Hi - I was kkb till 5 mins ago when I decided to be radical & do a name change.
The Vestlia was fantastic. Initially got off to a bad start because the flight was delayed 15 hours and moved to Oslo and the luggage then took forever to unload, so we spent all night travelling and then arrived @ 6am to find we had been allocated a twin room for three of us (DS1, DS2 & me).
Do not normally shed tears, but was very upset and the hotel (and Neilson rep) were great and moved us to in a family suite their new wing - (double bed in one room and double sofa bed in the other, plus kitchenette and large dining table, TV, balcony and beautiful views over the frozen lake. There is a swimming pool that the boys played in - we ususally seemed to have it to ourselves. There is a separate adult pool that I did not investigate.
The food was excellent - especially the fish evening, but it got quite croweded then as apparently people come from miles around for it... The boys liked the games room and very cosy sitting area and bar.
Some distance out of town. We walked there, but hard to judge how far as they boys were playing at fishing in the frosen lake, and building snowpeople, so you could probabaly walk it in 20 mins - took us about 3 hours... i beleive there is a bus, and presumably taxis.
The frozen lake behind the lake is spectacular - we went dog sledding round (and on!) it - fantastic fun, I had to drive which was rather hair-raising at first, but would do again ifi had the chance.
I had been paranoid ( see above) about distance to the slopes - in fact it could not have been better - no more than 50m acrosss a car park, to the lifts and ski shop, and we could leave the skis in the ski shop overnight, so no carrying needed.
The slopes were on held the snow better, on the other side of the resort near the Doctor??? Hotel it was south facing, and people who went there said it was very slushy by afternoon ( we were there in April - our slopes has excelletn conditions)The slopes were not challenging, but the DC really enjoyed the ski school, and their ski jumping is now unbeleivably good (snowbard run. I would defintiely go back again except that it would not be challenging enough for the DC next year. I would happily pootle down the slopes and have earmarked it for my retirement (and to take my grandchildren to )
The horible outward journey was not the fault of Neilson, but Astraeus the airline. Neilson terrific company and will deffo book with them again.
Norway is pretty dry in the alcoholic sense, they do not serve alcohol till 3pm, so none of the cold beer and long lunches of other countries. Would advise investing in some duty free ( Dh did actually advise me but i did not beleive him )