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  5 of 5, "Intermediate paradise" 03/03/2011 @ 19:30 |
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| 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| 750pp + food |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Neilson |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
We stayed in Livigno from the 19th-26th February 2011. 4 guys: Two 'low-mid intermediate' snowboarders (me and my brother), one 'mid inbtermediate' skier (my Dad) and one absolute beginner skier (one of my Dad's mates).
We flew into Innsbruck from London Gatwick (1 hour 45 min flight), and then the coach transfer to Livigno passed through Austria, Switzerland and finally into Italy, and took about 3.5 hours (with a 20 min stop). The transfer can be severly lengthened, however, if the one-way tunnel (yes, that's right!) is shut your way, and can take up to half an hour to change in your favour...
The first thing you notice when coming out of the tunnel, through the Italian border and start into Livigno, is that is an extremely beautiful area. The lake that spans from the tunnel all of the way to the edge of the town is an amazing icy expanse, and the mountains either side of the valley look equally as magnificent. Livigno town itself is unspoilt: no large apartment blocks or giant chalets ruin the charm of "Little Tibet", as it is sometimes known.
Our accommodation is a self-catering, 2 bedroom apartment in the La Gualt apartments (5 in total). It has 2 twin rooms, a kitchen/living room and a bathroom, with enough for all 4 of us to be in without too much complaint. All of Neilson's accommodation in Livigno is in the 'San Rocco' area of Livigno. This is not in the main town, but it does have quite a few hotels, bars, shops, supermarkets, and it where the main Carosello 3000 gondola is situated. The gondola is 15 minutes walk from our apartment, but lift 10 (a small poma) is just 5 minutes down the road. Lift 10 is also home to a small park called 'Amerikan Snowpark' and has 2 or 3 kickers, and a fine selection of rail.
Livigno's ski area itself is along one valley: one side (where we were staying) is called Carosello. The other side is called Mottolino. Carosello has loads of small poma lifts that access slopes of roughly 300 metres, which are ideal blues to practise if you are a complete beginner, or good to practise switch for me! It also 3 gondolas, 2 of which access the high areas of the mountain. The gondolas open at 8:30am, and the chairs, tows and magic carpets open around 9am. All lifts close around 5pm. All of the longer runs are accessed by the gondolas or high-speed chairs (3, 4 and 6 seaters). We got 3 days of first lift at the gondola, and it was lush having the pistes to ourelves for half an hour or so. On the Friday, however, Carosello 3000 gondola was closed due to high winds, and so hordes of people went over to Mottolino.
Mottolino is a better mountain. End of. Better lifts, longer runs, more scenic, better off/between piste. BUT, the queues reflected this. From about 12:30 onwards (after ski school has finished), the queues for the chairs can take up to 15 mins, which is quite frankly, ridiculous. WARNING: chair number 5 (monte sponda) had the worst queues we (my brother and I) experienced. My personal favourite run of Livigno was a red run from top of 16 to the bottom of it. Coincidentally, my brother's fave was the black that runs almost completely parallel to it.
The runs on both sides of the mountain were superbly groomed each morning. Carosello gets the sunshine in the morning, so if first lift is your thing, then the Carosello 3000 gondola is the way forward. Mottolino gets the sun a bit later, softening up the snow a bit by midday. Boardercross courses lie on both sides of the mountain, but the Mottolino one was better, although icey if going early in the morning. Piste-wise, there aren't lots of challenging steeps to keep advanced riders contained, but for beignners and intermediates, it is paradise, with tons of long, winding reds. I was reaching blacks at the end of the week , so I think more than another week would have been too much. There is plenty of terrain to explore as an intermediate, though. The Mottolino park is massive: loads of lines, from basic jibs to huge kickers, and an airbag. Carosello also has a great park: it doesn't have the pro lines, but there is something for everyone else here.
Livigno town (about a 15 minute walk from San Rocco central) has an array of shops, cafe's restaurants and bars. There is plenty of duty-free shopping although this isn't always great value; the duty-free only seems to affect the food shopping, cigarettes and alcohol. (1 litre of Smirnoff Black 50% cost my bro a mere 6 Euro 50) There is only one club in Livigno, but there seem to be quite a few decent bars playing English chart music that typically open until 2am.
There is a free bus network that runs through the whole of Livigno/San Rocco with 4 routes. They don't have anything to do with your lift pass so there is no problem for non-skiers to use them whatsoever. They tend to run every 15 mins or so, which becomes more like 20-25 mins as the evening wears on. All routes start at 8am, and run to 18:00 weekdays, 19:00 Saturdays, and 17:00 Sundays. La Gualt aprtments (where we were staying) was onlyon the Blue route, but Red and yellow routes went from ski lift 10, which was a mere 5 min walk away. It took about 5 mins to Carosello 3000 on the bus, approx 15 mins to Livigno town centre and about the same to get to Mottolino. The buses can get busy, but only once did I have to wait fro the next one due to overcrowding.
Neilson use Livigno Sport for rental gear. My bro had his own everything, me and my Dad had our own boots and my Dad's mate had nothing. First thing to notice: my hire board was sh*t. It was a Salomon Tempest, a mid-wide beginner piece of b*llocks. They stocked Burton and Salomon boards, but because I'm a hefty chap, I needed over a 160, so the Tempest it was. They did seem to have some decent Burton boards ther up to about a 157 I think... The skis on the other hand were pretty much top notch. My Dad liked his so much (Tornado - made by Salomon I think) that he is gonna buy some shortly. The beginner ones seemed to work a treat as well.
While in Livigno, my brother and me had tuition with Madness Snowboard School - a wise move indeed. We had 4 days of 1.5 hour lessons with Jerry, who was an absolute legend!! We both took the 'Improve your style' course, which is aimed at intermediate riders wanting to expand there repertoire. We did plenty of technique work as well as: intro to off-piste, intro to freestyle, carving and switch riding. There were 4 of us ad Jerry, which made teaching very easy. My Dad had 6 days of ski lesson (as did his mate) and they both thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
While we were there, we were lucky enough to have Burn River Jump being staged on our last night. It is a 5 star TTR event, with a slopestyle event in the Mottolino park over 2 days, and a final in the evening of the Friday. 16 qualified from the slopestyle were whittle down to 6, who joined 10 invited riders (including Jamie Nicholls). The top 4 then went into a super final knockout. It was a great setup, even though the wind was quite bad and so the top jump wasn't used. Jamie Nicholls came 4th, so a great result for the brit!! During the week, free Burn Energy Drink was being handed out for free at the top of the Mottolino Gondola, which was ace!!
All in all, our time at Livigno was outstanding, it was far better than we had hoped for. The snow was great, the town was sizeable, the people were friendly, and even the German skiers weren't too annoying!! i would really recommend going to anyone who is a beginner or intermediate rider (or skier). |
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| Strengths |
Scenic
Friendly town
Terrain parks
Intermediate terrain
No morning queues
Cheap booze
Bus service
Instructors
Masses of cross-country skiing |
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| Hot Spots |
Marco's bar
Pistes underneath chair 16
Ice bar (if apres is your thing)
Mottolino boardercross
Toboganning (great laugh) |
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| Weaknesses |
Not much advanced terrain
Off piste is strictly forbidden with a guide
No crazy nightlife (if thats your thing)
Can be busy after lunch |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
Breckenridge (terrain parks)
Valmorel (friendliness)
A great combo!! |
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| Reviews: 15 |
| North Yorkshire |
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 4 of 5, "Wide blues and clean loos" 07/04/2008 @ 16:09 |
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| 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| £400 inc flights and transfers |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| livignosnow |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Same as below, we spent a week staying in the La Genziana apartment block having had our trip for six of us in the first week of the Easter holidays sorted out for us by the ever helpful Nikki at Livigno Snow.
Let's get the basics out the way first. Livigno is a looooong transfer. I took my two daughters (7 and 11) and neither were particularly fazed by it. Some people could be. We didn't mind.
Livigno is a duty free resort. Does this mean every thing's ridiculously cheap? No, not really. Just cigarettes and spirits. Whilst every shop on the main drag is flogging perfume, designer sunglasses and electronics, if the exchange rate with the Euro is not favourable (as it wasn't when we were there) you're not going to save any money. There are plenty of gear shops but they're nothing special - you're better off buying in the UK.
The mountain. Well, two actually. Two big, ugly, superbly groomed lumps on either side of the town centre. Nominally noted as blues and reds, there's nothing to challenge and plenty to flatter. Great for introducing newbies or giving motorway carvers somewhere to play. Total rideable area is around the 110km mark I think and the lift system is excellent. Livigno may have once had a reputation for being button city. It's not any more. I encountered one by the Motolino nursery slope and the only time that got me even vaguely agitated was when I was the first person up it after a 20cm dump the night before and the weight of fresh powder on my front foot got a tad uncomfortable. Oh to have that problem every day!
The park. It's fantastic. No other way to describe it. Beautifully maintained, excellent variety of rails, pipes and kickers for beginners, intermediates and experts. Quite possibly the best in Europe by all accounts. If you're a piste basher and put off by Livigno's lack of runs this is the one thing that'll tempt you to come.
Transport. Livigno has invested heavily in a fleet of very nice buses to get you up, around and across the resort. Unfortunately during the week we were there (Easter holidays) they were rammed. At best I think we managed to get on no more than half the ones we waited for. If you're staying (as we were) up the hill and your kids have ski boots on this means another 30 minute wait twiddling your thumbs and hoping you can get the next one. Not good. Taxis anywhere are €6 for up to three people and €8 for more. On our last day the taxi driver tried to up our price for 6 of us to €20 and also charge two more people that he picked up along the way on the grounds that he was also carrying our luggage. It didn't leave me with a good taste in the mouth.
Accommodation. The three bedroom / three bathroom apartment we shared was spacious, clean and warm. Having said that, it also looked like it hadn't been touched for 40 years and the crockery and assorted trinkets looked like they'd been won from a bingo stall on Blackpool sea front. It served it's purpose. The owners are thoroughly miserable sods as I believe Pablo has stated. The location is not too evil - there is a lift station that's walkable in ski boots five minutes up the road so long as everyone in the group is comfortable doing a pretty steep red down to the access lift to get to the high blue that traverses the Motolino mountain. The run classification in Livigno has obviously been worked out to maximise variety rather than express honesty - most reds would be blue elsewhere. On this occasion however it certainly did deserve it's status.
Ski schools. I put my two girls in to lessons. It's worth noting that Brits are not in the majority in Livigno. In fact they probably account for around 10% of tourists. Consequently my two were the only English kids in their classes and as such the instructors tended to issue instructions in Italian and German and I felt my two got left behind a little. I did however treat them to two two hour private sessions with the instructors and these were much better.
Other stuff. Since I was taking my kids away I didn't really experience much in the way of partying. Impressions were that it's not really party central and certainly not Italy's answer to Pas de la Casa. There's plenty of OK pizza and pasta places and a few bars that seemed busier than the others, but the dispersed nature of the place doesn't really lend itself to wild entertainment. The mountain restaurants were all pretty nice. Possibily the biggest shock though was the toilets. I swear I have never seen so many clean, sparkling, hi-tech toilets as I did in Italy. From the smallest mountain restaurants to the most obscure petrol stop they would have all been award winners in the UK.
So, in short Livigno is great if:
1) You like to cruise perfectly pisted motorway blues and reds
2) You have button lift issues
3) You're a beginner
4) You're an obsessive compulsive and have to use spotless toilets
5) You are (or would like to be) a park bunny
But not so great if
1) You spit your dummy out when the resort bus sails past because it's full
2) You can't cope with a four hour transfer
3) You want variety / length of runs
4) You want to be out partying 24-7 with lots of Brits
5) You're on the Atkins diet and won't eat pasta or pizza |
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| Strengths |
Beautifully maintained wide runs
Premier league snow park
Reasonable and plentiful pizza joints
Lift passes in April were heavily reduced
Virtually all lifts are high speed chairs
After a decent dump the off piste doesn't get tracked out too quickly
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| Weaknesses |
Need to have a lot more busses running during peak periods if they don't wish to put off families
Intermediate and above riders will get bored of the pistes pretty quick
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Mountain wise possibly Les2Alpes |
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 2 of 5, "Livigno 2008 - One for the history books..." 17/03/2008 @ 13:39 |
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| 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| Around £500 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Livignosnow |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
While I've probably been spoiled in the fact that the only previous resorts I've been to are Tignes and Val D'Isere with their vast on and off piste and excellent après ski and lively nightlife, Livigno was a bit of a disappointment in the end. The transfer wasn’t as bad as I expected (we arranged a private minivan for the 7 of us which was quick, comfortable and convenient) but at 4 ½ hours is still a long way to go. We arrived in Livigno mid-afternoon at our hotel La Genziana which, we were told, was a mere 3 minute walk from the nearest lift and 5 minutes from the lively bars, restaurants and ‘music venues’. In actual fact we were a 15 minute walk to the bottom of the main lift into the Motolino area, all downhill there, all uphill back, and a 30 minute walk or bus ride into town where there was probably one or two bars worth going to.
Nevertheless we braved it and were up and out first thing next day although by lunchtime we'd completed all of the pistes on that side of the valley. The other side, accessed by the Carosello lift, provides slightly more pistes and certainly more off-piste options, but by midweek you're running out of options. The pistes are easier than those in France - one of our group was on only his 2nd week's boarding and was doing red runs with no real problems. One plus point is the park which is fairly big and the lack of decent on or off-piste runs meant I spent more time there than I would have.
Après ski was rare and when it was on offer the music was terrible. The village is very spread out so although we found a decent bar in the shape of 'The Kuhstall', most other bars were a good half hour walk or bus ride away.
Restaurants serving Pizzas and Pasta were fairly plentiful, and for the most part cheap, but you really do get what you pay for. Beer was not much cheaper than the other resorts I've been to and the bars on offer (Kuhstall excepted) had a horrible tendency to play the cheesiest music Europe has to offer - we even witnessed people walking out of 'Miky's Bar' in disgust, just as we were about to walk in.
Some of the food however was divine with the Park Chalet restaurant the pick of the bunch, where a 3 course meal with wine will set you back around £40. Off-licences are also a major plus point with litre bottles of Zubrowka vodka costing around a fiver, and a litre of Finlandia around £4. Lift passes at €175 are extortionate for what they offer you, and I’d advise taking advantage of the free day in St Moritz (apparently around 45 minutes away by bus) on the pass, something we didn’t do. We did get excellent snow on two of the nights, followed by lovely sunny days but despite being told there was little or no queuing, by the time we got up the mountain almost all of it was tracked out.
All in all Livigno is an ok, cheapish option for beginners but one to avoid if you’re looking for really challenging riding.
Oh, and we were shouted at for not emptying our own bins when we left on Saturday! Sorry love, thought this was a hotel...
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| Strengths |
Cheap off licences
Brescaola |
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| Hot Spots |
Snowpark
Park Chalet Hotel |
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| Weaknesses |
Lack of challenging runs
Poor nightlife
Long walks or waits at bus stop to get ANYWHERE
Very expensive lift pass
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
Tignes
Val D'Isere |
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| Reviews: 1 |
| Leicestershire |
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| 5 of 5, "Livigno - Loved It!" 19/02/2007 @ 21:31 |
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| Price Paid |
| £450 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| livignosnow.com - Nikki & Rob |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
February 07 for a week, we both wished it was longer!!
The snow had been lousy all season when we went, & we travelled through green villages & mountains on the transfer, so we were a bit worried. Needn't have been,being so high, Livigno was completely white when we arrived (phew!)
I don't know about advanced boarders, but for intermediate & beginners it's an absolute joy!Loads of wide open slopes to practise turns & 'get your legs' on, very easy navigation, no queues for lifts. Lift guys were lovely & helpful, no 'attitude', locals all very friendly too.
Livigno itself is a beautiful alpine village (not a purpose-built resort) complete with genuine cow smell (it's not that bad, really). We stayed at the Camana Veglia, great rooms lovely food and a huge jacuzzi for after the slopes, can't be beat. Bars: Bivios & Roxys. It's a tax-free resort so everytihings very cheap, can't fault it really so we're planning to go back at Easter as long as we can find the dosh :) |
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| Strengths |
Uncrowded wide open pistes
Snow
Nikki & Rob at livignosnow.com
Madnessnow Board Instructors :)
Locals |
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| Weaknesses |
| Long transfer from Milan - 4.5 hours! |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
Verbier
Mottaret
La Plagne |
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| 5 of 5, "Livigno - Jan 06" 29/01/2006 @ 20:05 |
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| 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Revision #1 (Last edited: 31/01/2006 @ 09:12) |
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| Price Paid |
| £210 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Ski1st - Salford |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Without doubt - totally fantastic holiday!
No matter what you want , be it on or off piste ridding or a week on the park, Livigno has it covered!
My girlfriend and I booked our holiday with Ski 1st (www.ski1st.co.uk) and paid £210 each (including flights from Glasgow Prestwick to Bergamo, car hire at Bergamo and a 1 bedroom apartment in Livigno for 7 night). This was an awesome deal! All required car insurance was included with the hire, so there really were no other extras, other than board carriage with Ryanair which was £34 - but, at that price - who cares!!
The car was a Smart 4 door cool wee thing - and really economical. We filled up in Livigno (which is tax free of course!) and then again at the airport on the way home - total petrol cost was about £25.
I’ve always fancied Livigno, but always thought it wasn’t possible to go from Scotland (as none of the tour operators fly direct from Glasgow as far as I know). Also, the prospect of a 5 hour coach transfer would have put me off - but with the car the journey was only 3 hours, and Ski 1st provided us with fantastic directions (right down to mentioning the McDonalds where we may want to stop for a break!).
For beginners, there must be at least 10 beginner runs at the foot of the mountains, all complete with chair lifts or button tows (we had one in the back garden which was empty all week and great fun to mess about on when we got back to the apartment before the lifts close - just like your own private run!).
There maybe aren’t as many runs as other places I’d been - and if you are a half-decent rider you could probably cover them all within a day or two - but lets face it, runs are for when you are attached to 2 skis! There is much off piste fun to be had (and although I had heard it was illegal in Italy, the instructors were encouraging it - so can’t be the biggest sin in their book!).
As far as instruction goes - a new school called “Madness” with a new concept has set up this year - check it out at www.madnessnow.com The school is run by the instructors themselves, all of whom are ex-pro competitors to different degrees. I did a freestyle course with them during the week and had Frederico Zanchetta, who is ex-burton team. Their concept was unreal - my girlfriend did a weeks beginner lessons and was carvin down the slopes by the end of it - and it was nothing but fun. Also totally great value - my 3 x 3 hour freestyle lessons equated to less than £50 - unreal!
Being a tax free place, you don’t feel like you are being ripped off right left and centre. Everything is cheap - food, drink and gear. Even the restaurants on the slopes - a coffee is like 1 Euro - unreal compared to other places I’ve been. We had a great meal in Oblo near the Amerikan hotel and the one nightclub on the resort (a must visit if you are into seafood). The service everywhere is great (all waiters in restaurants and bars have hand-held computer things to take your order - resulting in beer and pizza being delivered to your table before you even have a chance to take your coat off!). Even the toilets on the slopes have marble tiles and paintings on the wall!
Another fantastic system they have are the taxis. The resort is fairly big and if, like us, you are staying a bit out of the town centre you’ll need to make use of them to get back at night (ski bus is regular, fast and free all day until about 9pm). Every single hotel , restaurant and bar has a walkie-talkie to enable them to call you a taxi - which then arrives within about 30 seconds. Totally unreal!
Other thing I would mention to anyone heading out there - get in touch with Nikki of www.livignosnow.com before you go. Livigno Snow is run by an English couple who have been out their for years, and know the place (and everyone in it!) inside out. They can arrange everything for you - right down to the cheapest flight and transfer out their! Once on resort, they met us for breakfast near in the hotel adjoining our apartment at 8am, had already picked up our lift passes for us, arranged girl-friends lessons and took us to the gondola for the first lift up at 9am! Totally could never have done that without someone out their with a bit of local knowledge. Also - they don’t charge you directly for the service, instead getting a bit of commission back from the lift passes and schools they refer people to. They were great to us - and arrange various activities during the week which you can decide to do our not (we had a fantastic night out with them on our first night). Don’t head out without e-mailing them first!!
Please give me a shout if you are headin out there and want any further info or recomendations.
In short - its a MUST VISIT resort in my opinion - I want to live there!! |
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| Strengths |
The snowboard school - totally totally without doubt the best I have ever came across. Small classes, great prices and awesome instructors. They have courses for absolutely every level of boarder.
Boardpark - basic rails to a 4X4 car to jump over! Dunno much about them, but this one must be world class - and its free! Protecive equipment available for rent (for free!) at the top.
Apres - got everything you could want from UK/Irish places to a mad iglu full of Europeans! Great nightlife thereafter - could drink and party for the week non-stop if you wanted!
Price - really cheap resort - food and drink costs like nothing. We went for some class meals and got change out of a 50 Euro note (2 people, 4 courses with wine).
Really scenic resort set in a valley - every single building is different from the next (and the only one under construction was covered up so you couldn't see it!!).
Livignosnow.com to sort everything out for you - giving you a hassle free holiday!! |
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| Hot Spots |
Too many to mention them all! Will add more later but...
Marcos bar in San Rocco, Gallis pub in the centre of town - Helvetia and Bivios hotels just down the road (not sure of spellin there!), Oblo restaurant - and of course Daphne's Irish bar!!
The park is awesome - modern express lift system through the resort (save maybe with the exception of some of the beginners areas with are buttons) - great ski bus service between the two mountains. |
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| Weaknesses |
Would be hard to find any - maybe the transfer by bus, but easily got round by hiring a car as we did!!
PS - if you do hire a car - it dumped it down while we were there, and the car kinda struggled gettin into the resort and we would never have got out (after 3 days of solid snow) had we not got a set of snow-chains fitted! If its snowing - get chains! I didn't realise this, but had I kept the receipt for ours, the car hire company would have paid us back for them! |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Pas de la Casa, Arinsal, Sauze d'oux and Mayrhofen. |
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| Read more reviews for resorts in ITALY. |
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