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| Reviews: 5 |
| Greater Manchester |
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  3 of 5, "Over rated" 15/02/2010 @ 22:13 |
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| 1 of 4 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| £1,350 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 |
My review wont go into as significant detail as Dan Morgan seems to have done a pretty good job in giving you the low down on Fernie, but I will give a bit of an alternative view and add on any additional places Dans review doesn’t cover.
Before I start I suppose it would be useful to provide an idea of the type of boarders me and the missus are and what we look for in a holiday. Both of us are solid intermediates, can at a push do front and back 180s of small kickers and natural hits. Ideally we enjoy cruising on runs messing around looking for hits. Also enjoy the park, hitting small and medium kickers and trying 50:50s on the smaller boxes and rails and if adventurous doing a bit of half pipe (albeit beginner half pipe!). Oh and we also love powder...big time. But then again who doesnt.
In similar format to Dans as follows:
Details
14 nights at the Best Western Fernie Mountain Lodge 30th Jan to 13 Feb 2010. 2 people from Manchester Airport.
Flights
Flew with Thomas Cook. Big problem with these as they decided on the morning of the flight that the maximum board bag weight allowance was 10kg – every additional kilo was excess at £10 per kg ($20 on the way back). Big time kicked off as this was not in any way mentioned to us before hand. We each take 2 boards with us and just them without anything else in the board bag weigh 8kg.
I cannot work out who sets these weights – Inghams blame Thomas Cook whilst Thomas Cook blame Inghams. However it was a joke that we were stung like this and a lot of other people who booked with Inghams on our holiday complained about this. I personally have always sung Inghams praises as we have used them for Breckenridge and Banff in the past and they have been spot on. However if this is their policy from now on then it is the last time I will ever use them. We will obviously be complaining so lets see what they say.
Transfers
3.5 hours for us. Nothing to see apart from the worlds biggest lorry.
Hotel
Best Western hotel was spot on. It was a 4* located on the edge of the town. About 10 minute walk into the old town centre from it, however nearby there was a Supermarket, Tim Hortons, Mac D’s and Liquor Store, with a pizza restaurant (Boston Pizza) on the ground floor which was good for cheapish food and a beer / game of free pool. Hotel rooms also had fridges and microwave so you could get your own stuff for breakfast from the supermarket. LCD TV, massive king size bed. Outdoor hot tub was hardly used so most of the time we had sole use. Ski bus picks you up from outside reception. Spot on in summary apart from too much chlorine in hot tub at start which made the other halves ring go a bit discoloured. No doubt I will be persuaded to buy a new one!
Riding
This is where mine and Dans reviews will differ. Fernie does not have much variety in the riding. In 3 days we had riden the majority of the runs (blue / green). Yes there are blacks but they are steep blacks and get quite perilous and icy. The resort is too small if you are there for 2 weeks (our fault). You can hammer it in 7 days no problem. Even on the blue runs, the terrain is quite steep so you will find yourself carving quite a bit as opposed to putting the foot down, unless you are on one of the greens. The longest run is only 3 kilometres and the chair lifts are flipping slow (with the exception of the Timber Express).
The grooming was fine, but we came to Fernie for the big snow dumps (as mentioned in all the past reviews), which unfortunately did not materialise until the last 2 days. There was about 20 cm on the last 2 days but due to the small size of the mountain, you only have 1 hour to get a few good runs in as many locals pile on the mountain early on. After that the powder is very much chopped up. In addition the temperature was just under freezing on the upper mountain and just over on the lower so the snow on the upper slopes turned to rain on the mid / lower slopes, creating some pretty sticky conditions
The park is good if you like boxes, but there is just 1 park and no half pipe or stand alone kickers.
Eating / Drinking
Fernie town centre is a bit quiet. In fact it is a ghost town. We went a few times but apart from Superbowl Sunday most bars were pretty empty during the week. The additional comments I would add to what Dan mentioned are:
Kelseys
On mountain and good bar. $15 jugs of Kokanee and good wing night on the Thursday.
Boston Pizza
Pizza hut basically on the ground floor of Best Western. Expensive pizzas but do $9 meal deal which was alright. Free pool table.
Maxes Retaurant
Part of Park Place Lodge and do a good steak. A bit weird that the restaurant is next to the swimming pool so you can smell chlorine whilst eating though. If the restaurant is not busy it has a kind of eerie feel to it.
Redtree Lodge
Top place to eat about 300 metres from Best Western. Prime rib steaks were $26 but are massive and top quality. Best place we went to. Nice atmosphere too.
I would also add that the lunch prices on mountain are a complete rip off. We just made sandwiches each day and spent a bit more on the evening meals.
Summary
The reason we went for Fernie was because of the high rating it has received (about 4.5 on average). However when you compare this resort to places like Park City (Utah) or Breck (Colorado), it is nowhere near as good as these resorts, which do warrant ratings of 4.5 plus. I think if we knew what we know now about the resort we would have either gone back to Banff or found an extra £500 each and gone back to Breck or Park City. The nuisance is that we spent £1350 each inc lift passes and if you get your winter holiday destination wrong, you have to wait 12 months to get it right.
Fernie is not a bad resort, but it is definitely not a great resort. Even with an abundance of snow this resort is still not worth more than 3.5 out of 5 as the powder gets riden off very quickly despite it being renowned for being quiet.
If you can find the extra, I would recommend other places. However if your heart is set on Fernie, 10 days max is enough. |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Panorama |
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 4 of 5, "Great resort, even with no fresh snow" 31/01/2010 @ 17:20 |
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| 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| £430 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Inghams |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Summary
Will definitely come back again!
Details
We booked a 10 night stay at the Wolf's Den Lodge at Fernie Alpine Resort (FAR) (i.e. staying on the hill rather than in Fernie town) through Inghams for £430. Flew out on the 20th Jan and left on the 30th, arriving at Gatwick at 5am today.
Flights
These were with Monarch, typical low-cost long-haul affair, so no seat-back TVs or free booze. The food was surprisingly good, with only 1 out of the 4 being judged as unpleasant. We'd stocked up at Pret at Gatwick (and Subway at Calgary for the return leg) beforehand just in case in any event! We paid the £9pp extra for group seating on each flight (so £72 total for 4 people on 2 flights) but they seated us in ABC D so one of us was across the aisle. If we do this again, we'll try to arrive earlier for the outbound flight to see if we can get 2 and 2 since we take laptops for watching films.
Transfers
These used the world's slowest coach driver, who took 4.5hrs on the way there and 4hrs on the way back, on empty roads with perfect weather! There isn't much to see on the transfer to be honest, other than the world's largest truck and the aftermath of a huge rockslide, which the rep will point out. I'd recommend the egg & bacon rolls (McDonald's-style muffins) and coffee option on the way back, for $5pp - surprisingly nice! Must admit that from my experience, the drive from Vancouver to Whistler is much more scenic, but heyho...
Hotel
Wolf's Den is up at Fernie Alpine Resort, which is a 10-15min bus ride from Fernie Town. We were a bit dubious about the hotel since there's hardly any pics on the web and not much in the way of info available, but it was actually OK. The rooms are large (2 double beds, table & 2 chairs and desk/TV table) and have a coffee maker, fridge and hairdryer. The ground floor has an ice machine, 2 indoor hot tubs (open from 3pm-11pm) and the ski lockers, the 1st floor has some vending machines and the top floor has a rather pointless lounge area with a communal microwave. Each day they'll supply replacement filter coffee and sample Tiger Balm sachets, which came in useful for us. The only downside of the hotel was that the cleaning was rather variable, e.g. the TV and headsteads were dusty all week, and they didn't always replace the filter coffee and vac (we also found an old malteser behind the bedside cabinet!). That being said, for the price, we were perfectly happy with the hotel, "basic but fine" was the verdict.
Riding
The mountain is great, and although there had been no fresh snow for a while the conditions were great throughout our stay with only a few icy patches here and there, but mostly packed powder everywhere. Before our trip I'd read lots of reports saying that the grooming was poor, but from what we experienced I think they've sorted this out (unless it's only the case when there's big dumps, in which case, who cares!), since there were loads of runs groomed each night and plenty of corduroy everywhere. One great thing with this mountain is that there's very few roads, and the ones are there have a steady incline so aren't too bad on a board (other than the one from Currie Bowl back to the bottom of the White Pass chair (#20)). The greens off the Deer and Elk chairs are great for warming up on, or for first-timers, since they're wide with a steady pitch and dead quiet! Our favourite area was off the White Pass chair, particularly Currie Bowl, and the top of Lizard Bowl. We hiked up the Face Lift since it wasn't running and there was still some good powder to be found off it.
Eating/Drinking
There's not much at FAR to be honest, here's a run-down:
Kelsey's - Fairly quiet during the week, but lively on Friday and Saturday nights. Great burgers but poor ribs, and the honey & garlic wings were great, although when we had them again on the first Thursday when it was "free wing night" (saving $10pp) they weren't quite as good, but I think this was because it was manic and the kitchen was snowed under! (NB The second Thursday had "half price wings", so I'm not sure if they alternate between the two offers).
Griz - Good nachos (although not a patch on Merlin's at Whistler!) and great BBQ burgers until 2.30pm from the bar upstairs. Downstairs in the daylodge part did pretty good take-away sandwiches which we had for brekkie most days, although sometimes we went for the Sasquatch (roll with 2 hash browns, bacon, sausage, egg, cheese) which was very filling!
Slopeside Deli - OK selection of cakes/muffins, but service was somewhat variable, with the staff seemingly more interested in talking to each other...
Big Bang Bagel - Bit of a pain to walk to from the main part of FAR but great bagels and a nice relaxed atmos.
Lizard Creek Lodge - Fairly pricey ($300 for 4 people with 2 courses) but very nice for a slightly more upscale meal
Gabriella's - Italian restaurant next to the Wolf's Den, casual and lively with pretty nice food, although they've obviously got a bit of beef with RCR (resort owners) since there's a deserted area when you first enter the restaurant, with a big sign blaming RCR for a leak.
In Fernie Town, we went to the following:
The Brickhouse - Nice low-key bar, pretty good food, although service was a bit variable (e.g. on our second visit there we asked to see the drinks list and the waitress said there wasn't one, which was odd as we'd seen it the night before!)
Bulldogs - On 2nd Avenue, just down from the Brickhouse, we visited on a Friday night and it was very lively, seemingly having the entire youth of Fernie there!
Old Elevator - Very disappointing, the ad looked good in the Dining Guide, but despite costing the same as Lizard Creek Lodge, it wasn't half as nice and the service was again less than great. There was also a sign on the wall with pictures from 1898 which said "Scenes from 9 years ago" - wtf?
Curry Bowl - Although it looks somewhat unprepossessing from the outside, it is a great little restaurant, definitely our favourite meal of the trip. It's a mix of Thai and Indian and highly recommended, great food and service
The Pub - Nice bar (in the Park Place Lodge) but the food wasn't the greatest, although maybe that was because they were busy with the Snowed In Comedy Tour (Craig Campbell (best set of the night!), Dan Quinn, Ed Byrne and Glenn Wool)
Misc
The bus service from FAR to the town is a tad bizarre, running regularly during the morning but then stopping for a couple of hours between 11.30 and 1.30 and then running hourly after that. The night-time bus runs from 6pm-midnight (until 1am on weekends) but the drivers are rather vague on when and where they pickup which is a bit annoying, since the alternative is a $20 cab ride back. The daytime buses are $3 and the evening ones $2.50 (one way prices)
The local ice hockey team (The Ghostriders) play on Friday nights, and is highly recommended for a good night out
Watch out for the Inghams luggage policy, since the paperwork on the way out said that we could have 1 bag with a maximum weight of 23kg per person and that this included the snowboard bag (we'd paid for ski carriage). We had 1 suitcase and a boardbag, both of which were pretty heavy but went through fine. My brother and his wife had 2 suitcases and a boardbag, which also went through fine. So far so good...
Once we checked in and looked at our welcome pack, it said that on the way back we had a maximum of 17kgs for the snowboard bag. This isn't mentioned anywhere on their website but was cunningly enough mentioned alongside the offer to upgrade to premium for CAN$170pp to get a larger baggage allowance
We went to The Bargain Shop in Fernie and bought a crappy holdall for $15 and when we got to the airport ended up moving kit around between our hold luggage to get all of them under the weight restrictions. There were lots of people in similar situations and I saw a number of people carrying boots in the cabin etc.
In a nutshell, Inghams are money-grabbing w*nkers (since they should have disclosed the different weight restrictions for the return flight in the original booking information), so when you book with them, make sure that you don't pack everything out, and/or take a spare holdall with you.
I'll be writing to them to complain, since I think not disclosing this in advance is unfair and just an attempt to squeeze more cash out of people. To be honest, I don't agree with the different limits for outbound and return journeys but seem to have a vague memory that this might be due to the airports rather than the TO/airline, hence the focus on disclosure. |
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| Strengths |
Currie Bowl
Curry Bowl (the restaurant) |
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| Hot Spots |
The Brickhouse
Bulldogs
Lizard Creek Lodge |
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| Weaknesses |
Slow lifts
Bus service |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
Whistler
Banff |
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 5 of 5, "Fernie january 2008" 05/02/2008 @ 16:49 |
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| 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| £560 10days room only |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Inghams |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
66inches of snow fell in the 10 days we stayed. Lodged slopeside at Wolfs Den. Nice clean rooms and 2 hot tubs downstairs. You can ride to the locker room door...!
This place was very quiet in the week, virtually no queues at any lift.
It;s basically a 'go anywhere' mountain with quiet a few of the 'black runs' needing a long traverse but well worth the effort. we where riding knee-waist high powder most days after a dump.......!!
recommend satying slopeside, a lot less effort in the morning. The 2 bars slopeside get quiet by about 6pm so get the bus into town for 50p (10 minute ride) they will drop you where you want to go. The bars downtown are really friendly and full of locals. (central bar, brick house, Royal). |
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| Strengths |
The amount of snow...!! (29 feet last season)
Groomed runs where goo if thats your bag.
Good food at good price wherever we ate.
Friendly locals |
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| Hot Spots |
| double black diamond runs off boomarang chair....STEEP and deep..! |
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| Weaknesses |
| it was cold last week in January -20. (take extra fleece liners). but that is being picky, loved the place. |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
boarder and skier for 23 years. best place i have visited...europe too crowded.
(chamonix, tignes, val d'isere, ishcgl, kaprun, hintertux, andorra, mammoth lakes, sqwaw valley, killington) |
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| 5 of 5, "Awesome!" 31/01/2007 @ 13:09 |
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| 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| £240 - Accommodation |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| www.Run2theHills.com |
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| Times Visited |
| 2-5 Times |
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| Review Detail |
| I spent two weeks there over Christmas and New Year. The place is amazing! It must have snowed around 6 times while we were there and most of those times were big dumps. There was almost always fresh powder to be found even if you didn't make it up there until a bit later in the day. It was fairly busy for the week in between xmas and new year but the crowds died down the following week. Even so, at the worst of times the lift queues were no more than 10 minutes. Loads of natural hits and drops to be found. The town has some good bars and a couple of clubs too. Definitely gonna head out again next year! |
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| Strengths |
| Loads of powder, loads of varied terrain, small lift lines, friendly people. |
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| Weaknesses |
| Can't really think of any! Maybe a couple more lifts would be good? |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Whistler, Les Arcs, Morzine, Merribel, La Plagne, Sunshine Village (Banff), Marmot Basin (Jasper) |
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| Reviews: 15 |
| North Yorkshire |
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| 5 of 5, "Mindblowing!" 17/02/2006 @ 16:33 |
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| 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| £299 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Inghams / Lastminute |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
God, does this place rock! I'm not going to add much to what's already written apart from the following:
a) It's a place you go to ride. The aprés culture barely exists, the town's really quiet in the evenings and the mountain resort is barely developed compared to what it will be
b) Which brings me to the next point- get there NOW! They've improved the lift system. Still a lot of hiking to get the good stuff but all an adventure. They've done this with future development of the resort in mind. There's a lot of plots up for sale. The resort's gonna mushroom and some of it's charms (mainly the total lack of queues and the empty runs) could be lost.
c) Inghams charge an extra thirty quid each way for extra leg room. It'll be the best sixty quid you ever spend.
d) The cat boarding (no relation to monkey tennis) is a big wad of cash but worth every penny. Book yourself on the trip. Huge open spaces, mad tree runs, three ft pow on virgin runs...mmmmmm
e)There's the chance to take a day trip to Kimblerley. It's worth going only to say you've been. If the snow's great in Fernie don't bother. Holidays are too short and Fernie kicks it's ass. I felt cheated (no dis to Kimberley, it's just not in the same league).
f) The time differene takes some getting used to. |
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| Strengths |
Amazing snow
Brilliant freeriding
Friendly lifties
Opportunity to find new lines on every run
No queues
No boarder / skier animosity
No little fat french kids
Or there fluoro-clad grandads
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| Hot Spots |
| The bear hut on the mountain is a great place for a mid morning hot chocolate. |
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| Weaknesses |
There's hardly anyone in town of an evening
Anyone else ever wonder about the sincerity of Canadian waitresses? They've got serious botox smiles going on.
It can't be as perfect as it is for ever.
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Pas, Ser Che, Les2Alpes, LesArcs, Kimberley |
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