I am a low-level intermediate skier and my 20 year old daughter had never skied before. We left our hotel in Las Rozas (25mins out from Madrid) at 0630 on Friday Saturday and Sunday morning. We were in the Valdesqui car park by 0730 and among the first 20 cars there. We started the queue for ski hire - which opened at 0830 and were among the first on the slopes which open at 0900. If you turn up at 0900 you will see the worlds longest and most disorganised queue!! On day one even though we were in the skischool queue at 0845 we had missed all the available ski school slots. We got one for my daughter on day two. Do not try to go up after midday for an afternoon session. We left Valdesqui at 1230 on Sunday and the traffic coming up as we went down was jammed for c.8miles!! The positives: - when the car park is full they close the road in so there is a limit to number of skiers on the slopes and the slopes were never over crowded - the blues and greens are PERFECT for beginners and intermediates getting their 'ski legs' back. The pistes were in excellent condition even in sunny weather - their are great views from the top (we had amazing weather) - you can ski from 0900 til 1600 and still be back in Madrid for a beer before the sun sets (we did this twice!) - I'm no expert but I thought the quality of skis and boots was pretty good. - this is a great place to learn once you get on the slopes if you have a patient partner/friend who can help you. The negatives: - if you're not prepared to go early then do not bother unless you are happy to stand in slow moving lines for a couple of hours. If you're early you'll have to wait for 45 mins but you'll be on the slopes while everyone else is still scrambling for ski hire. - you can only hire equipment for one day at a time so you have to do the whole process of queueing each day. - it is a slow process getting skis and passes - you have to queue for everything. Nothing is state-of-the-art. All very old fashioned. - organisation at the 2 bars/restaurants is chaos. Take a back pack with sandwiches and drinks. - the ski instructor was ok but nothing special. I taught my daughter to ski and after 2 days she could comfortably ski the long blues. Overall we had a great 3 days here but I give it 3 stars because of the early starts necesssary, the chaos of ski hire and questing, the poor food/drink. For the beginner skier though it was great. NOTE: IF YOU CAN GO DURING THE WEEK AND NOT WHEN THE KIDS ARE OFF SCHOOL APPARENTLY THERE ARE LESS QUEUES AND VERY EMPTY SLOPES

I went on a week day and I really had a great time. It wasn't too busy and took me only 40min driving from Madrid.