Alpincenter Bottrop, indoor ski slope, Dortmund, Germany.

This indoor ski/snowboard slope is located just to the West of Dortmund and the North of Essen. Dortmund has an airport and Bottrop is very easy to reach via train or car, Bottrop is also quite close to the border of the Netherlands so if you are on holiday there I recommend popping over for a day. Once you get into Bottrop the Alpincentre is very well signposted. Now this is one of the best indoor ski/snowboard slopes with real snow that I have ...
...staff do speak English if you get stuck or need help of any sort.

As you pull into the car park you can go either right for the top car park (which is nearly allways full) or left to the lower level car park. If you use the lower car park then here are some directions to get you into the main enterance hall. As you face the main building there is a slope on the left side which takes you to the flat escalators, travel on these all ... more

This indoor ski/snowboard slope is located just to the West of Dortmund and the North of Essen. Dortmund has an airport and Bottrop is very easy to reach via train or car, Bottrop is also quite close to the border of the Netherlands so if you are on holiday there I recommend popping over for a day. Once you get into Bottrop the Alpincentre is very well signposted. Now this is one of the best indoor ski/snowboard slopes with real snow that I have been told about in the North of Germany and the staff do speak English if you get stuck or need help of any sort.

As you pull into the car park you can go either right for the top car park (which is nearly allways full) or left to the lower level car park. If you use the lower car park then here are some directions to get you into the main enterance hall. As you face the main building there is a slope on the left side which takes you to the flat escalators, travel on these all the way to the top and then leave the building by the right hand door. Then walk down the steps and follow the path all the way along the side of the building to the main entrance doors.

As you enter the main doors there are two kiosks infront of you for group bookings, if you haven't pre-booked for a group then you need to turn right for the normal tills. (All prices are at the bottom of this review) Once you have paid you get given a plastic wristband which you must wear at all times and if you are hiring boots you also get given a small yellow token, keep hold of this and I'll explain. The centre are quite happy to just hire boots out if that is all you need, if you do not need to hire equipment because you have your own then that is fine.

Now for your hire items, for boots you need to go to the far right hand side of the main hall (just past the shop). This is where you will need your token and I suggest that you learn your shoe size in German as it is easier for the staff, when you are asking for your boots they will ask for you token and all you do is hand that over. If you need a snowboard then you join the next queue to your left and if you need ski's it's the next queue to the left from the snowboards. For clothing, if you turn around so the hire areas are behind you then you have a clothing hire shop just to the right of the locker room entrance. You will need to ask for clothing hire though when you pay at the tills.

Now the locker room (as I said is next to the clothing hire) go straight down the corridor and choose whichever locker you want, make sure they is a key in the door. You will need two 1euro coins to operate the locker, slot both coins in but don't close your locker till you are ready to go skiing or snowboarding as when you open your locker you only get one euro back! I used one locker for three of us, bags, shoes and coats all in one so there is plenty of room in just one locker.

Once you have all your equipment you head over to the very left of the main hall (behind the group booking kiosk) ,walk through the doors and up the corridor to your right. About a third of the way up on the right is a small corridor to the slope, as you enter the slope to the right is the nursery slope and down to the left is the normal slope. At the very bottom of the normal slope and round to the left is another flat escalator which will take you all the way to the very top of the nursery slope.

I think that this facility does cater for any ability of skiier or snowboarder and at the base of the nursery slope (just before the top of the main slope) there are first aiders (usually two or three). I found that at times when I needed advice and none of my friends were around I just had to ask another snowboarder and they helped me, everyone seems willing to help you if they can. (I couldn't tell you the amount of people who just helped me to stand up!)

If you fancy food or a break there is a bar down in the main enterance hall and another one at the end of the corridor that you walked up to get to the slope. There are toilets opposite this bar, including a disabled toilet. Also there is a self-service resturant straight past the bar next to the slope, all you do is go in and find a table (leave someone there though as at the busy times you might loose it to someone else) and go to the central area to get your food. Nothing is labelled in English so you might have to guess as to what some of the food is but everything I had was really tasty. Fruit juices are also in this section but if you want any other type of drink you will have to go to one of the two bars in the resturant .

If you get bored of skiing or snowboarding there are other things which you could do on site, there is a man made beach outside, a beer garden, kids play area and an indoor discotech. Most of these are outside so if it's nippy and you want to stay indoors try one of the bars or the resturant, if it's really nippy they light a roaring fire in the bars. There is also a shop in the main enterance hall but I didn't get a chance to have a look so I can't tell you what the prices are like. I found this a really good place to learn how to snowboard and saw ski and snowboard lessons going on all around me (but I wished I had joined in)..

Anyway here are some the prices for you:

day tickets adult
16 years plus

mon-fri 33euro
sat- sun 44euro

children
6-15 years

mon-fri 22euro
sat- sun 29euro

toddlers
up to 5 years

mon-fri free
sat- sun free

family 1
1 adult, 2 children

mon-fri 66euro
sat-sun 88euro

family 2
2 adults, 1 child

mon-fri 77euro
sat-sun 99euro

There are a lot of other ticket types and if you state before you pay entry that you have your own equipment you will get a 10% discount. Also all your food and drinks are included in the price and they are tea, coffee, beer, wine and soft drinks.

Now here are a couple of the ski/snowboard school prices:

1 hours lesson for 1 person is 39 euro,
2 people is 29 euro,
3 people is 25 euro
and 4 people 21 euro.

2 hours lesson for 1 person is 75 euro
2 people is 55 euro
3 people is 49 euro
and 4 people 39 euro

You can do lessons in blocks as well, or group bookings for 2 or 4 hours and children but this is expensive as it is one-to-one with the child. Insted of me copying all the different prices for you though I have found the website and it even has an English version.
http://www.alpincenter.com
Just click on the british flag for the english version. There are event dates, information on the centre, prices, directions and contact numbers. If you do go please have a brilliant time and enjoy yourself..

If you don't know your shoe size in European, leave me a message in my guestbook and I'll convert it for you.  

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