Orsa Grönklitt - Hostel

Just returned from a week at this resort, and it was absolutely perfect. The accommodation was excellent - we were in a chalet for 12, and although the bedrooms are small and feel very cramped with four adults sharing, the rest of the chalet was spacious, and I wouldn't see that as a reason for dropping a star. The chalet was at the top of the hill with large windows looking out over the snowy landscape, a very well appointed kitchen, a large bathroom with sauna and drying facilities, an additional bathroom and a large communal eating and relaxing space. Possibly not enough relaxed seating for 12, but for a smaller group, just fine. The staff onsite were superb - we didn't meet one member of staff who wasn't polite, helpful and friendly and given that we don't speak Swedish this was particularly appreciated. Having had no previous cross country skiing experience we wanted to have a one hour lesson and we needed to hire all our equipment - we were able to set this all up within the first hour on our first day and their flexible rental arrangements were perfect for us, given that we weren't sure what we were doing! Our instructor was great, and spoke enough English to give us a very informative and helpful lesson which gave us the confidence to go out onto the tracks. The cross country tracks are beautiful and very varied and we tried nearly all of them. They're well marked and well looked after and there seem to be plenty of opportunities to go off the main tracks as well. There were others in our party who were trying the snowboard lessons and using the downhill slopes for skiing and everyone was happy with their experience. We were there during a week which provided special offers for children and families but it wasn't at all crowded, apart from on the weekend, and then the weekend did get very busy, from Friday onwards. I'm really pleased that we were also able to experience the resort when it wasn't so busy. We self catered and didn't use the bars or restaurants - when we there, a number of the facilities were closed from Monday to Thursday, which could be a bit frustrating, but given the cost of living in Sweden, we were happy to self cater anyway and there is a small, but quite well stocked shop on site for daily provisions. We actually found that the cost of the week was very reasonable, especially as there were 12 of us sharing a chalet, but the cost of the lessons and the ski hire was also very reasonable. I can highly recommend a trip to the Fyksas Hotel at the top end of one of the cross country tracks - their waffles and the views from the restaurant are amazing! Just one negative (maybe..... but then maybe not) there is only free wi-fi in the Guest Center and then it's patchy.