Facilities & Services

The resort prides itself on having 5 star service, and whilst the services and facilities are very comprehensive, the actual service quality can be lacking in parts of the resort.

Amenities and ski facilities are located in the buildings adjacent to the hotels, including lockers, ski and snowboard school, equipment rentals and a repair workshop.

Eating On Mountain The Slalom cafeteria at the central hub sells fast food such as burgers and fries, although the speed with which you receive your meal is from fast, even when it’s not busy. Just relax and absorb the Chilean culture. Have a beer or two while you wait.

The Bayo Zero restaurant is at the base of the Andes express detachable quad. This is a delightful place to stop for a drink or lunch, particularly if it’s a sunny day when you can perch out on the deck and watch the lift queues. They have a combination of fast food and a la carte food. They also sell those gorgeous sweet treats from Havanna, so this restaurant can be a dangerous place for the waist line. This is also a reasonable spot for après drinks as it’s open until 5pm.

Facilities for Children Guests of the hotels receive complimentary child care (ages 3 to 7) from 0900 to 1300 and 1400 to 1800 (does not include lunch). There is also a games room in the Hotel Puerta del Sol for little kids and big kids, with various toys and other entertainment such as a Wii console.

For ages 4 to 7, the Valle Nevado Snow Garden offers group or private ski lessons. Programs are half day or full day with the latter including lunch. A full day (without equipment) costs $41.000 (minus the VAT for foreign overnight guests - 2009 rates).

Ski School The ski and snowboard school is large with lots of multi-lingual instructors. There are instructors who can speak Portuguese (for all the Brazilian holiday makers), Spanish (of course) and English. They even have a snowboard instructor who speaks Australian!

As a guide to prices, an adult group lesson for 2 hours costs $25.000 and a private 1 hour (particular) costs $49.000. An adult beginner group 2 hour lesson, with equipment and ticket costs $56,000 (2009 rates - convert here).

Equipment Rental Valle Nevado rent out standard skis and snowboards as well as some “prestige” equipment, although this is nothing too special. Don’t expect a huge range of boards, and they only hire a very limited range of fat skis. As a guide to prices, rates for a standard ski set are $19.500 per day. Guests who charge the equipment rental to their hotel room are excused the 19% VAT.

Banking and Internet Facilities Free internet access is available throughout the hotels. Hotel Puerta del Sol has a cyber café, and Hotel Valle Nevado also has PCs available in the lobby area.

An ATM is located in the cafeteria.

Medical Facilities Valle Nevado has a small clinic on the hill to deal with minor medical issues. The most common ailment is probably not broken bones from mishaps in the terrain park, but altitude sickness, as the hotels are at an elevation of 10,000 feet. See our travel tips for Chile for information on minimising the risk of altitude sickness.

Communication Valle Nevado doesn’t provide adequate service when it comes to communication and this isn’t a Spanish/English/Portuguese language problem. The hotel reception staff are very friendly and some are bi –lingual (or tri-lingual), but they become the main communication conduit because other options are very limited. Valle Nevado needs some electronic boards (or even pin boards) that indicate the status of the road, runs, lifts, and connections to La Parva and El Colorado. Other information such as weather forecasts and road closure predictions would also be useful. Any reports on the internet are commonly not up to date, so you may make plans thinking the road is open, only to find it's not! A decent information system would reduce the frustration of many guests.