Pragelato Sestriere Italy

I spent a week at Club Med Pragelato with my family (wife, 3 and 2 year old children).

Before booking, I’d read a handful of negative reviews from parents with little kids. It left me feeling a bit concerned. However, I decided to go ahead and book (last opportunity to take my son skiing outside of the expensive school holidays!) And boy am I glad I did…the week gave me everything I was hoping for!

My personal opinion: this is an incredible place to visit with two small kids - I highly recommend it to other parents. The biggest reason why? The incredibly friendly, enthusiastic and helpful staff!

First, some background about my family in case it helps other parents. My two kids are the challenging kind! I’d mentally prepared myself that they might refuse to join the kids’ club and leave us. But I’m happy to share that they went to the kids’ club every day, giving my wife and I the opportunity to ski each morning.

First day at the kids’ club was (unsurprisingly) hard. My son explained to us that our daughter spent most of the morning crying after we dropped them off! But the Club Med staff stayed calm and managed the tricky situation before we picked up our kids for lunch.

Next morning - she cried again when we dropped her off. However, she quickly calmed down and started playing with the activities. The staff at Club Med’s kids’ club did something really beneficial for my wife (without asking)…they sent us picture updates by whatsapp showing our daughter happily playing. This immediately reassured my wife and allowed us to enjoy our time off skiing.

I knew our children were most likely doing to be difficult but the Petite Club Med staff handled them without fault. Thank you, Julie, Nicole, Éloise, Simona, and Oceane - you're the most important reason for us giving a five-star review.

Food - our kids are also frustratingly picky eaters. Luckily, the main restaurant has a great variety of food options available. The extensive salad bar allowed us to always get some veggies into our kids. And one morning, I told a staff member (Calogero) that it was my son’s birthday. He then asked if he could arrange a birthday cake for him at dinner! What a lovely touch. Christophe - the pastry chef, always made our kids smile when visiting him for ice cream. When we visited La Tana (the more fine dining restaurant) for fondue, the staff were welcoming of our unruly kids and even got some colouring activities to keep them occupied.

Skiing - I think the setup is great for teaching little kids to ski. Yes you do need to take the gondola first (not true ski out). But our kids loved this (and it meant we didn’t need to put them in ski boots until it was time to ski). The beginner area is a bit small but enough for first time skiers with two magic carpets, which our kids loved also. Victor at the ski shop was also a huge help as he got the kids comfortable with wearing ski boots for the first time.

Check-in - my wife was feeling car sick from the coach journey. But Orion was so kind and helpful as she immediately brought a nurse to help.

You’ll also meet Hugo - the Chef de Village. His enthusiasm might be the biggest reason why all of the staff were so friendly and enthusiastic…it must rub off on the rest of his team! I really appreciated how he always checked in with us.

Summary? An unforgettable first family ski trip. Thanks the Club Med staff at Pragelato!

This resort is so so pretty. The staff are all lovely, and the food and drinks are fantastic. The ski area is amazing!!!
The rooms are tired and need updating. We had a lot of issues with the room. However.. everything else was perfect. The staff were all very nice, super friendly and approachable. After a rocky start we actually had a great stay and would definitely return.

Gian our ‘Maestro’ or ski teacher was incredible. He made our trip so enjoyable, he shared his knowledge and was amazingly patient. Big, big shout out to Gian!

My friend and I had a wonderful experience at the resort.
A special thank you to Hugo for being consistently present and overseeing activities throughout the day, to DJ Jeremy for the great music all week, and to Marco, my ski instructor, who was exceptionally thoughtful and patient with our group. Their efforts truly made my vacation memorable.
There are, however, a few areas that would benefit from improvement, particularly the check-out process and airport shuttle arrangements. The luggage pickup on the morning of departure was disorganized, and the instructions provided were unclear. We were told to leave our luggage outside the room for collection, but this did not occur. Instead, we had to bring everything downstairs ourselves and make several calls before staff assisted, ultimately handing the luggage over in person.
We were then instructed to wait in the main chalet while staff loaded the luggage onto the bus. This also did not happen, and we ended up carrying our own luggage, with some items nearly being left behind. There was also confusion regarding bus assignments, as no one seemed to know which guests were assigned to which bus.
At the airport, we were dropped off at the arrivals level, where luggage carts were not available. We had to wait approximately 45 minutes for an elevator to reach departures, which added unnecessary stress to the process.
Additionally, the flights booked through Club Med were misrepresented as direct flights. In reality, both our arrival to Milan and our return to Toronto involved connections. On both journeys, we had a very tight connection in Montreal, requiring us to literally run across the terminal to avoid missing the flight. This was particularly frustrating, as we had specifically chosen and paid for direct flights to avoid this exact situation, based on a similar experience during a previous Club Med ski trip last year. Overall, while the resort experience itself was excellent, improvements to departure logistics and travel arrangements would significantly enhance the overall guest experience.