champoluc

Fantastic skiing, amazing Italian charm and friendleness! Great snow record and deserted slopes! The lift system is linked to Gressoney and Alagna making for some fantastic skiing!!!

You can ski every run in this area in a day in good conditions. The majority of runs are reds and some are steep in places and in other resorts would be classified as black. Few cruising blues but the reds are fantastic so a great intermediate / advanced intermediate area.Be prepared to walk lots between some lifts as they are poorly linked and some walks will be uphill in stretches and on roads. The ski bus service is pretty poor and definitely lacking first come first served. One day the people who queued early were denied boarding because the bus stopped at the tail end of the queue. The wait for the next bus was one full hour ! The pistes and lifts are very badly named and the paper piste map is printed in microscopic text so study your route carefully. On a positive note the restaurants are excellent with nice food and compared to French resorts the prices are excellent with a bottle of water costing €1 rather than €3.

Sure, one could wish for a bit more modern lifts in some parts of the mountain.But if is not for the weekends, it flows pretty well, except for some bottlenecks. Fine preparation and really good restaurants on the mountain.Are you a good skier and like off piste is Alanga preferable.

Why oh why have I skied France so much ? Crowded expensive slopes, indifferent food and rude service ... Champoluc is none of these, great slope side restaurants with happy smiling service and great food. Yes you need to be able to ski a reasonable level to get around some of the passes, but the ski school instructors are helpful, informative and relatively inexpensive. What a great place to spend some ski time , empty empty slopes.

Nice skiing, also nice restaurants. One of the restaurants was slightly off-piste, you could see it from the tele-cabin. You left the piste and travelled a short distance that was not hard, and it was well worth the visit

Just returned from 10 days skiing with the family. Great place to ski at all levels, great place for kids to learn, big cruising pistes for intermediates and enough challenging off-piste for the more experienced. Lacks challenging black runs on-piste for those not brave enough to go off-piste.

Westernmost of three valleys (with Gressoney & Alagna), not a massive lift or piste system (one link between each) but lots of off-piste when the conditions are good,and ski-touring. The Matterhorn is in view and the tops of the valleys are the border with Switzerland. A few older buildings in the village but quite a lot of nondescript hotels and developments straggling along the valley. Quiet- not a party resort. Public transport access really not great, so either get transfers (MIlan more expensive than Turin, which is really not that far) or rent a car (parking not far from main lift, which is straight off the main drag through the village). Quiet in the week as week-enders return to Milan and Turin (Sunday evening departures protracted. Ideal for a short non-weekend trip. I'd either stay right in the village (not St Jaques or Antagnod) or in one of the places off the piste- see Rifugio l'Aroula. If you are squeamish about WC facilities, be aware that a lot of the mountain stop-offs are "a la turque" so keep your American friends away..(may well be general to Italian resorts, first time skiing in Italy).

I have just returned from a week skiing in champoluc and stayed at the hotel champoluc which I have to say was the best hotel I have stayed in The owners were absolutely fantastic nothing was a problemThey made our stay so welcomeThe rooms were spacious and clean and the food was greatWhen I returned home I realised I was missing a pair of brand new ski gloves I contacted the owners of the hotel who informed me they had found my gloves and would post them to meI will definitely return to this hotel again and highly recommend itThank you Francesco to you and your lovely wife Marianne for a great holiday

We are a family of 5, 2 adults and 3 kids. We like to ski between christmas and new year because it is dead time when I dont need to take extra time off work. This year we found very cheap BA flights to Turin on 27th Dec and then looked for a resort we could easily drive to. We had skied the Aosta valley before in Pila, La thuile and Courmeyor. I was looking for somewhere new and we came across Champoluc which ticked all the boxes. I especially liked the Ski Club description of empty slopes. We overnighted in Aosta as the apartment we hired was Sat-Sat. The accomodation was good. close to the lift and the company we went through was friendly and efficient. It was Champoluc Apartments. Sandro is the owner who you deal with and he has many properties including a ski hire shop and a bar. Ski hire was very efficient and the town itself looked ok except that it is a one way loop for traffic and pedestrians are fighting with cars as you walk down the main road. it also has only one supermarket and this became very busy.So far so good. We had one child in ski school in the mornings and this was a problem as the ski area is very linear. We dropped at 10am but you could not get away from the base if you wanted to pick up at 12.45. As a result we ended up skiing the same runs again and again.The biggest problem however was the number of people. it was heaving. I assume this is because we had good snow and sunshine and were only 2 hours from Milan and 1 hour from Turin. Lift queues were at times ridiculous. Coming back to pick up you had to allow almost an hour to get through 2 lifts. One of these was an old fashioned 2 seater chair and you could see 150+ people infront on occasions. I know this is a busy time of year but this was some of the worst queues I have experienced. On one occasion we gave up and went for coffee hoping things would get better. On new years eve and new years day things got a little better but then the crowds returned on the Friday before we went home.Another point to consider is the designation of piste. You have to ski a steep and narrow section to get away from the base station. We called it the canyon of death which with hindsite didnt help the weaker skiers in our group. It is a red run but when busy it is covered with helpless people unable to cope with the incline. Then you look for blacks and find them much wider and less steep than this red run. There is very little blue and to get to it you must ski the Canyon of death. Overall I like Italy and everything was great apart from the lift layout and the number of people. I would return without kids in Ski school and outside of peak holiday times. I would avoid the week we went.One last thing. We hired from Skiset which is very close to the lift and for a very small sum they store the equipment overnight. With 3 kids getting boots on and taking them off can be a chore. Skiset had people on hand to help which was great. They were chatty and friendly and I would recommend them to anyone hiring from this resort.

Champoluc is easily accesible from all of the nearby airports - Turin (90 minutes to resort), Milan Malpensa (2 hours to resort), Milan Linate (3 hours to resort), Milan Bergamo (3 hours to resort), Geneva (3 hours to resort) and Sion (2.5 hours to resort).

a very nice ski resort. not crowded. beautiful landscape. suitable for all levels. only one hour drive from aosta

Good fun skiing, although it may take a couple of lifts ( no queues tho') to get to the very top, the reward, is a long series of runs down in each of the 3 valleys. The on piste skiing is generally gentle with few pitches steep enough to create mogul fields, but some challenging enough pitches on the steeper red and blacks, especially if conditions are not perfect.The off piste is reasonably extensive and as such more challenging, but plenty that can be accessed from the piste.The links between the valleys make the tour of the 3 valleys straightforward and a good day trip, but keep an eye on the lifts the links can get shut in relatively modest winds.That said it is not anything like as extensive as Les Trois Vallees, but plenty for a few days and much better value for money and much more charm.Excellent restaurants, hidden away off piste, but need to book and locate them.Apres ski is relatively limited but there are several lively bars that go on to the early hours - you just need to find them.All in all a great relaxed place with plenty of skiing ideally suited to intermediates but enough for the more advanced skiier to keep them happy.

A great destination for those who like long, reasonably challenging red runs. Great lift system (no Drag lifts) and no queues. Inexpensive mountain restaurants, friendly and easy access to the slopes. Several connected villages and all in all a great place to ski, although very little slopes for novice skiiers and even the very few blue runs have tricky parts

It the biggest village in the Area with nice family owned restaurants and shops. Prices at the shops are similar to Milano and staff at restaurants are really friendly for Italy. Direct lifts to Monterosa for Intermediate skiers and snowboarders and 15 min from Antagnod which is good for beginners.

Have just returned from our second trip to Champoluc and have to say that it is now by far my most favourite resort. Last year we returned to the Trois Vallee-great skiing on crowded pistes; full of braying Brits and large soulless cafeterias where a croque monsieur costs 15 Euros. In stark contrast, Champoluc is a pretty traditional Italian village with stunning scenery and uncrowded pistes. The entire Monte-Rosa area is as large as the 3 Valleys but although not as well linked is far easier to negotiate due to the lack of crowds. The food in the mountain restaurants is superb and amazing value-5 euros for a fab main course, the locals are not jaded by tourism and are very welcoming. The skiing is not great for anyone less than a competent intermediate as it is pretty steep and the lack of nightlife might put off some people, although both these factors are plus points as far as i am concerned! We have booked again for next year-first time we have ever done that. Highly recommend Ski 2 and the Hotel La Rouja-both 5 star!