Livigno reviews - World Snowboard Guide

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Good times

Sun 9 November 2008 Big L

Me and a bunch of lads went in 2008 march time. We got the package deal at a good price under Under 300 quid. Foods great, facilities are good. It has two very good parks. Its high altitude so snow is excellent usually. Beer in bars is usual UK price but in the shops its dirt cheap. Smirnoff Vodka for 5.40 Euro!!!. Plenty of shops and this is a tax free zone so boards are cheapish. Good night life if you young like me. Lots of crazy Irish people lol. Could do with some more challenging runs but its quite on the pistes. Groomed well and you can usually board all the way back to your apartments. I would Highly recommend

Definately on the list for a return visit.

Wed 2 April 2008 Philip

Went to Livigno Easter week. Even then the slopes were fairly quite. Stayed at the San Giovanni in San Rocco and the food was excellent, the restaurant was full every night. Not sure about the dirt cheap booze. maybe in the supermarkets note that all shops shut at 7.20pm including supermarkets. Price in bars was about 3.50euro for a beer, a litre of house wine in the hotel was 10euro. If you want some nice beer, try the Echo brewery near the Centro bus stop on the main road. There are three buses blue, red, and yellow. Beware they dont always stop - bus drivers are the same everywhere, and just to catch you out they sometimes put on unmarked coaches as replacements. All the bus stops have little route maps and they stop about 8pm.The town is spread out but from the start of shops in Livigno to San Rocco is only a three quarter of an hour stroll. The piste map is terrible, none of the runs are named on the map or the ground, but once you get used to it you just vaguely head from one lift to another. Runs are wide and great for carving out those turns. There was a major avalanche risk when I was there, so no back county, but lots of unpisted stuff between the runs to play on. The Mottolino side is a bit steeper than Carosello which keeps it a bit quieter. The bumpy Della Neve black is good fun. Theres a nice natural half pipe near lift 5. Most of the lifts are quick and modern apart from the old two man from the top of the Mottolino gondola to Della Neve its a cold windy 25minutes! Overall its a nice place, not a huge area but its good fun.

WSG Update

Fri 3 August 2007 peter

Due to public demand we've updated our review. Sorry it took so long and thanks for keeping us on our toes. Please keep your own comments coming.

Pete and the WSG team.

UPDATE YOUR REVIEW PLEASE!

Wed 25 July 2007 spragg
I live near Livigno so get the opportunity to go most weekends in winter. Although I'm relatively new to snowboarding and haven't been to many other resorts, I love this place. I generally go on Saturdays when it is really quiet. Livigno is cheap and cheerful, and last winter the snow was good while all around wasn't. I can't comment on the accommodation or nightlife as I only ever visit on day trips. Bus queues? The valley has two sides, Motolino and Carosello, each big enough to spend a full day on so there's no need to catch a bus unless you want to go between the two sides in the same day. Drag lifts? Only on the nursery slopes on the Carosello side of the valley. I haven't once had to use a drag lift in Livigno. The snow park (out of my league) looks superb.

cheap and cheerful

Wed 31 January 2007 kj

We were boarding in Livigno at the beginning of Jan 2007 and it was fantastic. Livigno is a great resort, the town centre is very pretty and had the perfect balance of lively après ski, good bars, restaurants and nightclubs, without being tacky.

I’d recommend staying in the town centre, there is lots of accommodation to choose from and all within walking distance of the slopes so you can get to the lifts easily. There is also accommodation at San Rocco close to the Carosello 3000 gondola but the free buses stop around 7.30 p.m. and you’ll need to taxi in and out of the town if you want to go to any of the bars or restaurants there in the evening. We stayed in the Hotel Miramonti which was fine (though somewhat dubious food) and conveniently located by chair lift 25. We stayed half-board but this wasn’t really necessary it is very reasonable to eat out, about 6 Euros for pizza/pasta, 10 Euros for a steak.

We didn’t hammer the booze too much (can’t keep up with the pace nowadays) but it's all duty free and incredibly cheap. You can buy bottles of Smirnoff for around 8 Euros and the pub measures are huge, the spirits are sometimes cheaper than the mixers! Bivio is a great place for dinner and you can go downstairs afterwards for drinks. Mikeys pub is also good, though watch your drinks – the young ones steal them if you leave them unattended.

We were concerned about the snow conditions when we went as Europe was suffering a severe lack of the white stuff. Livigno however, due to its altitude, had enough snow to keep us happy and two fresh snowfalls whilst we were there. There are substantial runs for the intermediate level but it could be a bit restrictive for the more advanced. We were boarding every day for a week (lessons in the mornings, free time in the afternoon) and we didn’t cover all of the slopes. There is plenty to keep you interested with lots of confidence building blue and red runs, especially at Mottolino, Trepalle and Costaccia. The red from the top of Carosello 3000 is good but has a small flat section through trees, keep up your speed otherwise you’ll have to walk with the rest of the boarders. Avoid the blue run at the top of chair lift 6 (Monte Neve), the antiquated chair goes on forever, if you don’t die of frostbite you’ll die of boredom or have to walk the long flat section in the middle.

The board school (Scuola Italiana Ski) was ok and offers lessons in English as well as Italian. We had two hour lessons every day for 6 days, I would have preferred three hours for less days but can’t complain really! The class sizes were ideal, we had 4 people in our class and were told that they take a maximum of 7 people. Frustratingly, the school only seemed to have two categories for snowboarders, beginners and non-beginners. I was a non-beginner (second week) and took lessons with people that were more advanced than me. Though some might rise to this challenge, I fell (literally). I was rushing a lot to keep up with the others and the technique often went out of the window as a result. Next time I would consider taking some private lessons instead.

All-in-all, we had a great week in Livigno and I would thoroughly recommend it. You can have fun in the mountains without the usual price tag that comes with it.

Your review needs updating: Livigno is HOT

Wed 16 February 2005 sinbad
The WSG seriously needs to update some of it's reviews. Livigno has changed a lot since that was written, and your description no longer paints an accurate picture.

I have the WSG 1997 - and the review of Livigno in there, is exaclty the same as it is on this site, so it has not been updated for least 8 years! Come on guys - move with the times.

Here is a recent trip report of what Livigno is like now (2004).

We booked this trip as an end of season late deal and we went the last week of the season (end of March 2004). We were quite lucky as it has been snowing a fair bit the previous week, so the slopes were well covered, with no rocks poking through, and it was blue skies and sun for our entire stay - typical spring conditions.

Livigno is essentially one long road (10km) running through a valley, with pistes on either side. The pisted terrain is very open, with wide motorway runs. They are great for learners and early intermediates, but its a bit bland and featureless, and can get a little boring after a while for anyone who has been boarding for more than a couple of weeks.

There are a few drag lifts servicing the shortest, lowest slopes, but these can be easily avoided if you can't handle them. Over all the lift system is modern, with fast quads, gondolas, and and electronic lift pass system which means no fumbling around looking for lift pass; you just "BLIP" and go.

We pretty much covered all the pisted area within a couple of days and by midweek the pistes were getting fairly hard and icey at the top, slushy and cut up at the bottom, and were losing their fun factor. So we took to the "backcountry" and the Fun Park.

I was suprised to find that the Fun Park in Livigno is the best Park that I have ever ridden, with the possible exception of Whistler. There are two zones; the intermediate and the expert. On the downside, you are supposed to pay to use the parks (in addition to the lift pass) but if you just ride in confidently, you can normally get away with it. It was only 5 Euros for three days anyway.

We didn't venture into the expert park, as the jumps were the size of houses, and I didn't fancy being airlifted out. However, we did spend a fair bit of time in the intermediate park, which has much to keep you entertained: a half pipe, boarder cross track, about 5 mid size kickers, a fun box, and with at least 10 rails of varying lengths and shapes, this is a jib monkeys dream.

The only thing that was lacking was my favourite of all kickers: the spine jump, but aside from that, this park is superb. The Burton European Open is held here every year, which is the reason why the park has such a great varitey of obstacles to break your body on.

After the pistes started to get icey, we did a few hikes to get back to the essence of boarding...untouched powder runs. Every morning, for 3 days, we did a hike of about 30-45 mins to reach some powder slopes. Even though it had not snowed for 7 days, we were still getting fresh lines, and the hike though tiring, was more than worth the ride down, and along with some of the park sessions, it was the highlight of the weeks riding.

Livigno is a duty free resort, which means the prices are pretty good. Booze from shops is ridiculously cheap, for example, a 1 litre bottle of Smirnoff Vodka costs £3, a 1 litre bottle of Baileys costs about £4.75 and half litre bottles of beer come in at about 40p each.

Cosmetics, clothes and electronics are all cheap too, however I was dissapointed by the choice of boarding shops. Suprisingly, there were few boarding shops, and generally the range of clothes and hardware were limited, compared to other duty free resorts such as Pas de la Casa (Andorra).

I was also a little suprised at the night life of the place. I had expected it to be very loud and vibrant, again, similar to Pas de la Casa, but it was really quite quiet, with less bars than I had expected. It may well have been quiet due to it being the end of the season, but I was suprised at how little seemed to be going on.

Food was well priced in resturants with a decent sized pizza costing less than a fiver, although beer and wine was less of a bargin. Small cafes/ resturants at the base of the slopes were charging around £2 for a decent burger, sandwich or pannini, so excellent value there too.

We styayed at the self catered L'Ables appartments, which were excellent. Very modern, clean, and with a TV, video, sound system (piped though to every room including bathroom) and balcony. Cheap accomodation is easy to come by in Livigno.

Overall Livigno is a very fun place to visit; the resort itself is very attractive architecturally, all buildings are built chalet style, with no big ugly appartment blocks. The locals are pretty laid back and friendly, and there's no pretentious attitude here.

The pistes are good, though a little limited, but with the fun parks and off piste options, there is plenty to keep even advanced riders happy for a week.

Fun, lively and excellent value: Definatley a recommended destination.

I Love Livigno

Sat 20 November 2004 japeto
Livigno has it all, great snow, nice runs and a fun night life, i only wish i could spend more time there, being a cheap resort you meet people from all walks of life which makes it very interesting, only complaint i have is the drag lifts, damn things take getting used to ..

Its not THAT bad !

Wed 29 October 2003 Coombsy
I go fairly frequently 'cos its cheap and when the snow is good its great for a 4 - 5 dayer. Its not that challenging but great for beginners and its worth a nice end of season duty free jaunt !

Resort Statistics

Resort Type: Alpine
Winter: beg Dec to end April
Summer: None

Lifts

Total Lifts: 31
Gondolas: 4
Chair lifts: 14
Drag lifts: 13
Max people per hour: 46,460
Board Leashes required: No

Mountain

Total pistes/trails: 73
Total ride area: 115km
Longest run: 3.5km

Top lift: 2792m
Vertical drop: 932m
First lift: 1860m

Piste suitability

Green runs: 50%
Red runs: 42%
Black runs: 8%

Lift Passes

	Low Season		High Season
	EUR	GBP	EUR	GBP
Day Pass	28.00	22.89	33.00	26.98
6-Day Pass	115.00	94.02	150.00	122.64
6-Day Linked area Pass	-	-	-	-

	EUR	GBP
Season Pass:	-	-

Lift Passes:
Half-day pass 24 euros
1 Day pass 33 euros
6 days 163 euros
Season 515 euros
Lift times:8.30am to 4.30pm

Snowfall

Average annual snowfall: 2.50metres
Artificial snowmaking coverage: 15%

Facilities

	EUR	GBP
Days Rental of Board & Boots:	-	-
4hr Group Lesson (full day):	-	-
4hr Private Lesson (full day):	-	-

Night Riding: : No

Other activities

Heliboarding: : Not available
Snowmobiles: Not available

Further information

www.livigno.eu
Email:info@livigno.eu

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Summary

With an amazing park, open terrain, accessible off-piste, a warm Italian reception, and prices far cheaper than most other resorts in western Europe, Livigno is one excellent Italian job.

ON THE SLOPES: Pretty Good - lift passes cheapish
OFF THE SLOPES: Excellent - cheap booze and food
MONEY WISE: Duty-free zone so very cheap shops but bars & restaurants average.