Hotel Principi di Piemonte Sestriere

Just returned after a fabulous week at the Hotel Principi di Piemont in Sestriere. Entry into the hotel is a wonderful sight with all the elaborate winter and Christmas decorations everywhere. The reception staff were speedy but thorough with information and welcoming. We were given a superior double room where we had a bunk bed too. The beds were extremely comfortable, a little firm for some maybe but certainly didn't affect sleep at all. I loved them. The room was clean and tidy with a large double window overlooking the mountains and sunrise. A very decent sized fitted wardrobe with plenty of hangers. Bathroom had a great hot shower with jacuzzi bath, though didn't use that. Soap, shampoo and haidryer was provided as was a coffee machine with espresso pods, but bit too strong for me as no milk. There is a fridge. The restaurant has various dining areas. We were overlooking the mountains and the buffet style provides a huge array of food. Breakfast starting at 7.30am included cereals, fruit, pastries and a typical fried offer. Two coffee machines that were never too busy. Also a decent selection of tea bags. Evening meal started at 7pm and again offered a huge choice. Large salad bar with optional seafood, a daily soup, choices of anti pasta, a main course of meat, fish or vegetarian. Deserts were plentiful and typically Italian... Ask behind the serving counter for ice cream. It's probably best to select your deserts at the beginning to ensure you get the best choice... same with the cheese. I finished most nights with a small cheese board. Having 5 or 6 plates of food you'll never ever go hungry. They sell you bottled water for dinner at 3 euros... But it is what it is. They also have a massive selection of wines if you wish. The only niggle would be that both breakfast and dinner main courses were never piping hot, but warm. The very large bar area is excellent and wonderfully decorated with comfy areas for bigger groups or areas for a couple to relax after skiing. We soon integrated with two other couples for a sociable week in the evenings and even did a group ski on the last day. There are also TVs showing Italian and Premier League football but thankfully with no sound so you can chat and listen to the piped music. There's a wide range of local lagers and spirits including a decent Guinness; all beers cost 7 euros. The only niggle it was a little cool in the bar on some evenings which is very unusual for a mountain hotel bar. It would have been nice to have had the roaring fire. The spa was okay, the pool a little too cold for me. It costs 10 euros pp for the week and a robe and slippers provided. You need to book the spa the day before, I guess to prevent overcrowding. The locker room was just outside and downstairs. Electronic lockers that some were not working... Sometimes you can't beat a good old fashioned key. Both set of skis and boots can be stored in one locker and the heaters work ... Though I have been in much warmer ones. S

A very nice hotel sat across one road to ski slope access making it a great choice. Ski locker room in the basement, quite tight when it’s busy but that’s the same everywhere. Large bar area and reasonable prices, €7 for a beer. The spa are is spacious and it has a sauna, steam room and an ice bucket to cool you down. The pool is around 15m long and there is a jacuzzi area. The only thing I would say is that the water temperature is quite low. All the staff were very helpful, room service daily and a nespresso espresso machine with two pods per day provided. The wine list in the restaurant is large but expensive, a few bottles are available for €30-€40 but these sell out very quickly leaving very little choice unless you want to pay €50 upwards each day. Lots of choice for breakfast and evening meals. A fresh option for breakfast, say an omelet would be nice but don’t expect hot food! It’s a buffet style set up and the hot offerings are lukewarm at best at both meals. We were disappointed with this as a hot meal after a day skiing would be nice.

We booked through Crystal for a week and then read some reviews which left us feeling a bit worried about what was in store. We were extremely happy that these poor reviews were not reflective of our experience: the hotel was friendly with excellent service, offered a good location for the slopes and had good quality traditional food. My two bits of criticism would be that 1) it was buffet for all courses vs choosing a meal, but the chefs and staff were very friendly and the food was high quality which did compensate for this, and 2) the drinks in the bar were a little bit more expensive than the local bars, it felt like you were a captive market given the hotel is a 15 min walk into the town. There is also a spa/pool which is included but needs booking, and apparently gets busy on bad weather days, but we didn’t use it ourselves. Sestriere itself as a ski resort we felt had gone a bit downhill (pardon the pun) with lots of lifts out of action and a bottleneck for queues when the masses arrived at weekends, but the beauty of the area is that you can ski to lots of other fab places, which we did, including Montegenevre.