This turned out to be a great experience.

This is an old fashioned hotel and seemingly old fashioned procedures. Booking independently was not easy, the usual search sites kept on coming up with no availability- I think I have heard other commentators remark on the reluctance of the Italian hotel industry to embrace the internet. We ended up emailing them direct and having to reply a number of times to conclude the booking, it even included us having to send a scanned letter with a signature giving them authorisation to take our CC.

But it was worth persevering- What you do get is the advantages of an old style hotel over the modern boutique types. A bedroom about 4 metres each way and high- plenty of space not to bump into your partner!, some sound of the upstairs floor but nothing coming through the adjacent bedroom walls. A complete wall of fitted cupboards for hanging space and a bathroom with 2 basins, heating and plenty of hot water.

Style of the hotel is a bit varied and faded, slightly dated formal classical bedrooms and hallways- there is this green fabric covering acres of the walls, public area rooms with plenty of space to sit around including a roaring fire in a 60s alpine style, the pool area still in its futuristic late 50s style, then the evening restaurant on a grand scale-chandeliers and nets draping down with armies of waiters in hierarchical uniforms providing a traditional service.

Breakfast is served in a separate room, nice touch if you are there for 7 days, buffet style though if you want anything hot like eggs its extra, while the evening meals in the separate restaurant were superb, gargantuan buffet followed by 2 courses plus desert, then cheese or return to the buffet, basically you can eat to you explode. For non residents the price of the meal was printed at 75euros. The quality was superb, absolutely no complaints.

The minibus service was excellent. Normally we would like to be in the centre of town but with the 15min frequency it was better to be outside. The hotel is set in its own grounds, its quiet, and you get all above……For skiers they do have a ski room too, and the minibus stops at 2 places on the skibus route.

Nice to come back to a pool after skiing, there are sauna and steam room facilities but strangely these seem to be part of a separately run beauty business in the hotel and on paper there is a charge of 35euros to use them!!, most hotels of this standard would include it with the pool use??. Tiny gym area free to residents too, but not much take up here.

All the staff were very friendly and helpful. The beds were a bit hard but on 2 separate stays in other Alpine areas we found this so maybe it’s a “cultural” thing. On the other hand we asked for softer pillows and they were with us that evening.

We would stay again. The hotel website offers special week stays where you have to pay in total upfront. I would only recommend it as value for money for this option. We looked at the other Cortina hotels on Tripadvisor, many seemed to use the usual trick of showing off renovated front desks etc but when you saw members photos of bedrooms we were put off and thought we would go for the MM. I’m glad we did as it has given us good memories of our trip to Cortina.

I went for xmas, skiing for the first time with the family in 2004. We had a great time the hotel is beautiful the food excellent and the rooms - above average.

We went off season just before the prices rocket. If you pick the right dates you can get a fantastic bargain. We have rebooked again this year from the 17th -26th December and got a great deal.

The hotel has the charm of the 1930's and is a lovely experience, we like good hotels and stay in 4/5 star all the time, in our opinion it is worth a visit.

Cortina skiing is really good and the scenery, well some of the best views you are likley to see. go to the dolomiti websites and view the images you will see what i mean.

If you want to holiday in a beautiful up market mountain resort then no where in Europe will beat Cortina. This is one of the most underated places to visit in the Alpine region and will certainly compare favourably with its rival resorts in Austria Germany and Switzerland. I can say quite definately this as I have been all over the Alps.Cortina is a smart looking town surrounded by spectacular scenery with the peaks of Tofane Cristallo and the Sorapis towering above.There are Chairlifts and Cable Cars to get you up to the mountain tops and there are numerous walking possibilities. Two trips I would recommend are the 3 passes tour and a trip to the beautiful village of Misurina with its beautiful lake.I stayed at the Miramonti Majestic Grand Hotel and it is absoloutely superb. It is set in its own magificent grounds, has beautifully furnished rooms, excellent leisure facilities and the food served is simply out of this world.The hotel was used in the James Bond film "For your eyes only" and as you would expect James Bond has good taste.I spent a week here in August 2003 and I would sum it up by saying that if you want a superb holiday in the mountains of Europe you won't get much better than Cortina d'ampezzo. I now intend to go back in January 2004 to see this beautiful place in its winter landscape.