There are certain indulgences you can only get away with in an Italian ski resort. Stopping for a creamy slopeside cappuccino at 10am after just one leisurely run; taking shots of bombardino (like an eggnog with extra brandy) at lunchtime; and spending an hour basking in the mountain-top sun having eaten your bodyweight in prosciutto and stracciatella cheese panini.
This is the land of la dolce vita, after all — but life tastes even sweeter when your cappuccino only costs £1.45, your bombardino just £3, and that generously filled panini £4. So reasonable are the prices in Bardonecchia, where I am spending the weekend cruising the slopes and guzzling pasta, that I feel like an overexcited child — pathetically used as I am to spending £3.70 on a Gail’s cappuccino (and nearly twice that in Swiss ski resorts). The sweetest part, though? A one-day ski pass in this easy-going part of the northern Italian Piedmont region will set you back just £39. Not bad, given how much big-name resorts are unashamedly charging nowadays; in Zermatt, for instance, a day pass costs up to £87.
Bardonecchia was recently crowned the best-value ski resort in Europe, beating the famously affordable Bulgarian centres of Borovets and Bansko to the top spot. Of 36 European resorts, Post Office Travel Money and Crystal Ski Holidays found Bardonecchia to be the cheapest ski destination for UK tourists, with a week on the slopes costing approximately £530 for one adult (excluding flights and accommodation). I’m here to put these numbers to the test: it may be modestly priced, but does Bardonecchia offer real value for money?
The short answer, as I discover after a one-hour, mountain-fringed drive along the motorway from Turin airport, is yes. My friend and I arrive in sunny Bardonecchia just before lunchtime, finding that what the streets lack in snow this weekend (depressingly, for late January) they make up for in rustic Alpine charm. The small, 1,300m-high medieval town near the French border is anchored around a tinkling stream, its roads lined by chalet-style architecture and pastel-fronted churches. A short walk from the slopes is Via Medail, a lively, pedestrianised central street — the Oxford Street of Bardonecchia, our instructor later tells us — where punters queue around the block for freshly baked krapfen at 70-year-old Pasticceria Ugetti (£1.50; ugetti.it). Like a doughnut but better, the warm dessert — filled with a choice of cream, jam or gianduja — is so moreish that it alone merits a visit.
We check into our wood-panelled Airbnb apartment — a bargain at £96 a night, with space for seven guests and a wraparound balcony with mountain views — before stocking up on milk, cereal and fruit at a nearby Carrefour for £7. A free shuttle service connects the town and its railway station to the four main ski areas: Campo Smith, Colomion-Les Arnauds, Melezet and Jafferau. We head to Campo Smith, the resort’s main base, which is home to the most family and beginner-friendly tracks, a large ski school, nursery slopes, several affordable restaurants and bars, ski rental shops, and chic ski-in, ski-out rental accommodation.
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At Harald’s, a homely restaurant at the foot of the Campo Smith pistes, skiers and nonskiers congregate for pizzas (from £6) and steaming winter warmers. If you love polenta you’re in luck, because the starchy cornmeal is a Piedmontese staple. It feels sacrilegious to admit I’m not a fan of my sausage polenta dish (£13) so I keep shtoom and discreetly swap with my friend, who ordered the gnocchi smothered in a delicious truffle and butter sauce (£12).
Come 4.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays, Harald’s transforms into a buzzy, chaotic bar with a live DJ and some of the most riotous après parties for miles. It helps that half a pint of draft beer costs from £3 and strong cocktails from £6.
The next day, kitted out in our salopettes and rented skis (from £20 a day; bardonecchiaski.com), we ascend the Campo Smith main chairlift with our guide, Alessia Timon (lessons from £47 for half a day; lanciaproject.it). Admittedly the conditions are less than ideal, with any surviving snowfall from a week ago now melting on the lower peaks, but the higher we climb the more untouched white stuff there is. Happily, edging towards the 2,200m-high peaks of Melezet, we find a series of prairie-wide, refreshingly quiet balconies. Bardonecchia has more than 60 miles of pistes and 21 lifts, and this section of the mountain is full of fun, easy red runs and more demanding blacks. You get some wonderful terrain for your money here, and we soon find ourselves cruising down exhilaratingly steep runs flanked by trees, barely another skier in sight. The width of the slopes here makes for relaxed skiing, and the views are spectacular. At Punta Colomion, we can’t help but pause at the top of one curved piste to gaze across the miles of winding iridescent valleys and snow-capped peaks below. It’s so empty that our breath is the only sound to be heard.
Inevitably our morning flow is interrupted by that obligatory coffee break. The best thing about smaller Italian resorts is the unmistakable warmth of the people, from chatty baristas to waiters eager to discuss their recent visits to London. Having grown up in this 3,000-person town, Alessia knows everyone — ticket vendors, chairlift operators, fellow ski instructors — so, as we sip our coffees at the slopeside Chesal 1805 restaurant (instagram.com/chesal1805), our small group quickly multiplies as we’re joined by several friendly fellow skiers. There’s nothing in the way of Gstaad coldness here; nor are there any other Brits, it seems. Despite our guide telling us that about half of the visitors to Bardonecchia are from the UK, we don’t hear another English accent during our time here.
After a few more sundry runs around the Melezet area — one of the locations for the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics — we return to Chesal 1805 for lunch on the sundeck. You can grab a sandwich here for about £4, an espresso for £1, and a glass of wine for £4, but for hot meals expect to pay slightly more. Sides are priced about £7, while hearty mains like hamburgers and tagliolini pasta cooked in a rabbit and cocoa sauce (we only found out the meaning of “coniglio” once we’d practically inhaled what we’d assumed was a very tasty chicken ragu) will set you back about £13.50. It’s all about that dolce vita here: a DJ from Ibiza plays summer tunes from a roof terrace, while twentysomethings dance on tables and parents sip red wine as their children slurp up huge plates of spaghetti. Italians clearly know how to enjoy life; if only all Saturdays were this carefree.
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In the evening, our limbs aching from a day of skiing and après partying at Harald’s, we go up the mountain again for a candlelit dinner at 1,500m-high Pian del Sole restaurant. It’s worth the freezing chairlift ride in the dark (£8.50): we devour the five-course tasting menu, which includes beef carpaccio, meaty agnolotti pasta drenched in gravy, and a mango and white chocolate bauble-shaped pastry. As tasting menus go, £34 a head feels fair, and the laid-back atmosphere and our charismatic waiter — who brings us free grappa shots at the end of the meal, including one for himself — make it a highlight (bardonecchiaski.com).
If that white chocolate dessert weren’t enough of a treat, the next day brings our best skiing of the trip. This we find at Jafferau, a ten-minute drive northeast (or free shuttle ride) from Campo Smith. The highest sector of the resort, accessible by gondola lift and reaching up to 2,800m, Jafferau has some of the best on and off-piste slopes around — and fresh powder, even on this unfortunately dry weekend. We spend the day schussing down the vast, sugar-white terrain, enjoying panoramic views of the peaks below with barely another soul in sight. Lunch is sandwiches and spritzes at La Capannina restaurant, a small wooden hut on the slopes with huge £4 panini, followed by a slightly terrifying Alpine Coaster toboggan ride — a self-driven, two-person rollercoaster that zigzags and judders through the woods — at the Campo Smith base (£5pp).
Bardonecchia’s proximity to Turin, which can be reached in an hour and a half by train (from £7; trenitalia.com), makes it a popular weekend break for city-dwelling Italians. But it still feels like a secret that’s been well kept from non-Italian tourists. At Turin airport, on our way home, my friend and I get chatting to a British man in the bag-drop queue. He’s been skiing across the border in Zermatt, he tells us. Bardonecchia? “Never heard of it. I’ll have to try it.” He’ll have to hurry, though, before everyone else catches on.
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Claudia Rowan was a guest of Turismo Torino (turismotorino.org) and Airbnb (airbnb.co.uk). She stayed at the Deer Home apartment, which costs from £96 a night for two
Three more places to stay
1. Savoia Mountain Resort
Best for ski-in, ski-out luxury
For proximity to the best ski runs in Bardonecchia, this four-star family-run spa resort on the Jafferau slopes comes out on top. It’s tricky to reach if you don’t have a car, given its forest-side location 2,000m above sea level, but the four-mile uphill drive along a mountain road — or cable car journey when it’s open during the winter months — is worth it for the panoramic views you get from your balcony. When you’re not lounging by the indoor swimming pool, meandering through the surrounding woods, or munching your way through the three on-site restaurants, you can hop onto your skis and slide directly onto the slopes. There’s a ski school on-site too, plus ski rental facilities — meaning no need to trek down the mountain.
Details B&B doubles from £94 (savoiaresort.com)
2. Case Verdi apartments
Best for group trips
These 17 self-catering apartments are a few minutes’ walk away from Bardonecchia train station and the main shopping street (a dangerously short distance from Pasticceria Ugetti and its delicious krapfen). Sleeping between four and eight guests, the modern flats offer ample cooking facilities, plus a bicycle rental service. They’re also well connected to the slopes, thanks to the free shuttle service that stops 20m away.
Details Two nights’ self-catering for four from £213 (caseverdi.it)
3. Hotel Rivè
Best for families
For easy access to the ski school and buzzy Via Medail, this four-star family-friendly hotel within the Campo Smith base is a winner. Rooms are on the traditional side, but you’ll love the spa, with its Finnish saunas, steam room, Turkish bath, and indoor pool (entry £21). The on-site Faggio Rosso restaurant serves regional cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the hotel is a short walk away from some of the town’s best restaurants too.
Details B&B doubles from £115 (hotelrive.it)
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