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  5 of 5, "A nice change from the Alps!" 17/02/2010 @ 17:26 |
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| Revision #1 (Last edited: 17/02/2010 @ 17:27) |
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| Price Paid |
| £369 half board |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Inghams last minute deal |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
I booked Canazei as I fancied a change from the usual French Alps resorts that I always seem to end up at. The piste maps for the place look a little confusing and not massively appealing to snowboarders, but I was pleasantly surprised at the whole place.
Accommodation - We stayed at Hotel Bellevue and the location couldn't have been better. At the start of the day you walk less than 5 mins downhill to the gondola/ski bus stops at the bottom end of town and at the end of the day, the run back to town finishes at the top end of town; a 2 minute downhill walk to the hotel. The rooms were clean and a decent size and the food was tasty and plentiful - you won't be going hungry!
The Town - A nice traditional town with old wooden barn buildings, thin windy streets - occasionally used by horse and carts! A few bars/pubs (see below) but no real clubs that I saw. We didn't use the supermarket or local restaurants as we were catered for evening meals in the hotel. The ski buses are not quite up to the standard of other resorts, but they are free and fairly regular (except during siesta time!). Getting from one end of the valley to another may require changing buses though.
Lifts - There is only one gondola in Canazei, but it is modern and fairly quick. Some reviews mention bad queues for this lift but we were there the week before UK half term and didn't have to queue once - whether for first lift or after a lie-in. Alternatively you can jump on the free bus to either Alba or Campitello to get on the cable cars there, but being cable cars we had to wait a little longer there. the area in general was very well equipped for lifts and the passes are RFID ones, a good thing as you will be using a lot of lifts! Most chairs were modern, and most of the older non-detachable ones had moving floors to match your speed to the chairs. Again we found very few queues over the whole Sella Ronda/Val Di Fassa area for the whole week, and we didn't encounter a single button lift.
Trails - Firstly the Sella Ronda as its the reason most visit the area! This is a good way to introduce yourself to the area and scout out the different towns and trail areas. On a snowboard you need to follow the orange clockwise route (listed as more difficult) as the green anti-clockwise route had more flatter runs and was busier.
In general the runs were a good mix, many of the reds would be blue in other countries and each night all the runs were bashed flat limiting mogul build up. This makes it a great area for the intermediate snowboarder to clock up a lot of on-piste miles and a nice bit of reasonably steep terrain to get some speed and challenge yourself a bit without it being terrifying to less experienced riders. The only steep run we found was the black down to Alba, but good snow conditions made this great fun.
The red run down to Canazei can be busy at the end of the day, but was fairly easy with no steep icy sections to worry about - a nice suprise for a home run! Another great scenic run was the red down from Buffaure to Pozza. Wide and twisting through huge trees gave it a California feel!
An excursion we did was to ride Cinque Torri (where cliffhanger was filmed) and then on to the Hidden Valley of Armentarola ending up in Corvara. Great views but the end of the hidden valley is very flat, but also has the only horse powered lift I've ever been on!
Flats - Doing so many areas and runs you are bound to encounter some, however I can count on one hand the number of times we had to unstrap while riding over 200 miles during the week. Complete beginners may struggle to keep speed up on some of the shallower sections, but if you are confident enough to point your board straight on the cat tracks then you will love zooming through the trees enjoying the views.
Parks - There is a great park for beginners right above Canazei. It was nice and quiet with some good boxes and kickers and even a free airbag to end each lap of the park on (and with a chair serving the park you will get a good few laps in!). I saw a few other boarder-cross tracks dotted around but the only other park I tried was in the Val Gardena area. Some great rollers/kickers for intermediates up to pro level, a car to ride over and a ton more boxes, even a see-saw! Again this was fairly quiet and had a 6-seater chair lapping it.
Off-Piste - The powder there seemed super light and dry making the small bits of off-piste great fun. However, slightly concerned with rumours of on the spot fines for any off piste and only being with my girlfriend who isn't up for any hiking activities, I only tried what you can see and access easily from the trails. Overall though, I'd say I didn't scout out as many long easy faces as you would get in the big French resorts - a guide would definitely be required if you were serious about getting some powder. I also found a lot of the trails to have a 2ft step at the end where they were groomed. I'm not sure if this was because there was more snow than usual but it made it a little more difficult to dive on and off the trail.
Eating - Good tips for lunch are the hotel walking left at the top of the Pecol gondola. Cheaper than it looks and a proper buffalo milk mozzarella pizza certainly hits the spot! Another great place was in Arabba. Can't remember the name but you walk down the main street from the slopes and its on the left - you can't miss all the people eating on the terrace. Had a great calzone there! you can't really go wrong with pasta or pizza in Italy, but the local speciality is polenta which is also good.
Drinking - My suggested route is to head off the slopes at Canazei and straight in to the Rose Garden (next to the church when you walk down the road form the end of the home run), for a fairly relaxed beer and discuss the day over some free popcorn and the occasional free lasagne! After there head to Apres Ski Paradis (right out of the Rose Garden and follow the signs for the Pecol gondola down the narrow street and its on the left) for somewhere a bit more crazy - including angels dancing on the bar! Make sure you try a Bombardino - give it a good stir and drink it warm.
After dinner you may want to head to Lieber Augustin for some beers, table football and pool with the numerous Danes. Maybe even try your hand at hammering a nail into a tree stump (!?). Afterwards head to Husky Pub (http://www.huskypub.com) for great live music and atmosphere but expensive drinks. |
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| Strengths |
Huge number of runs, more than anyone could cover in a week.
Snow quality was great, so many snow cannons and they even seem to use them!
Trail grooming was excellent, very few moguls.
Fast lifts
Few queues
Food
Great parks
Few French! |
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| Hot Spots |
Rose Garden, Apres Ski Paradis, Liber Augustin and Husky Pub - (see above)
Parks at Canazei (Belvedere) and Val Gardena |
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| Weaknesses |
Some of the cat track type runs may trouble beginners, but can be avoided. Intermediates shouldn't struggle though.
Maybe not the powder paradise for the lazy man! |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Its quite different to the Alps! Has a bit of an Austrian feel though. |
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 4 of 5, "Canazei" 06/02/2008 @ 10:04 |
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| 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| £470 Half Board |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| First Choice |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
I visited Canazei at the end of January 2008 in a group of 7 boarders. Although it didn't snow all week I found the on piste conditions to be pretty good, probably due to the large quantity of snow cannons dotted about the place. The first day we were left disapointed as high winds closed the gondola onto the mountain and it was after lunchtime before we finally made it to a gondola that was open up the road in Alba, and even then it was queued for about an hour. The rest of the week was fine, sunshine most of the time, but the queues for the first gondola in the morning never really let up untill the end of the week.
The ski area in Canazei really consist in the main of one huge bowl, which means you have people flying about from all directions which can get a bit annoying. The run from the top of the mountain through the trees back down to Canazei is an absolute gem, especially if you can get a clear run at it, one of my favourite runs ever! We had a great time racing our way down there, and about half way down you can acces the runs in Campitello and further afield. From the top of the Canazei side you can also access the runs down to Arraba too. You are right in the heart of the Sella Ronda in Canazei so there is enormous scope to travel a bit and hit different areas.
Not a great deal of pottential for off piste riding.
Plenty of parks and boardercross dotted about.
The Hidden Valley is well worth a visit if you can, not for the boarding potential, but more for the amazing scenery and atmosphere of the place. If you do go there and you are not on an organised trip, you will need to be picked up at the other end because there is no way back up to the top from the finish.
Canazei town nightlife is a bit limited and skiers vastly outnumber boarders. However there is a bit of lively apre ski straight of the slopes at the bottom of the home run in a number of small bars in that area. Also the Keiserstube can get lively later on - after midnight. There is a nightclub called Speckeller but we never ventured in there. |
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| Strengths |
Vast area to explore.
Good on piste conditions. |
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| Hot Spots |
The narrow run through the trees back down to Canazei town.
The Pizza shop in the town square. |
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| Weaknesses |
Queues for the morning gondola.
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