Norefjell Ski & Spa

***** Amazing Place, the staff is polite and helpful. We found a great environment. The outside activities were amazing and well-organised

Perfect hotel for a family getaway. Our second trip there in a year, and the overall experience works for us. Some refurbishing would be nice, but overall it works. Luigi at the lobby coffee bar with the waffles is a legend. People like this makes you want to come back! Thank you!

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.

My fiancé and I stayed at the Norefjell Hotel and Spa for one week in February, out of term time. We were very pleased with the spa facilities at the hotel, which were located on the 7th floor. The spa is open from 1pm until 8pm. It costs extra but we felt it was worth it, the spa included a bathrobe, slippers and towel, the spa provided a cold tub experience of 15°c which felt like an ice bath which works wonders for your body. The outdoor heated pool was fantastic! They also had 3 salt foot spa’s and two saunas. The hotel room was comfortable, and shampoo, conditioner and shower gel were included. The mattresses were on the softer side for me personally but I slept soundly. There is no housekeeping unless you request it during your stay. The reception team are very friendly and will provide you with toilet roll as and when you need them. We were shocked at the number of small children who were roaming the hotel corridors, run up and down until 10pm on some evenings playing games. After carrying out some research we realised that children in Norway don’t start school until the age of 6, which explains why there were so many young families here outside of term time. Of the two restaurants in the hotel, Restaurant 815 is worth visiting, we booked our evening meals through the Norefjell hotel and spa website when we arrived, picking and choosing the days we wanted to dine there. You can also pop into the restaurant and book direct on the day when they open at 6pm. The all you can eat buffet cost us approx £43 each, and we felt it was worth it when you think how much a 3-4 course dinner would cost in the UK. The quality and variety of hot and cold food was very good, they had a number of vegetarian options too. If you dine in the Matbaren restaurant for lunch or dinner I recommend asking for their menu in English. I can reassure you that they offer more than just burgers and pizza’s. There is a delicious chicken salad on the starter menu and a delicious goats cheese on toasted bread with rocket dish as well. They also have steak and reindeer on the menu and 3 choices of desserts. There are many walking trails around the hotel which are worth checking out. We were disappointed with the sledding activity we booked through the Crystal ski app which cost around £20 each, as we were provided with a plastic racing sled that had a steering wheel and a metal breaking system, which I personally didn’t like. When trying to steer, the sled would pull to one side trying to throw you off. There were no instructions from the hotel activity team advising how to operate these non-traditional sleds. We noticed people were wearing their ski helmets to do this activity so it’s worth taking your helmets if you try this activity as there is no health and safety protocol. There is also a pond covered in slow beyond the piste which many people were sledding near, so approach this security with caution. From the airport to the resort the coach stopped for 30 mins at a supe

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.

A beautiful hotel located in a very pretty area, next to a small lake. The kitchen is perfect, each and every meal we had was delicious. There is an amazing swimming pool, perfect for both grown ups and kids. The staff was very kind and helpful during our stay.