Thank you Ikon pass for leading us here! The road up to the resort was an incredibly winding road for almost an hour. Hiring a driver familiar with this drive is a must. Once arriving, the small resort area with wide terrain (no trees), was very enjoyable. During our few days stay, the highest we could get on the mountain was via Andes Express. This was around half way to the top looking at the map. The runs were well maintained and the mountain was easy to navigate. This resort is a great way to enjoy the Andes Mountains. Mastercard gets 25% discount on rentals, food, etc so come with this card. We dined at a couple restaurants and although didn't think the buffet was all that good, the restaurant with a more chill vibe, almost sports bar like had wonderful food and service. Not the best snow coverage to start our stay, but decent conditions. Ended with almost being snowed in. read more

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Will never step foot at Valle Nevado and will warn everyone I know not to. Started out with waiting over an hour just to try to rent ski equipment. Line was moving extremely slow due to an issue with their computer system. Since it was moving so slow, I told my wife to stay in line and I would go to purchase lift tickets. Purchased two, all day adult tickets. By the time we finally got in to get rental equipment, it was after 11am, arrived at 9:30am. They were out of ski boots in our sizes. I requested a refund of our lift tickets because we could not ski due to their lack of equipment. I was told no refunds on lift tickets. I was told I could use the tickets at a later date. I only had one day that I could ski. I reiterated that I couldn't not ski due to the fact that they ran out of equipment. I also would not have purchased the lift tickets before getting my equipment but only did so because of their system failure and I was trying to salvage as much of what was left of the day.... again because of THEIR problems. No, no refund. So, buyer beware. Not only did we lose approximately $175 usd on the lift ticket, we paid for a round trip shuttle from Santiago at approximately $80usd as well as a wasted day and a wasted trip as this was our main reason for coming to Santiago. read more

This place is like stepping back in time, the mid 80's to be specific. The room decor is set in an 80's French apartment, that is in desperate need of a facelift. The whole resort could use a facelift. The rooms were fairly clean, the beds were comfortable, the clean sheets and comforters had stains on the, that was kind of gross. The bathroom showers had great water pressure. The service we experienced was excellent. There was always someone who spoke and understood English. The chairlifts were archaic, one sort of high speed quad that was running to the top of the mountain, otherwise, there were many sling shots, they reminded me of sort of like T-bars that I rode on over 50 years ago. This small like saucer thing is very uncomfortable. Unfortunately, it's the only way to get to the highest point on the mountain at 12,000+ feet as well as other areas. The tram holds 6 people, servicing the lower mountain and moves at an OK speed. There are two other chairs that are super slow, (for those that know) they run slower than chair 12 at Mammoth mountain , which I didn't think was possible lol. They have a large round heated pool that was packed every night with kids, men in speedo's, and some moms, most were drinking and listening to the DJ play EDM music. Your stay comes with a breakfast buffet, which was typical, omelette bar, eggs, bacon, lots of fruits and pastries, juices, coffee etc. For dinner, you can choose between four restaurant options, by far, the best was the Chilean restaurant, Sur. Make your dinner reservations early, it gets full quickly. Also, make sure for dessert you choose the sampler. The food and service were always outstanding. The Italian restaurant was overall decent. Another option is a dinner buffet, I can't comment because I'm not into dinner buffets and everyone I talked to regarding the French restaurant didn't care for it. Good luck. For lunch, at the mid mountain restaurant,the pizza was amazing, if you like rare hamburgers, then you might like the burgers. The resort is definitely family oriented. The week we were there, there were lots of families, and a lot of beginners. They didn't have much snow, but overall the mountain seemed to offer a good variety of terrain for beginners to advance. As for expert skiers, not so much and no trees. They offer heli skiing but did not try it. I'd rather heli-ski in Canada. Overall, seemed pricey even with the very small IKON discount. I'm glad I experienced it, but keep your expectations in check. I would definitely ski here again, if it's a pow pow day. No regrets, make life happen. read more

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I have a love-hate relationship with Valle Nevado. THE LOVE -Beautiful views. Seriously this is a photographer's dream with its snowy mountains. -The food! Seriously we had lunch there and I was so sad to not be able to finish my food because I had class to learn to ski. Whatever they put in their pasta, absolutely heaven sent. -Their hotels. You can breakfast there as we did on another day and have a little bit of everything. Fruits, breads, even an omelette station. -The aforementioned hotels have shops, too, where you can get ski gear and sunscreen. Huge win! -I feel the hot chocolate alone is something one should fangirl over. -Many ski instructors are bilingual and will go out of their way to help you learn to ski. -This is included on an IKON pass. -Free Wi-Fi. THE HATE -Too much snow makes it difficult to walk in snow boots. Some areas aren't properly cleaned and don't be surprised to be constantly tripping. -The food is delish, but the hours are wonky. At the very least in one of their hotels. Couldn't order a second omelette as they were already closing and it felt as if we were being kicked out. Grrr! -Their on-site hotels are expensive. We had looked into staying at one of them and couldn't justify it. Almost $400 a night. -Yes, the ski instructors are bilingual (or at the very least mine spoke enough English to offer conducting the class in said language), but know if you speak Spanish, your class will probably wind up being in Spanish. Chileans as a whole do not like speaking anything but Spanish. -Adding to that prior point, instructors and staff overall may speak English or Portuguese, but even the ones claiming to be bilingual or even trilingual, really aren't. Can't comment on the Portuguese as I don't speak much of it, but their English is generally awful. -Expensive compared to other ski resorts. Just look at La Parva. -Their free Wi-Fi is constantly dropping. Needless to say, this broke even in my book. Solid three stars. read more

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IKON PASS HOLDER Due to holding the Ikon 21-22 season pass, we decided to put a trip to South America on our itinerary to ski the Andes mountains. We reached out for a quote on lodging through the Ikon pass portal initially but ended up booking direct through Valle Nevado as the service was MUCH prompter, more pleasant, and easy overall. We stayed at Puerta Del Sol, one of their on-site ski in ski out hotels, which also included half board (both breakfast & dinner) at 4 on site restaurants. Customer Service - 4/5. Super friendly staff and efficient with their duties. Speed was slow for service many times but this seemed to be more so due to being understaffed than a con against the staff themselves. Lodging: pleasantly satisfied, albeit older /more outdated buildings. Our room was about 200 sq feet and had two single beds pushed together along with sufficient closet space and a well lit bathroom. Room service was good each day. Restaurant offerings: overall five stars. Restaurant Sur was hands down our favorite and 10/10 with outstanding servers and some outstanding once in a lifetime food!! Incredible colors, freshness of seafood, and blend of flavors for your pallets! We agreed the meal we had here would be a lifetime memory. Ski quality: the slopes were unbelievably quiet and bare of people which was a delight!!! We happened to visit over a local holiday and election so it was mostly just hotel guests skiing. The weekdays were also very quiet, and we passed maybe 20 people over our whole days on the slopes. Unreal!!! Overall our 5 days here were top notch and a favorite trip of ours so far. It's not cheap but hey, the memories and thrill of adventure are totally worth it sometimes. Only thing that could make this spot better is updated rooms, staff greeting you by name and learning some English, and more staff on hand to mitigate delays at meals or checkin and checkout. Highly recommend Valle Nevado and will return! read more

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The resort is quite nice, the view at the top is exceptional. Prices are high! It has always been a dream of mine to snowboard in the Andes mountain, so after dreaming about it for many years, we finally planned this trip to come and ride the Andes. This is one of the biggest resorts in the region, about the same as Portillo. This season Portillo got very little snow, but Valle Nevado got alot. Even though we came late season, it still had good coverage. The trails are groomed and well maintained. There is a gondola that takes you half way up the mountain, then a high speed quad to get to close to the top. There's several rope tows which is not my favorite. The chair lifts are much more preferred. Some of the trails were really icy due to the unique weather of the Andes, mostly dry, cold and windy. The runs are reasonably long, and on weekdays there were no lines for the lifts. Some of the lifts take you above the clouds, and the views are stunning. The mountain is absolutely beautiful. The resort's hotels were very nice, even though we didn't stay. We did have food and drinks at the restaurants and the food was good. The mountain was pretty high, and getting up there was not easy. We took a shuttle from Santiago and there was more than 50 cutbacks on a super narrow 2 way "highway" to get to the resort. Took 1.5 hours, and 2 hours with city traffic. So plan accordingly. Pro tip: this resort is part of the Mountain collective pass, and you do get 2 free days here if you have the pass! read more

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Spectacular setting, excellent skiing, and great food. I hear it can be expensive, but I won my trip, so I can't comment in that regard. What I can say is that the area is spectacularly beautiful and the skiing great fun, even with crusty spring conditions. The staff was courteous and very patient with my poor Spanish language skills and every restaurant I ate at here was amazing. Don't miss out on the free coffee, cocoa, and soup at apres ski! Also, this place does accept USD, but plan ahead better than me and come with some Chilean pesos - it's just easier to buy beers that way. Also, it's good to bring an outlet adapter, but one was provided with our room. The place was built in the 80's and that is evident in the small quantity of outlets. This can make charging devices a challenge, but it's a minor complaint. I must find a way to make enough money to come back during peak season when there is powder. read more

Now, for the present: Valle Nevado supposedly participates in the IKON pass, with seven days of skiing at VN for passholders (my girlfriend and I are both IKON passholders). I asked to book a room at one of the properties for August 2021 and was quoted a price that included skiing. I proceeded to let the reservation specialist know that I would like the "stay only" rate since I have the pass. I was then sent another quote with 10% off as an Ikon pass holder. with the summary of the proposal saying 4 nights with half board and skiing included. I then said, "You don't understand, even if a discount is offered, you have me paying for a benefit that I already enjoy as a passholder." Well, it turns out, there is NO SUCH THING as a room reservation without skiing included. The 10% off for the length of our stay would have been $324. This is supposed to equate to 5 days of skiing for two people? I don't even know how they can be allowed to participate in the pass program when they pull a stunt like this. I was looking forward to going, but won't go under these circumstances. Some resort properties honor the pass AND give 10% on top of that. We were here in 2008 and had a great time. I would only stay on the mountain because the drive up to the resort is daunting and dangerous. That said, I thought the property was mediocre, especially for the price. read more

(Realized this review was pending since 2018. Better late than never! Hopefully they're able to open again once this pandemic goes away) If you're not in the Southern Hemisphere and need to get your fix in during the off season, plan a trip down here! We rode on Friday Saturday and Sunday, and even though the last big storm was the previous Tuesday there were still powder patches in the backcountry. Amazingly, the snow holds up even up until 5pm. No such thing as slush! The drive up isn't as bad as others make it seem. If you've driven the switchbacks to Big Bear in California then you're more than prepared. Stay in Farellones if you're on a budget, and opt for one of the 3 Valle Nevado hotels if money's not an issue. The upkeep of this mountain is equivalent to large resorts in North America such as Mammoth and Park City. If you search youtube for "Chile 2018 Stanley", there's a nice video of our trip if the visual representation is helpful. read more

This review is for the restaurant only at the top. The service was exceptional, with a smile! We ordered the Jamon y queso sandwich with fries and it was to die for! We sat next to fire place and we had an amazing view of the mountain. I really liked it, great atmosphere! read more

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There were a lot of great things about this ski resort, but they really need to step up their game. Compared to a lot of the US Ski resorts, a lot of things here were just embarrassing. CONS: Access: When there is a snowstorm, the access road should be cleared and plowed constantly. This was definitely not the case. It was treacherous and potentially dangerous. Only one plow was seen (stopped) the entire route from Santiago. Cars were unable to make it to the top without chains on the one lane road. Entry: Multi-stop entry for renting ski equipment. Computer sign up terminals, then fitting, then delivery and then check out took 30-40 minutes with hardly anyone there. Embarrassing and way too long. Inefficient. I've never had to wait so long to get equipment. Concessions: Of course, it was "Cash Only". Due to poor planning, you have to wait 1/2 hour to get your food. Prepare people!! Signage: At a lot of US ski resorts, there are huge maps showing the entire mountain located on the course. Not the case here. It took awhile, but it's hard to tell where you're going. PROS: -Terrain: A lot of great terrain here. Intermediate, Advanced and Beginner. Stunning vistas and a lot of downhill options. -Staff: Overall pretty friendly. I would be back, but I'd first want to try Portillo. read more