Ski in Granada:

Sierra Nevada is located in the penibetic mountain range in Andalucia. It is Europe's most southern ski resort and contains the Iberian Peninsula's highest summits. The resort is situated in the municipality of Monachil in the Costa Tropical. It is amazing that at the foot of the mountain it is hot, and yet 35 minutes up the mountain you have snow! With 65 Kms of Piste for Skiing and Snowboarding the Sierra Nevada ski area is a fantastic resort for both novice and expert alike. Modern facilities coupled with an abundance of snow make this Spain's premier ski resort. From the site you can be on the slopes in 40 minutes making your home at Los Olivares ideal for both summer and winter holiday rental. During months where skiing is not possible you will find an abundance of walks, cycle and horse treking tracks that are used by many people who want to experience the great outdoors for fitness or just to view the breathtaking scenery.

The combination of latitude, altitude and a state-of-the-art snow making system usually allow it to pull this seemingly impossible trick off successfully. It is Europe's southernmost ski resort, wonderfully close to Spain's famous Mediterranean beach resorts but located by the Iberian peninsula's highest summits.

Sierra Nevada's 'resort village', Pradollano is one of Europe's highest, at an altitude of 2,100 meters. The resort is famous for staging the World Alpine Skiing Championships in 1996 after the event had to be cancelled when it was due to be staged there a year before because of lack of snow. Since then the resort has invested still further in its snow-making system, considered Spain's largest and one of Europe's best such facilities.

Even in the case of a complete lack of snowfall, Sierra Nevada can now guarantee the opening of the resort thanks to its excellent snow-making system. The number of guns have doubled, to 200 cannons, 13 low pressure and 187 high pressure units producing nearly 2000 cubic meters of snow per hour on 14 runs. The village area has been greatly upgraded with new alpine-style buildings and environmental improvement scheme. This is good news as the resort was a rather characterless mix of concrete rectangular blocks during its first decades of operation.

One of the best assets of the resort is a remarkable underground parking complex with a capacity of 2,880 vehicles. Another is the excellent indoor sports facility providing high altitude athletic training. The resort's Pradollano village offers a variety of services including quality hotels in a range of categories which include jacuzzi, squash, workout areas, sauna, indoor swimming pools, convention and meeting rooms, ski lodges, restaurants featuring local Andalusian and international cuisine, sundecks, night clubs, pubs and bars, discotheques etc. There is also a new medical centre, child day-care centre, banks with ATM's, supermarkets, sports and fashion boutiques.

The resort works closely with Spain's Environmental Agency and the University of Granada has designed a complete programme to protect and preserve Sierra Nevada's extraordinary wealth, including its geomorphology, landscape, flora and fauna. The area was declared a Biospherical Reserve by UNESCO in 1986. More than two thousand trees of different sizes have been introduced or transplanted throughout the village area. Sierra Nevada was the first European ski resort to introduce the 'green ski pass' to its environmental programme. Three per cent of income received from the sale of ski passes goes towards ecological matters.