Sierra Nevada reviews

Worst place I've been after many years in the Alps, Sweden and Norway. Lots of greenhorns on the slopes that make skiing deadly (warns even greenhorns to go lift😂).

Unique place with 1.5h transfer from the airport. In other words, for most Swedes, the journey time is shorter than to the Swedish mountains. Best is probably the ultimate location so close to the sunny coast, where you use the garage that is directly below the square from where the two egg lifts go up to the plateau from where the chairlifts go further up. From the playa to the powder as smoothly as possible!
There are many Swedish-speaking ski instructors at the various independent ski school companies, as well as good solutions on the slopes for beginners. As others have mentioned before, the Spaniards like to stick to the beginner slopes and it gets quite full on the weekends. But that means there are fewer of them on the difficult slopes! Overall however you look at it, perfect for most people.
There is only one drawback and that is that it is high up, in most cases you are never below 2200m. Which is difficult if you haven't worked on your fitness before.

I tried one day of skiing in the Sierra Nevada at the beginning of March 2024. The trip was not really intended as a skiing trip at all (rather a simple vacation week in a borrowed apartment on the Spanish sunny coast), but if you now have a (mythical?) ski resort within only approx. 1.5 hours away by car, it's impossible not to. Rental car was already planned and the ski equipment is also transported by SAS "for free" (at least instead of other checked luggage).

The biggest disadvantage of the Sierra Nevada is probably the uncertainty of the weather. I aimed early for a certain day, but made the decision as late as possible, i.e. during em the day before. The week before had been really miserable, with only a few lifts and slopes open due to fog and wind. Two days before, the facility was even completely closed, due to a snowstorm. Thus, I feel hesitant to book a trip just for the skiing (especially a whole week). If, on the other hand, you are in the area, or can imagine a combination with hiking, golf, mountain tours, etc., then you absolutely should not miss this opportunity to try this southernmost ski resort in Europe.

With a little flexibility, I now had a day of glorious sun and fantastic skiing on nicely pisted slopes with all the lifts open! A great day, but requires some planning and (as I said) some flexibility.

My advice and reflections:

- Check the weather and plan carefully. Sierra Nevada has a very good website, with forecasts, planning for lifts/descents, and web cameras.

- Avoid weekends and (Spanish) weekends, as the whole facility can be overcrowded.

- If you choose to drive up the same day, start early. If you're there around 8.00 - 8.30, you'll be there before the "rush". Then park as far into the underground garage as possible, so you have the shortest way to go to the "first cable car", ski rental, and cashiers for lift tickets (can also be booked online, but worked poorly in my case).

- In the case of bad road conditions for the last bit (unusual, but can occur), the police require snow chains according to information. Didn't come across this, but apparently there is an option to rent snow chains on site (at a reasonable cost).

- With the "first cable car" you come to a sort of "central point" for the other lifts. The Spanish are pretty bad skiers, so if you stick to the red/black slopes a bit from this point, you are almost guaranteed fresh piste all day, as well as non-existent lift queues. The best skiing is probably on the "backside", Laguna de las Yeguas, with lovely runs and no crowds.

- Lots of descents have the warning "Solo Expertos" and "Muy Dificil", but it feels (to say the least) a bit excessive (at least by Swedish standards).

In summary, a very nice and well maintained facility, but extremely weather dependent. If you are there, you should definitely not miss trying to get in one or two days of skiing. More than that, however, I'm doubtful, not least since it's not a huge system.

Note, however, that I (as is certainly evident) am a piste skier. Those who are more focused on off-piste would probably make a slightly different assessment....

Very good

We were here on the sports holiday in 2019 and got three very good ski days. After having traveled a lot of skiing in the Alps, the expectations might not be very high in the Sierra Nevada but we were still pleasantly surprised.
Positively:
Relatively small but still well-arranged ski area. Hardly any lift queues despite a lot of people. Most of the skiers (Spaniards) were closest to the big ski resort, but farther away in the system it was sparsely populated. Good weather, probably the ski resort with the most hours of sunshine throughout Europe. Good prepared slopes with artificial snow in the lower parts. No snow shortage on the slopes even though it was sometimes brown next to the slopes. The village is compact and lies along a mountain side and there is a seat lift that functions as a transport so you do not have to go through the hairpin curves.
It is possible to combine the ski trip with in practice summer activities. We wandered Caminito del Ray outside Malaga and I rode lvg up in the mountains for a few days. The ultimate sports holiday, however.
negative:
Expensive ski passes, SEK 500 per day, a little cheaper if you buy several days at a time.
Just two restaurants on the slopes, both at the big ski square. Lots of people at lunchtime and no gourmet experience, clearly worse than Italy and France although the prices are OK.

Hello
we were there in mid March - 16
fantastic ski area, there are lots of red backs and several black bulls, which are not on the web. The Spanish runs are not intact. The black slopes were completely untouched at 14 o'clock, ie. newly-prepared. !

We bought snow chains from Biltema, obligatory when we got there.
We stayed downstairs at the square, parked the car under the square right at the hotel o lift up. Ski storage down in the garage right at the cable car.
If you get up when the lifts open, you are basically alone for a couple of hours, the ski schools are on the plateau and the other Spaniards arrived at 12 o'clock. Please do not hesitate to see me when you go up over the weekend

Thought briefly tell me about the trip to Sierra Nevada, as well as the experience with skiing, I thought it was missing when I read the reviews of the place before

We left the house in Torrevieja up to Sierra Nevada at the end of Feb 2016.

The car journey was quite long but went well, only 3 speeding fines got home at the post.
Stayed at a gas station right near Granada and bought snow chains (apparently forced on this, in exposed weather)
Had friends who went up two days earlier, they had to leave the car and go taxi up, became an expensive trip.

When we arrived at the foot of Sierra Nevada, a smile train started off cars. The days before had it been a snowstorm, so now the road started to be again. Do not remember, but had an average speed of 3 km / h, so take 1-3 hours to get up. Thinking a untouched 30 mop could have gotten up faster!

Well there we lived right up the hill, apparently the price picture was quite different.
We had more or less ski-in / out, as it was only about 100 meters to walk or join the ski to the hill.

Otherwise, it was completely overkill to take the car to the village when you got to park in an underground garage, in which case it was not free to park.
Passed on picking up our pre-booked ski slopes then. Which seemed to be quite meaningless to have done, when nothing was prepared, and we got back to age and shoe size. However, got good help and the price agreed on the website was (apparently significantly more expensive to hire without pre-booking)

The first day was the weather, but then it started! Be good as just that! but still not too hot. The backs were good. Blown too much on top so you never became. Fine with food that was reasonably priced (or where cheap) as well as bars and a drink or beer in the "heaters" were also not expensive. Did not look so carefully, but did not see a place similar to the nightclub.

I missed backs that gave a challenge, most were green or blue. Red, there were not so many of them. There were some blacks, but few that were open when we were there (That's because there was a lack of snow, but as I said, 2 days of intense snowing had made it apparent again)

Was able to speak English, so my busy school spanish was not needed.

Overall a good trip! If you are looking for advanced rides, there are better places, if you are traveling with a child or family, I would probably say that it works well.

I was there last week and went skiing for two days.
The experience was absolutely amazing !!!
Positively: Pale blue sky, no wind, no lift queues, good fall hay ca1300m, 300 days of sunshine a year, cozy town, We saw JON OLSSON and SIMON DUMONT in the park !!!!! Shit, they can jump! It was possible to go offpiste in the afternoon when it was softly soft. Nightmares at night made it possible to stay on the slopes on the day of the day. On Saturday we went two hours bus to Torremolinos and played beach volleyball. Highly appreciated travel summary of the 60 suppliers we had with us on the trip.
Negative: No sneezing (you can not count on this in March) but it did not matter.
The skis we rented were a joke (had their own trousers) one had to struggle hard if one would have grabbed the hard parts of the mountain. TAKE WITH OWN SKIDES

Were there for a week in January and can only say I'm pleasantly surprised! The skiing was better than expected, really long nice ride and perfect tipping. Unfortunately, it was not possible for any further off-piste skiing, but we still had a trip with the weather when it wiped down snow the first day. When we arrived, it was called in the slopes.

+ Spain
+ Surprisingly good pistes
+ Little people in the harder slopes, the Spaniards can not go skiing
+ Sunny
+ Cheap
+ Proximity to the sea, Granada and the Alhambra as well as Malaga
+ RyanAir and Norwegian drive to Malaga from several destinations in Sweden

- Warm, even in January. If you're unlucky, it might be completely called, but then you'll have an extreme bad luck.
- Afterski is not available in Spain. When we ask about afterski they respond that there were a couple of pubs further down the street, but it was unclear whether they were open or not.
- No further nightlife either
- The offpiste is doubtful. Too high up, resulting in very few trees and the Sierra Nevada is relatively lonely in the vicinity to be so high which results in no pillows that last longer.

Have posted some pictures here for anyone who wants to see more pictures from the system:
http://www.jonasresor.se/spanien-skidakning-skidor/skidor-sierra-nevada.html

I was there in 2008
It was good with snow in the slopes and pretty hot.
A cool thing when you come: you drive into the garage and take the elevator up to the lift, smoother it can hardly be.
You should look up when renting ski when "everyone wants to have one's money" but check that it's okay, you get to rent at Intersport, as there are several less serious landlords who rent old dikes doys and the like.
There are nice slopes in the Sierra Nevada and good lifts when you reach the hill.

Pose tive:
Good slopes
Quite alright snow
A lot of sun

negative:
Expensive lift passes
There are bad ski rents
Much lift queues