Pragelato Sestriere Italy

This was my first time to Pragelto Sestriere but my 21st Club Med ski holiday.

Our flight was on the Club Med charter into Grenoble. Due to the Frejus tunnel being closed we had a very long transfer to the resort . The return journey was much faster as the tunnel had re-opened by our departure date.

The layout of the club is unusual with a central hub consisting of the restaurants, bars and ski room. Accommodation is in small chalet style buildings dotted around the site. These are connected to the hub by cobbled paths which are beginning to break up in places but were kept clear of snow and ice. Walking around was not an issue but it does mean that everyone brings coats to meals etc.

Our room was fairly basic and I'm not sure I would classify it as 4 Trident. We had a comfortable bed but the room was quite sparse with little storage and a quite dated shower which although powerful and hot was suffering from a bit of mould.

The main bar was good and quite cosy but by the end of week was running out of certain drinks.

Restaurant was nice with separate areas each with a slightly different decor. We never had an issue finding somewhere to sit and the food was good and plentiful although we have had better in other resorts. One thing to note is that the coffee from the machines is not good - very very strong and bitter.

We tried the swimming pool one afternoon and found it to be rather cold so didn't linger long. Others reported the same thing.

We never queued for the cable car and we enjoyed the red run back to the resort - beginners may find it a bit of a struggle. Ski area in general was lovely - great snow and not crowded at all. Loads of great mountain restaurants for coffee breaks. Club Med mountain restaurant was well positioned and served good food at lunchtime if you didn't want to head back to Pragelato. Ski area does have fast lifts but these are offset by a number of key lifts being old and very slow. There are also some strange links such as coming back from the French sector where the chair lift does not go high enough so you then have to take a drag lift and a magic carpet where you have to take your skis off !

We found the GO's to be a bit remote - I had no idea that there were dedicated GO's for the Gold members at Pragelato until I saw them manning an arrival desk on the day we left. When we visited Samoens in January we were introduced to and were looked after by two GO's for the week.

So all in all a good trip and we are glad that we tried Club Med Pragelto but it may not be one that we will return to.

Wonderful trip, staff, guests, location, snow, ski instructor, all excellent and we have travelled with club med on ski holidays for 20 years

Club is good. But not for ski begginers. Not many slopes for begginers. No green routes at all. The begginers group of club med had between 8 to 14 people with one guide. Impposible to start learning like this. When the advanced groups had 2 to 4 people.
It is not in/out ski. At least not for begginers. A bus to sestriere is needed. Waste a lot of time. Bus goes only 4 time a day and not in known hours.
Other than that - club is good. GMs are great. Food and atmosphere was good. Facilties are nice. Team was great and helpful.
Pool had cold water - immposible to use it during winter.

Danila, our ski instructor, was really, really wonderful!! She guided us all over the entire mountain in the Italian Alps and even into the French Alps. Thank you, thank you, Danila! Hope to see you again another time when going skiing again in the Italian Alps!