We had a wonderful and very restful week at the Miramonti. The waiting staff were marvellous, the food of excellent quality and it actually snowed while we were there which turned the entire place into a wonderland.

I do however have a couple of things which I think need to be pointed out to future guests. The evening meal was sumptuous, and of course we had to pay for our wine, but I did not realise this would extend to water for the table. We elected to have one botttle of mineral water every night and couldn't believe the check-out bill for water alone was 112 EUD, which for just seven nights works out at 16EUD a bottle (just 3 EUD less than our wine bill). I didn't have the opportunity to question this at the time of check-out as I didn't have my reading glasses at hand and our transport was waiting.

The second gripe was that there does not seem to be designated non-
smoking floors and unfortunately we had two chain smokers in the room next to us and with the conjoined door arrangement meant that we suffered their endless smoking day and night. Eventually we packed the shared door around with clothing, but this was not even sufficient and the smoke still drifted in. Perhaps more people asking for non-smoking floors would arouse some positive action. It is great that most areas within the hotel are now non-smoking, but our problem was such a nuisance that we slept with the windows open - even when it was below zero outside.

The Miramonti is a beautiful, old fashioned hotel and of huge proportions, reminiscent in the winter landscape of the fictional ‘Overlook Hotel’, (Timberline Lodge) as featured in the film, ‘The Shining’, but don’t let that put you off! The public areas and corridors are large and lavish. On turning a corner in a corridor, you could almost expect to see Jack Nicholson with a maniacal grin, typing away on his typewriter. But this really is a grand and wonderful hotel in which to stay. Difficulties were encountered in trying to book over the internet but eventually after several e-mails we were successful.

Our room along with others we glimpsed at were large, around 5 metres square with two large wardrobes but very creaky parquet flooring, giving the impression that the entire building was really in need of a major refurbishment. This said, the bathrooms were modern and of generous size with 2 basins and all rooms appeared to have balconies with great views over the Italian Alps. With 2 separate doors from the corridor to the room and double glazing, the rooms were very quiet, though the beds were incredibly firm and pillows up to the usual standard in Italy, like sleeping on hard lumps of dough. On request though, you could have softer pillows delivered and every evening there was a bed turn-down service with chocolates placed on the sheets.

Situated in its own grounds 5 minutes drive from Cortina, The Miramonti was connected to the centre of town by its own minibus service, always very regular and reliable at 15 minute intervals so there was never a problem with this. The drop off in Cortina was at the town bus station so convenient for connecting with the bus services for getting to the slopes. If you are a beginner at skiing and wish to get to the slopes at Socrepes, the best bus service for this is the No, 3 service, taking around 10 minutes to get you up to the slopes.

Breakfasts were the usual continental affair and high quality but rather mean in the fact that you had to pay 12 Euros extra if you wanted a cooked egg or omelette. Evening dinners on the other hand were worthy of Mitchelin stars. These began with a vast and extravagant self-service buffet, a meal in itself and usually containing a speciality such as whole salmon. The quality of the food in the following courses was on a par with top London restaurants, an indication of this was the charge for an evening meal if you weren’t actually staying at The Miramonti - 75 Euros.

The hotel also has all the usual wellness facilities but rather surprisingly for a hotel of its calibre and room rates, you had to pay 15 Euros for the use of the sauna and steam room. Plead ignorance to this charge as some guests clearly managed to use these facilities without paying.

On the whole this must be the top hotel in Cortina with chandeliers and antiques adorning the public areas and dinning rooms. Pictures of VIPs and famous guests from a bygone era, when the hotel was probably at its very best, are also dotted around the lounges. A pianist plays in the bar by a log fire before dinner and also in the restaurant during evening dinner. All the staff were friendly, helpful and spoke good English.

Overall I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending this hotel to anyone. Cortina was a beautiful Alpine resort with excellent skiing facilities and our stay at The Miramonti only enhanced the memories of great holiday.

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.