Vestlia Resort

A convenient, well appointed hotel with great childrens facilities. The ski school and kindergarten are first class. The only downsides are the family cabin rooms are small, with only a shower and the cost of alcohol (bring your own for the room)

Lovely hotel with friendly staff and great food - buffet and a la carte on alternate nights, with a children's buffet every night which works well as older ones can eat and then go to the play area and hang out. Mostly scandinavian clientele with a few English, the children's eve entertainment was in Norwegian, but ours enjoyed it nevertheless. The children's pool was a bit ropey when we went (2006 ) but may have improved. The adults' spa was lovely but with three children we never got into it! The skiing is pretty limited, good for beginners and flattering for intermediates, but nothing much for experts. I was still breastfeeding, so could nip back to the hotel every few hours and feed the baby (being looked after by grandma!) so it worked well for us, though we wouldn't go back as we felt we'd exhausted the skiing possibilities. Tuition was in good english and friendly, if not perhaps as challenging as some other ski schools. The mountain food - if you're used to France - was a bit dire and very very expensive (

The Vestlia was fantastic. Initially got off to a bad start because the flight was delayed 15 hours and moved to Oslo... and the luggage then took forever to unload. So we spent all night travelling and then arrived at 6 am to find we had been allocated a twin room for three of us (DS1, DS2 & me).
Do not normally shed tears, but was very upset. However, the hotel (and Neilson rep) were great and moved us into a family suite in their new wing - (double bed in one room and double sofa bed in the other, plus kitchenette and large dining table, TV, balcony and beautiful views over the frozen lake).

There is a swimming pool that the boys played in - we usually seemed to have it to ourselves. There is a separate adult pool that I did not investigate.

The food was excellent - especially the fish evening - but it got quite crowded then as apparently people come from miles around for it... The boys liked the games room and very cosy sitting area and bar.

The resort is some distance out of town. We walked there, but hard to judge how far as they boys were playing at fishing in the frozen lake, and building snowpeople, so you could probabaly walk it in 20 minutes, but it took us about 3 hours. I believe there is a bus, and presumably taxis.

The frozen lake behind the lake is spectacular - we went dog sledding round (and on!) it - fantastic fun, I had to drive which was rather hair-raising at first, but would do again if I had the chance.

I had been paranoid (see above) about the distance to the slopes - in fact it could not have been better: no more than 50m acrosss a car park, to the lifts and ski shop, and we could leave the skis in the ski shop overnight, so no carrying needed.

The slopes we were on held the snow better, on the other side of the resort near the Doctor(???) Hotel it was south facing, and people who went there said it was very slushy by the afternoon (we were there in April - our slopes had excellent conditions). The slopes were not challenging, but the children really enjoyed the ski school, and their ski jumping is now unbelievably good. I would definitely go back again except that it would not be challenging enough for the children next year. I would happily pootle down the slopes and have earmarked it for my retirement... and to take my grandchildren to!

Norway is pretty dry in the alcoholic sense; they do not serve alcohol till 3pm, so there's none of the cold beer and long lunches of other countries. Would advise investing in some duty free (Dh did actually advise me but I did not believe him.)

Finally, the horrible outward journey was not the fault of Neilson, but Astraeus the airline. Neilson proved a terrific company and will definitely book with them again.