A decent hotel with very helpful staff, the manager needs special thanks. Food is buffet style and certainly can be improved upon, wine is included – red is good, couldn’t stomach the white. Hotel has rooms with balcony but in winter, not worth the extra money. We did go for a room with a balcony only to discover that rooms without, were much bigger. Try and get a room facing the slopes without a balcony. Boot room is not heated – locker requires a 5 euro deposit, keys from the reception. Take a small lock with you for the ski stand. Ski and boots are in separate rooms. Drag lift is not far. Skiing in the whole area is excellent, probably not as good as the Dolomiti . transfer time from Turin is only 80 minutes.
For lunch definitely try the restaurant/pizzeria opposite the hotel – Lo Scoiattolo – probably a family run restaurant – excellent pasta and wine. For a special occasion would definitely recommend BaR Abba – dinner with wine will be in the region of 45 euro per head

Hotel was good, room was nice and clean and warm!! Food was mostly good, some rather strange things but good enough. The people queuing like idiots for the food every night was stranger. Wine was decent with the dinner, although they only allow an hour for dinner which is a little bit of a rush sometimes. The afternoon tea and 'cakes' are not worth bothering with. The boot room is cold so better to leave boots in your bedroom. The bar was ok and not too expensive compared to other places. Although there was hardly anywhere in Sestriere for a drink! The ice cream shop opposite the hotel on the road is excellent and worth going to. Have a bombardino while in Italy! We paid about £500 each for a week in a room with a large balcony overlooking the ski slopes and half board. Was definitely worth it and enjoyed the time at the du Col!

We travelled from Glasgow to Turin on 29th January 2012. Despite a dreadful delay at Turin whilst the baggage handlers got their act together this was a holiday almost bordering on perfection.

The Crystal team seem to have their act together these days compared to the earlier chaotic experiences. Have to say though, those bright green outfits make them look like Asda shopping trolley collectors :-)

Transfer was perfect and a very acceptable 1.5 hours to the Hotel Du Col. Great things about the hotel, the location to the slopes. You literally walk (or lumber) from the boot room, to the ski room then out of the downstairs car park and you are on the slopes. From there its a quick schuss and slide to the first chair of the day. The next and I have to say, great thing about the hotel is the wifi. So many hotels think its acceptable to just provide the wifi into the reception area or main bar areas. The Hotel Du Col have to be applauded here for getting this right. It was only 10 Eu for the weeks access and access is distributed throughout the hotel although thankfully it doesn't extend very well to the dining room! Further notable things about this hotel are the fantastically happy and helpful staff, there is a bar at ground level which is more sedate and downstairs there is a well laid out and sizeable pares ski bar area. Again the staff are second to none. A couple of music nights were scheduled through the week, the Pistey Boys were great, yes loud, but I am a bit older now and on that night the bar became extremely busy. Still, we went upstairs after a while and enjoyed a quieter beer. The rooms were fine and ours quite acceptable in terms of size, ours was on the slopes facing side on the first floor without a balcony. I think it would be too cold to ever take advantage of the balcony in January anyway. Plenty of hot water as well, so no post ski rush for the bath/ shower.

Having covered the up sides in balance I should mention some small niggles as we saw it. The food was pretty good though we have at the same price point experienced better in Hotel Diva, Tignes. However no matter how good the food is the downsides are the fact that when the hotel is full and all are eating at the same time, the buffet turns into somewhat of a scrum. Everywhere you go with your plate, you can bang into someone. Its not the fault of the hotel really it is perhaps simply an observation on the success of this fantastic place. Food was tasty and there was plenty of variety, there is absolutely no need to go hungry during your stay in this hotel! For a change we elected to eat in a pizzeria across the road on the last night and it was a pleasure to have a meal in lets just say, quieter circumstances.

The resort of Sestriere, Sauze, Sansicario are fabulous and the week we had, although we did lose half a day due to very poor visibility the rest of the week was practically the most perfect ski week ever, loads of powder and great sunshine for the rest of the week.

In summary, a great hotel with superb service and an almost unbeatable location. This was our first ski week in Italy having skied for 20 or so years. The italian experience was amazing, 3Eu for 2 Cappuccino on the slopes! Take that Val d'sere! In my opinion whilst you cannot beat the French lift system with all their bubbles and covered chairs, the italian hospitality and uk high street prices or less for lunches and drinks makes the overall experience in these difficult financial times a real option.

Well Done Crystal, Well Done Hotel Du Col. We will be back next year at the same time.

This has to be the friendliest, most comfortable,best value hotel in the Italian Alps!
The buffets are so full of Variety, with plenty of options from a light salad to a full 5 course meal, with limitless very good house wines, juices, sodas etc. thrown in.
We never once through our week found any complaint with rooms, hot water, heating,or fault correction.
The staff are the most accomodating, cheerful people to a man/woman.Mikela the manager has an unbelievably high standard of care and patience- or stay was a real delight!