hot Spots |
| Sullivan pub |
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| Weaknesses |
Town is small and almost too quiet
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
Soldeu
Crested Butte |
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| Reviews: 34 |
| Review Mod |
| Kirkcudbrightshire |
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| 3 of 5, "Kimberley, Bavaria !" 16/08/2002 @ 20:34:06 |
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| 1 member has given this review a rating of 4 of 5 |
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| Revision #1 (Last edited: 01/04/2008 @ 13:40:42) |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Frontier Ski |
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| Times Visited |
| 2-5 Times |
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| Review Detail |
The resort of Kimberley sits midway between Panorama and Fernie and approx 3 hours by car from Banff. This is as yet an uncommercialised resort but is owned by Resorts of the Canadian rockies who own Lake Louise.
The town of Kimberley is a short drive away from the base area and has a Bavarian style to it including what I was told to be the worlds largest cuckoo clock!There were a number of fairly good laid back restaurants and a number of shops including a supermarket, liquor store and petrol (gas) station. When we arrived we were pre booked in the Trickle Creek residence inn but could not find it!Did this place really exist? Eventually, feeling a little worried we called in to the resort Office at the base area to ask where this place was. The girl we spoke to was originally from Liverpool and after some discussions with her colleagues she knew where we wanted to go. The problem was that the Trickle creek was not officially open yet! We parked up outside and made our way to the reception area, passing lots of tradesmen doing joinerwork and laying carpets. We thought this was going to be a nightmare until we were shown to our room. It turned out to be a suite and we were the first customers to use it. It was massive with a huge bedroom, living area, kitchen and bathroom. The views were great from the windows looking out over this unspoilt snow capped wonderland. We spent 4 nights here and although the bar,restaurant and hot tubs were not open I loved this place and if I had the money I would have bought one of the suites which were for sale.
All the runs here are below the tree line with a good mix of easy and more challenging runs, on our visit there was good snow cover and we found that the piste grooming was pretty good (if you like that sort of thing). The resort caters for boarders with two parks. |
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| Strengths |
| Good on slope accomodation. Well groomed pistes. A good snow record. |
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| Weaknesses |
| Situated away on its own. Pretty quiet nightlife. Not a great deal of really difficult terrain. Best to use as part of a holiday with say a few days in either Lake Louise, Fernie or Panorama as you can easily cover the whole area in a day or two. |
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