Passo Tonale, Hotel Eden Review

Overall Rating

The Hotel Eden was very clean. The food was good, although not outstanding, and there were three choices of main meal per night, which meant we were not too limited. The ski locker in the hotel was readily and easily accessible, and the hotel was within easy walking distance of the slopes.

The resort itself is pretty, and it was busy, but not crowded when we went in mid January 2006.

I am not an experienced or expert skier, but the slopes seemed to be generally well cared for. It snowed quite often while we were there, and there was very little ice around. There was some very deep snow off piste, which I discovered by accident!

I am assured by the friends I went with, who are more competent skiers than myself, that the intermediate slopes are fantastic, but I did not venture onto these!

Happy Hour in a local bar allowed us to relax 'apres ski' and drink a lot of beer for very few Euros, and there were other reasonably priced bars with good atmospheres.

There was one good mountain restaurant on one of the blue slopes (the hardest blue one), as well as reasonably priced and various types of restaurants and bars to have lunch in at the bottom of the slopes.

The views from the lifts were breathtaking.

See below...

If you are a nervous adult beginner who wants to learn to ski at a steady pace with good and patient instruction - or if you want good slopes for beginners then do not go to Passo Tonale. Do not go there for outstanding night life, but it's fine for cheap cheerful beers. In mid-January, lack of snow does not appear to be an issue at all.

The Ski School was problem! Firstly, when they "assessed" us to put us into groups (despite me having already requested to be put in the beginners group as I had never set foot on a real slope), I was classed as "intermediate" because I managed to wobble down the assessment slope without falling over, and because the beginners group was already full. I contested their "assessment", saying I was very nervous, but I was ignored (and not even reassured). I felt like we were being classed as cattle rather than individuals.

The groups were large, and the tuition did not cater for the nervous adult beginner at all. There was some tuition on technique, but for people who were struggling with the basics (me) there was little to no encouragement, despite me highlighting my concerns several times to the instructor, who struggled to understand me (several of the instructors spoke heavily accented English or struggled to speak English at all, which made learning even more difficult).

To cut the story short, I had a miserable three mornings of struggling to follow an instructor who basically limited much of the lessons to "follow me," and then he raced off down the slopes. I had to beg to be dropped down to the beginners group almost constantly, and then actually leave the lesson on day 3 before they relented on day 4 and swapped me with a disgruntled beginner who did not want to move up a group (who can blame him).

I'm sure more confident beginners or more competent skiers in general would not have had a problem with this ski school or this resort, but it really put a dampener on my holiday!

The Hotel Eden was lovely in itself, but the week we stayed there so did a very large group of school children (not local - they were from elsewhere in Europe). These school children (approx. aged 8 - 10) over-ran the bar and dining areas of the hotel at various times of the day and evenings, and they were rowdy at night. The hotel seemed not to mind at all, despite several complaints from other guests. If you are thinking of booking the Eden, take care that there is no school party scheduled in that week if you want to eat, drink, relax at the hotel, or sleep in peace!!

We were assured before we went that knowing only some basic Italian before we went would get us by, as English was widely spoken, but is was not. Only one member of staff in the hotel spoke English, and basic Italian was not enough at all.

The blue (beginner) slopes themselves were good, but there were very few of them, making progress difficult unless you are confident and pick skiing up quickly.