Norefjell Ski & Spa

Third visit and definitely last. Rooms and facilities look tired and not particularly clean. Hotel seems to be working out ways to charge extra for absolutely everything.

Norefjell is undoubtedly in a special part of the world, with great wilderness views of southern Norway's landscape. The fairly consistent sub-zero temperatures in Feb also seem to allow for less ice-ridden pistes or mushy snow, although there are some exceptions regarding ice on the more heavily used runs, depending on the weather or time of day (what you'd expect). The button and T-bar lifts that provide access to the two largest pistes directly outside the hotel are a little too close to one another, in my view. Skiers may want to take the weight off their feet to rest them after a spirited attempt at these runs, but these particular styles of lift simply don't allow for this at all, which is frustrating. If you find your feet feel "hard done by" a lot earlier in your ski session than you'd expect, no it's not just you, not at all. The good news is that there are chair lifts available in other parts of the piste map. So, it's a minor hiccup, really. The food in the hotel is generally of a pretty good quality. Although, the more picky diners out there may struggle with some limited choice across the buffet restaurant near the reception and the smaller cafe-style restaurant located on one of the hotel's lower floors. While an option, I would not recommend booking sledging as an activity at this resort unless you're familiar with the specific modern, plastic sledges the resort allows you to hire. At the time of writing, these have a steering wheel/yoke that controls a ski in the middle of the sledge for steering. They are not traditional wooden sledges or inflatable donut-type things. These plastic sledges are much, much faster than their toy-like appearance would suggest and not as easy to control as you might imagine at first glance (if you've never used one before). If you feel you must have a go on one, please ask the staff running the activity how to use them before trying one out. They may not tell you unless you ask first. The lack of a pre-activity briefing was a bit perplexing. I'll say no more on the subject. Noise in the hotel was a little bit of an issue at times. It wasn't uncommon to hear children shouting or screeching in the hotel corridors at irregular periods throughout the day, with apparently nobody present to tell them to be quiet. A nearby room on the floor above mine also appeared to start moving furniture around at around 2 AM in the morning, for reasons that were only apparent to them. Luckily, this only happened once. The nights were otherwise mostly predictable and non-disruptive. I'd say I enjoyed my stay overall, and it seemed like a viable alternative to the more well-trodden (and perhaps generic) Alpine ski holiday. Give it a go! It's also important to stress that the spa facilities are excellent. However, as highlighted, there were a few specific things I wasn't keen on and that you may not be either, depending on your own preferences.

The room was booked as a suite, we got a family room with a bunk bed. Nothing that was promised of prosecco, oils, bathrobe was in place. No response from reception when physically present and did not pick up the phone when we called repeatedly.

A great trip for me and my 2 sons. Nice staff and a sweet ski instructor for my youngest son. We would like to come back one day.

We liked everything except the food choices in the evening. For an expensive 4 star hotel you expect an a la cart menu in the main restaurant, Expensive buffet or Pizza and burgers is not enough. Simple food.