Taking the Family on a Sierra Nevada Snow Adventure

From November onwards the Sierra Nevada slopes enjoy snowfall and in the upper levels this can reach 40 cm, while the lower levels get snow depths of at least 20 cm. The Sierra Nevada is a fantastic location for a holiday home, as the Granada province is easily accessible by air, rail and by road and most ski resorts are within a 1.5 hour drive of both the Costa Tropical and the Costa del Sol.

Whether you enjoy showing off your skiing skills on the piste or prefer off-piste snowboarding or simply having a snowball fight with your kids, the Sierra Nevada Natural Park offers something for everybody and buying a home here is a great long term investment.
 
If your family consists of small and medium sized adrenalin junkies who love nothing better than to go snorkelling, fishing, diving and paragliding in summer and skiing and snowboarding in winter, the Granada province is the perfect destination for holiday home hunters.

Local Facilities

In total there are 20 lifts serving some 100 km of piste. Weekends can get very busy as Spaniards love to drive up into the mountains for some skiing and fun away from the coast. Beginners and intermediate skiers enjoy the pistes while advanced and experiences skiers usually head for off-piste skiing slopes. The resorts offer rather expensive hotel accommodation and restaurants, which makes self-catering apartments popular with holidaymakers.

When you’re not using your holiday home, why not let it out via an experienced and reputable skiing holiday tour operator? It pays for maintenance and upkeep.

Sierra Nevada Ski Resort Nightlife

All of the resorts offer good restaurants and vibrant bars, where one can dance the night away. If your holiday home purchase needs to satisfy several family members with very different ideas of what makes a perfect holiday, it’s a good idea to visit a number of ski resorts before buying. Hotels tend to be 4- and 5-star, pricy but offering excellent bars and restaurants, gym and spa facilities.

Snowy Family Adventures

Families might be better off buying somewhere close to the natural park, where the Salayr Snow Park offers mini adventures that can be enjoyed by snow worshippers as young as four. The snow park boasts the largest half-pie in Spain – it is an astonishing 6 metres high and 165 metres long, which allowed the park to host the snow junior world championships.

Other resorts near the Sierra Nevada Natural Park include Javalambre, a 393 km drive from Granada, Valdelinares, a 436 km drive from Granada and Valdesqui, a 410 km distance away.

Altitudes vary, but lie typically at around 1,800 to 2,000 metres. Javalambre for example lies at 1,825 metres altitude.

The main ski resort of the Sierra Nevada is, however, located in the municipality of Monachil, just a 32 KM distance from Granada by road. The Ski Station offers winter sport fans around 2,500 hectares of skiable area and can handle nearly 30,000 skiers per hour.
 
Join Russian sled rides through the forest or take snowmobile rides through virgin snow. There are many activities that children aged 5 to 12 can enjoy under supervision of an instructor, leaving their parents free to follow their own off-piste or on-piste dreams, from professional slalom to ski-cross, from cross-country skiing to guided ski tours through the natural park.

How about taking horse-riding lessons with the kids or joining a guided horse-back ride or striking out on your own, if you’re an experienced rider?

The resort also offers families fun on the ice rink next to the Mirlo Blanco playground, where everyone can enjoy a mini snow adventure with slalom on bikes, archery or simply building snow men.

Sierra Nevada Property

For determined city dwellers Granada has some amazing townhouse bargains to offer. Just outside the city limits buyers can find 3-bed, 3-bath homes for EUR 410,000 or less, that’s just a 30 minute drive from the slopes, 50 minutes from the Mediterranean Sea and a mere 1.20 hours to Malaga Airport!

A resale studio apartment in the heart of ski resorts, boasting fantastic mountain views and sleeping up to six people, will cost around EUR 85,000.