Bardøla Hotel, Geilo

We found Bardola a very comfortable, traditional Norwegian style hotel with excellent access to cross country and downhill skiing. The pool and gym are very good, and the food was excellent. We are grateful that Inntravel responded extremely quickly to rearrange our homeward travel when the Norwegian government brought in COVID19 quarantine measures.

Tried cross country but despite good instruction, I had too many falls. But snowshoeing, which is very unpopular in Geilo, was very good: just use an app like FATMAP to select your own routes with manageable gradient and do your own thing. To be safe you can keep ski lifts in sight to help navigation but you can also just use the cross country trails. Almost no skiers have the stamina to use the steep trails anyway (but easy with snowshoes). Done snowshoeing in many countries and rate Norway highly. We had our own but the shops in town sell snowshoes. Get a pair with heal lifters to make steeper ascents much easier.

The Bardola is an excellent traditional hotel with a great food selection for both adults and kids. The ski bus ride to Slaatta ski centre is only 5 mins - timely in the morning, but less reliable on the return in the afternoon, so we often took the pleasant 15 minute walk back to the hotel after skiing. The skiing instructors are great, and the three beginners in our family progressed very fast, with the two children experimenting with red runs by day 4. We liked the format of four relatively short lessons [1 hour 20 mins each], allowing lots of time for family practice. We did not use the cross country facilities. Weather was mixed, but the lower lifts at Slaatta stayed open even during two days of gales. We would go again.

Geilo is a scenic, low-key, ski destination that we truly enjoyed. The snow was excellent, the people were friendly and helfpul, and there was enough, but not too much, of everything. Highly recommended as a ski destination for families or others who are looking for a relaxed and enjoyable ski holiday.  

What a fantastic holiday! First time skiing for my children and couldn't have been more perfect.

Oslo airport to Central Station - get the local train for half the cost of flytoGet service (and same train track!)

Train from Oslo to Geilo 3.5 hours of beautiful scenery and on time to the minute. Hotel waiting to pick up with a smile.

Hotel wonderful. Truly amazing food, very friendly staff and lovely swimming pool for relaxing at the end of the day. Room lovely but seemed to end up with kids in the very comfortable single beds and us in the less comfortable pull out double due to the room configuration! Lunch pack an excellent idea to avoid very expensive lunches.

Skiing fantastic. Empty slopes, no queuing for any lifts and excellent ski lessons for the children. Zero to red runs in 5 days of skiing. Free and easy bus to the ski centre (although the walk is only 5-10 mins and very pleasant). Very friendly staff in the ski centre. Wonderful, well groomed ski slopes. Perfect for beginners and improvers. So, so different to the French Alps and very relaxing as a result.

No 'apres ski' but not what we were looking for. Very relaxing instead and certainly not a party town (if that is what you are looking for). Norway is very expensive once there, especially food and drink. Alcohol particularly so.

Thank you to InnTravel and to Hotel Bardøla. A perfect holiday for our family - we will be back.

Personal highlights were the snow shoe trek with Geilo Active and the trip on the Flam railway. For cross-country skiing we would recommend using a guide at first as trail marking is not very comprehensive. Easy trails below the town and around the fJord but for more advanced trails transport is needed. The hotel minibus is available for transport but they make a substantial charge for this, which is not made clear in the info pack. Geilo Taxi is much cheaper and can be called in quite promptly.

Geilo is a great destination for those wishing to combine cross country skiing with downhill skiing. The Norwegians we met were so friendly & helpful. We all enjoyed a trip on the Flåm Railway & most of our group went Snowshoeing - two great experiences. The X-Country Ski Instructor was a good teacher & the Snowshoeing guide was extremely knowledgeable. Some of the group chose to spend a couple of days in Oslo before returning & I’m so pleased I did.

Excellent service and preparation from Inntravel. Catered to all of our needs and very accommodating. 

The hotel was lovely and the slopes surprisingly varied in difficulty.  The made up for the lack of vertical drop by their length - and in the middle of January, there were no queues to speak of.  Wonderful!

Recommend using the local train from the airport to Oslo central as half the price, almost as quick and adequately comfortable for a short journey of about 20 minutes rather than the dedicated express flytoget.

If doing XC skiing, start from the stadium as a base as most of the trails start from there and are well maintained when there is limited snow. Once you have your skis, it is easier to walk to and from the stadium to the hotel rather than take the bus. The bus takes you to the ski hire and the downhill slopes. If doing XC skiing, take a big flask as there are minimal refreshments near the trails - we didn’t find any - but there are cafes in the small town and near the ski hire and downhill slopes.

The hotel food is amazing - the best I have ever had in a hotel and much better than many restaurants. The hotel is wonderfully atmospheric and very creatively decorated. The pool is well maintained as is the gym.

We found all aspects of the holiday (hotel: family room, excellent quality and varied menu, swimming pool and games room; Slatta: ski hire, ski school, quite slopes and cafe), were perfect for learning to ski with a young family. 

Great family skiing on deserted slopes and cross-country trails. Perfect for young children and novice adults. Hotel not as good as previous experience but still a great option with largely excellent service.

loved the train journey

enjoyed an extra day in Oslo

very good food at hotel and all staff very friendly with excellent English

good ski lesson and lovely trail around lake

This was one of the most wonderful holidays we have experienced.  The snow and the skiing for us was exceptional, long green and blue runs, and super reds with jumps, that were great fun and the slopes despite it being half-term virtually empty, never queued at the lifts. Everyone wherever you are is super helpful.  The hotel  suited us perfectly and the food is exceptional, we couldn't get over the night that there was help yourself lobster, crab, crayfish and prawns, we've never experienced eat as much as you like lobster! We enjoyed walks in the area, husky 10km mush fantastic and stunning.  Looking forward to going back

Geilo is much more suited to downhill skiing. The staff at the Bardola Hotel did not know that the nearest cross country ski tracks were around the back of the hotel (we discovered them at the end of day 2). Also the bus to Havsdalen was not running this year, so for beginners/ intermediate cross country skiers the only trails available to ski were around the lake; this was very limiting indeed. It is possible to take a chairlift or button lift on your cross country skies to the top of the plateau to access the high level trails, but you had to be a good enough skier to do this and then to ski back down on the downhill pistes or a fairly steep un-loyped trail back to the hotel, as there were no lifts back down.
We are experienced cross-country skiers and spent three days cross-country skiing and three days telemarking. The downhill slopes were fabulous for our level of skiing. Also if you had many days of poor visibility or high winds, then really the only/main trail was around the lake. The loypes were not as regularly refreshed as in other resorts. The 22km and 24km trails that we did were excellent, on the high plateau, as the winds were very light and the weather was good. However, we would not have been able to do these if there were high winds or poor visibility. We were able to ski back down from them on blue pistes on one day and then on the trail back to the hotel.
The maps for cross-country skiing were poor and inaccurate and to find the start of the trails, we had to ask other cross-country skiers as in Slaata ski centre (where we hired the skis and boots) and in the hotel too, they did not know where the cross-country trails were except for the one around the lake; this is the only place to where we were directed. We were not alone as many other cross-country skiers asked us where the trails were during the course of our week!!
The ski hire staff were absolutely superb. The downhill slopes were excellent, too, and the buses linking the areas worked very well - except there was no bus to Havdalen this season and the start of some of the trails was around the back of the cafe at Havdalen. 

Hotel staff were excellent - super friendly, helpful and efficient. The meals were generally excellent especially the fixed choice evening menus. Alcohol prices were eye-wateringly expensive though. Loved the gym, swimming pool and sauna. Great after a day on the trails.  The resort was quiet the week we were there. We really enjoyed the skiing and the lessons were necessary and pitched exactly for our needs. There aren’t many trails close to the hotel but the hotel staff were very helpful and gave us lifts on two days. A really good holiday 

Geilo has a great range of XC trails and the Bardola hotel staff know about lots of routes and connecting trails so are a great source of information. In January, the days are short, the temperatures can get down to -15C and the mountain cafes are not yet open, so pack a flask for hot drinks during the day and take plenty of layers of clothing!

Wow - Geilo and the Bardola are an amazing winter holiday destination. This was our first ever snow holiday and it really couldn't have been any better; the efficiency of the rail travel from the airport to resort, and transport within resort were superb, and the friendly helpful staff at the hotel were all wonderful. Our holiday experience was wonderful from start to finish. Thanks to all concerned.

The snow was fantastic as was Geilo. The ski trails are brilliant but not very clearly signposted; neither is the map of the trails very easy to follow. Friendly staff, lovely hotel. 

The best thing about downhill skiing in Geilo in March/ April is the reliably good snow conditions and the uncrowded slopes. There are plenty of easy runs for beginners. The ski school were relaxed and flexible and able to provide a couple of private lessons for my older daughter at short notice. Prices of group and private lessons were very reasonable. 

With a small child (5 years) it was good to have a hotel with other facilities available such as the indoor pool, toboggans to borrow, children's activities on some evenings and the games room with table tennis, table football and films to watch. 

The price of drinks, especially wine, in the hotel was very high but we expected this.