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  4 of 5, "Excellent conditions - but very quiet. 11th - 18th January, 2008" 28/04/2009 @ 21:13 |
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| 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| 634hb inc lift passes and tuition |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Crystal |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
The snowfall had been excellent all over Europe so we weren't worried on that front. Pila didn't disappoint, the pistes were excellently groomed every morning. The lifts are efficient and runs are well marked out. The resort is a nice size for a weeks holiday, if your going for two weeks your going to run out of things to do. I would say that advanced boarders will struggle to find things to entertain them for a whole week, although the park is pretty good and is serviced by its own lift.
Pila is linked to the town of Aosta in the bottom of the valey by a high speed cable car. This service is a double edged sword, on the one hand its easy to go down to Aosta for shopping and a walk around. On the other hand, at weekends its responsible for an endless supply of locals that swell the population on the slopes by a considerable amount. The lifts struggled with the numbers but the queues were not out of control, 5-10 minutes wait max on the busiest ones. One tip would be to stay away from the lower runs of the resort at weekends as that is where the most congestion is.
The main downside to Pila is the complete lack of nightlife. There is one Irish bar that was normally quiet, and NOTHING else. For this reason alone I would not recommend this resort if your going with a lively group of friends.
To summarise, this was not a bad place to spend my first boarding holiday. Off to search for somewhere with more apres ski activity for my next one though! |
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| Strengths |
Lovely well groomed pistes
Short transfer (2 hours)
Chair lifts throughout the resort, very boarder friendly! |
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| Hot Spots |
| Gallaghers - Irish Bar |
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| Weaknesses |
No nightlife
Very busy at weekends |
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| Reviews: 3 |
| Nottinghamshire |
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| 4 of 5, "Pila Review" 19/11/2007 @ 16:09 |
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| Revision #1 (Last edited: 19/11/2007 @ 16:09) |
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| Price Paid |
| £575 fb + lift passes + apres ski package |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Interski |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
| I visited Pila between the 16th - 23rd December 2006. The resort only opened on the 15th and when we arrived we found that 2 out of the 13 runs where open. Very dissapointing, however this is not Pilas fault its the weathers. The two runs that where open where medioka blues and reds, in the morning conditions where very very icy. but after midday conditions did improve. On the last day of our holiday another run opened and i have to say that it was fantastic, the snow maintenance guys did such a good job with the snow cannons, it was almost powder all the way down to the gondola station. In all i have Pila is the only resort i have visited so i have nothing to compare to but im going back there in December. |
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| Strengths |
Great travel links.
Suited mainly for begginner/ intermidiates.
Park with half pipe.
wide open grimod bowl |
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| Weaknesses |
Skiers in the skiing school seem to snake down the runs endlessly out of control, you barely go half an hour with out having to take evasive action.
Unreliable early season snow conditions.
Ignorant Italians don't know how to queue for the lifts, they just push through. |
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 3 of 5, "Pila Review...." 16/10/2006 @ 00:04 |
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| Price Paid |
| £450 hb |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Thomas Cook |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Visited Jan '06. Generally an ok resort, although was very disappointed to find that despite a massive dump of snow (1 mtr +) the day before we arrived only 60-70% of the runs were open throughout the course of the week. However, this gave ample opportunity for a bit of off piste down some un-groomed runs. Our complaints were met with a shrug of the shoulders at the lift pass office and no reason given why some runs were closed, very disappointing as there was some great runs in sight but sadly a few hours hike away.
For a small to medium size resort we were disappointed to find that the runs that were open were groomed only every 3rd day, making us think they simply did not have the equipment available to have the resort open at full capacity.
The weekends are very very busy.... dangerously so. As the local Iti's are only 15 minute cable car journey away they descend on this resort in their thousands, resulting in long waits at the lifts.
Nightlife is limited to the hotels, though there is the obligatory irish bar that most folk went to in the evening.
Mountain restaurants serve good food at reasonable prices.
My advice would be .....don't go unless you get a good last minute deal !
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| Strengths |
La Thuile is only an hour or so away, worth the day trip.
Suits families rather than groups.
Good place for beginners, most runs aren't too testing.
Tasty grub in the mountain restaurants.
Pingu was on tv every morning. |
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| Weaknesses |
Nightlife ...what ...where?
No late night food outlets, so stash up on the crisps from one of the two supermarkets.
Weekends...busy busy, compounded by the fact that not all the runs were open.
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| In Italy.....Sauzee, Fopollo, Selva Gardena. |
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