sabian

Hey Guys,

I have been looking at google maps and from Calpe in Spain. I can travel North East for 362 miles and get to the ski resort of Andorra. Or I can travel from Calpe in the other direction South West for 279 miles and get to the Sierra Nevada which is a lot smaller ski resort. I have looked into public transport but don't know where to begin.

I know that a 1.4 liter car would cost me about £95 to get to the Sierra Nevada and back which would be around 560 miles. Not bad, but then I wonder if you know if I can get to these resorts by train or bus?

Do they even have a bus service in calpe that goes direct?

I don't think there is a train service in Calpe, but is there a bus from calpe to the train station and then a direct train to the Sierra Nevada?

From google maps it shows that the Sierra Nevada is in Granada.

Any help much appreciated

Many thanks in advance

Rotor

Trains run to Granada but not Sierra Nevada(they cant get up the big hill) , get a bus from Granada to Sierra Nevada

valenciatim

Teruel is much closer to you!

Mitzyboy

and is a lovely place to stay

steviedeluxe

There are resorts north of Madrid too. When the AVE link opens next year, it should be quite a quick train journey there. I would have thought though a plane journey to Austria or Switzerland would mean more reliable snow though.

sabian

Many thanks for all the replies guys

Many thanks for your post. I have looked into Teruel and the closest ski resorts within 50KM from there is Javalambre and valedinaires with both combined your looking at 30KM of skiing which is tiny. I am an expert skiier and want something more challenging. Sierra Nevada with 137KM is more for me and then Andorra with 436KM is amazing. I looked at the Aragon mountains which Teruel is on the more southside of and they have three other ski resorts, one of them was formigal which has 137KM of skiing. Again all these resorts are quite far, Javalambre and valedinaires are within 170KM from Calpe. Which is great! Is there any other ones that close from Calpe but which are bigger ski resorts, I thought perhaps travelling in the other direction there should be something, shouldn't there?

Trains run to Granada, from where? Can I go direct from Calpe to Granada, or Benidorm to Granada, Altea to Granada, Alicante to Granada, are these possibilities?

I have looked into altari rail service they go at 126mph and the AVE train service go at 186mph, providing I can use these services then I could get to these resorts so fast.

mikelincs

Trains from Calpe, Altea, Benidorm are all small tram trains and only go to Alicante, there are no main line services from these places yet. They are building a new high speed link to Alicante, but not sure what the timetable is for that. The Costa Blanca is not served well by trains.

steviedeluxe

I took the train from Valencia to Granada many years ago. It took around 12 hours. I doubt the journey time would be much quicker now, as they've not put down a new high speed line along that route. In fact I'm fairly sure the train took the route back towards Madrid (maybe Alcazar de San Juan) before coming out again.

missile

I think you will be disappointed with the skiing in Sierra Nevada

tuk-tuk

Errrrmmm why not take up water skiing instead?, it's right on your doorstep.tuk-tuk.

Veleta

The Sierra Nevada is OK from a convenience point of view. Plenty of KMs to keep you busy all weekend and then some. Pradollano is not the most attractive village in the world, I think "functional" might be a good word to describe it. But for a die hard skiier who is not a holidaymaker, the attractiveness of the village (or lack of) shouldn't really be a factor.

If I really want to push the boat out and spend loads of money then I would still prefer the likes of Austria, but for the occasional weekend on the slopes the Sierra Nevada is more than adequate and there are still loads of runs that I haven't had time to test out yet.

missile

if you live close by. Would you describe it as challenging for an experienced skiier? I certainly would not

Veleta

Given the parameters that we have to work with, ie ski resorts within Spain, I would say that the Sierra Nevada is one of the more challenging ones. There are several ski resorts in Spain but most are tiny. The Sierra Nevada would be my ski resort of choice within Spain, but if you bring the likes of Austria or Switzerland into the mix then no, I would prefer one of them. The SN only has a handful of blacks, but plenty of KMs of reds.

missile

It is a long journey from Calpe to Sierra Nevada
(IMHO) he would be disappointed. I was

Veleta

I'm assuming that as an expert skiier he already knows that Spain is not the best place in the world to go for skiing. If he doesn't then yes, he will be sorely disappointed! I guess, like me, he is just after somewhere convenient to go for the odd weekend away in which case the SN will be fine, or "functional" as I think I said earlier, and beats those resorts with just 30Km of slopes!

If you want to be wow-ed then I'm afraid there's no other option than jumping on a plane and going much further afield, but that is not the remit we have been given.