Padola Val Comelico

The runs and views earn the praise. The pistes hold their shape and are technically interesting, with genuinely selective sections for demanding skiers and easy tracks for everyone else. The covered four-seater Col d'la Tenda climbs to a rifugio with a bar, restaurant and wide terrace over the Dolomite peaks, and the aspect of the slopes is rated well. A nursery field with a drag lift sits at the base. The pass is part of Dolomiti Superski, so one ticket opens up an enormous region.

Isolation and cost are the objections. There is no ski link to neighbouring Croda Rossa, Sesto or Monte Croce Comelico, so you drive between them. Prices are called high for the area's current size, children's tickets especially: one father wrote that two children aged four and six cost him forty-two euros, while half a day at nearby Anterselva came to twenty-two. Flexible two-hour tickets do not exist.