Where will you ski next season?

Horace

Schladming in Austria and any resort in Austria is good for beginners.

Personally, I would avoid Val d'Isere like the plague - the ski school is awful, I paid for a weeks' lessons having never had skis strapped to my feet before and was chucked out of the class by the instructor on my second day:mad: I was then refused further lessons until I said that I would sue as they had taken money off me for a week so I was transferred to a private teacher and fared a little better but never ever again.

I like resorts where I can do something other than ski - I found Schladming to be really good because at least there was a 7km toboggan run nearby as well as snowtubing. Hope to go skiing next year and want to have a go at cross-country skiing - skiing down a hill gives me the heebie jeebies and I like skiing along the flat with only tiny hillocks.

poe.tuesday

forgot to add about crosscountry skiing, finland has hundreds of miles of tracks, I would say there were more cross country skiiers there than there were 'normal' skiiers

the other nice thing is the lack of queues, when we were there in feb it was their busiest time and the longest we waited for a lift was no more than 5 mins and we were moaning about that as we were used to skiiing down and hoping straight onto the lifts

tomstickland

pandora205 wrote: »

I love the Portes du Soleil - it is so varied. I've skied there twice, staying at Morgins and Chatel. Again my preference is for traditional villages (to stay) though the skiing is good around Avoriaz. I did Les Arcs many years ago when I was on my second week and before it was interlinked. I'd like to go back sometime.

I stayed in Morgins because I wanted a proper village.
I was going to go to Les Arcs but the massive link lift was out of action, halving the area.

Previously I've been to Courcheval 1850, Grands Massif (Samoens), Deux Alpes and one time to Italy.

All of those areas were suitable for beginners.

Personally I wouldn't go with a big tour operator now and have taken to arranging my own trip as it works out much cheaper. My preference is to stay in a catered chalet, where breakfast, afternoon tea, dinner and wine are provided in the cost, as it usually works out good value and is a very sociable way to meet people.

I did my own arrangements this year. I managed to negotiate a very good deal on a chalet (the owners asked me not to discuss the price with other guests).
However, if you take the typical chalet prices, then add transfers, then add flights it doesn't actually work out cheaper than deals offered by the big names.
We got a cracking deal with "allocation on arrival" last year - something silly like £300 in a catered chalet in Courcheval 1850 including flights and transfer. I'll see if I can remember who it was with. It was called "square deal". Maybe it was Inghams.

kr15snw

Ive always stayed on the France / Italy border way and loved it! Serre Chevalier is my favourite resort

To anyone wanting to learn, learn on a dry slope first and get to a level where you can turn and ski down their main slope. Plus learn how to use the lifts. Its slightly harder on dry slope, but if youve never done it before then you wont know the difference. And when you get to the snow you wont spend the first week learning how to walk in boots / skis as you will already be turning and nipping along

I used to ski every day (dry slope ski instructor / slalom racer) but I havent skiied in over a year and havent seen snow in two years :'(

tomstickland

I had 3 x 1.5 hour lessons on a dry slope before I went skiing the first time. After I'd been skiing on snow I visted a dry slope once and decided to never bother with dry slopes again.

littlestar1981

Pandora205 I am learning on dry slope... this is where the moneysaving comes in - there are two places I can get to easily to learn to ski - the first offers 3 x 90 mins lessons on a dry slope for £35, the second offers 3 x 90 mins lessons on snow for £150!

So going with the dry for now.. even though I know it will no comparison to snow!

pandora205

I'm not keen on dry ski slopes now but they were invaluable when learning and snow is much easier, so anyone who can ski on plastic will be 'away' when they meet snow. The new 'real snow' slopes like ours in Milton Keynes are something else, though still limiting compared with mountains.

I managed to get a (relatively) good deal in a chalet last year by a) finding a 10% discount on the net and b) booking the flight with easyjet, which was about £80 I think (and that was Feb half term), so it came in at under £700 including ski guiding on a couple of days - oh and forgot to say it was in Chamonix in a luxury chalet with jaccuzi and sauna etc. I am tempted to go back but there are so many more places to go....

I've stayed in Trois Vallees to (Meribel and Coucheval le Praz) and Les Deux Alpes. I like the cruisy big French ski areas but I'm really looking to push myself a bit (as I'm a bit of the lazy side).

missyg_3

Thanks for the info about the course Pandora. Might have to do one of those to brush up on technique before next season!

PoeTuesday mentioned lack of queues, I had the same in Åre, Sweden this year. We were there over Easter and even on the busiest day we had to wait no longer than 5 mins for the major lifts (and still virtually no waiting time at the other lifts). I think I'll be sticking to Scandinavia now for this very reason

Anyone done Hafjell in Norway?

duchy

I'm planning for next season
Snowbird in Utah-with a few days in Vegas added on.
I find the US to be cheaper than the "better" European resorts (in which I'd include Verbier, Tignes, Val d'Isere etc).

pandora205

What an interesting range of resorts! Maybe I'll think USA/Canada the following year (now this is planning ahead!). Is it worth it for a week?