The Skiers' Guide to Pontedilegno - Tonale: Expert Analysis & Reviews

A nice little resort - quiet, good value, great food. Limited amount of pistes for advanced skiers. Some excellent guided off-piste available.

Spent a week here (skiing 2nd-7th of Feb) in the Grand Hotel Paradiso. We were only a very short walk up some stairs from the bottom of the lifts, or a short walk down the road to the gondola to the glacier. The resort was pretty busy on the Sunday but lift queues were still okay and was then quiet enough during the week, I don't recall spending too long in any queues. In comparison, we got the coach one day to the nearby Madonna di Campiglio resort and that was incredibly busy wherever we went, so if you have the choice between the two I'd favor this resort. The black run from the top of the glacier is a highlight, wonderful to ski on a morning, steep but fairly wide, great for getting low in a long carve. We also got the chance to see the sunset from the top at 3000m as they opened the lifts at 6am one morning (I think this happens once a month but I'm not sure - worth checking if you're deciding which week to go! ) We didn't get a chance to try out one of the off-piste trails marked on the resort map, but from what we could see they looked like they would've been amazing. My friends who sampled the bars for apre also seemed to have a great time and Italian resorts always seem to be a little cheaper than French ones in my experience which is a nice bonus. I didn't find any proper mogul runs to do which was a shame, but that's a minor issue, especially with plenty of challenging but accessible and fun terrain to the side of many of the pistes. Good resort, would go again.

Great resort for learners, also plenty of varied terrain for more advanced snowboarders and skiers. Really snow sure due to altitude, nice and quiet except on the weekends when the locals are out, but even then it's not that busy! Good value food and booze, fast lifts