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European Ski Resorts |
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Europe offers some of the most extensive, extreme and beautiful skiing anywhere in the world. Tom Robbins, powderhound and deputy travel editor of the Observer newspaper, picks five of the very best Click to view Top 5 European Ski Resorts.
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Introduction |
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| Europe is to skiing what the Pacific is to surfing: Mecca. From Scotland to Russia, Norway to France the continent offers more top quality skiing than anywhere else on the planet. |
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 There are well over a thousand resorts to choose from, ranging from quaint single lift villages to vast interconnected ski playgrounds - each of them with enough skiing to keep you interested for a lifetime.
For culture seekers, sight seers and foodies skiing in Europe has obvious merits. For extremists, too, Europe probably has the edge, allowing skiers to go where they like and do what they want at their own risk. No ski patrols to spoil your backcountry fun here, dude!
And the snow? Well, it's true that north America gets more of the lightest, driest powder but the difference is marginal. Europe still gets zillions of tons of great snow every year. Indeed there's hardly a week from November to May when you won't find fresh tracks somewhere. If you want to start earlier, just head up to Scandinavia. |
Picking a resort |
 The trouble with ski brochures is that every page looks the same - endless shots of snow-covered chalets, pretty mountain views and the odd winsome chalet maid at work in a pine-clad kitchen. So actually working out what differs from resort to resort and which will be the best for you is no easy task. These are the key considerations:
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| Snow |
 The end of last winter (2006) saw record snowfalls in the Alps and, despite worry over global warming, there has not been a truly disastrous winter in Europe for a decade or more. But remember, not all Europe’s ski resorts were purpose built to guarantee snow every week of every season. Many are simply small villages which have installed lifts to take advantage of the snow when it comes. Others, such as Grindelwald in Switzerland, owe their initial development, not to skiing per se, but the broader alpinism of the early part of the last century. This means that if you are booking in advance you should book high. Look for resorts that offer lift access to slopes at 2500m or higher, or where there is a good sized glacier and skiing will be guaranteed whatever the snowfall. |
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| Crowds |
 One thing the brochure can give you an idea of is the size of a resort. The more lifts, the more terrain there will be to explore, but take care to look beyond the raw statistics. Verbier, for example, has almost 100 lifts, but they are not well linked and long queues form at bottle necks at peak times. At Super St Bernard in the next valley, in contrast, there are just two lifts, but almost no skiers and no queues. Think too about the reputation of a resort and take care not to follow the herd. Resorts like Val d’Isère, which are known for their off-piste skiing, tend to get tracked-out in no time. Others, such as Zermatt, offer equally good off-piste terrain but attract far fewer expert skiers. This means you can be laying down fresh tracks more than a week after a fresh dump without having to hike. |
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| Cost |
| Brochure prices for chalet holidays don’t vary that dramatically whether you’re in a swanky resort like Courchevel 1850 or somewhere cheap and cheerful like Les Deux Alpes (both in France). But lift passes, drinks, meals, equipment hire and everything else will, so factor them into your budget. Lift passes are the biggest killer, with most of the big resorts now charging about £150 for a six day card. If there are only a couple of you travelling don’t even think about booking in advance – there are always last minute deals available and they always come with substantial discounts. Bigger family groups should think about doing it themselves.The budget airlines not only offer dirt cheap flights but utilise smaller, less crowded airports and more civilised departure times. Airport transfers are easily organised and most resorts offer excellent independently owned hotel and chalet accommodation that can be booked via the local tourist information office. Overall, a family of four should be able to cut the mid-market cost of a week’s skiing by at least half by organising it themselves. Chances are the food will be better too. |
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| Transfers |
 The coach trip from the airport can take as little as 30 minutes and as much as four hours in Europe, making a big difference to the stress of your travelling days. If you’re doing it yourself, with low-cost flights and accommodation booked separately, consider rail transfers instead of buses, car hire or taxis, particularly in Austria and Switzerland. Trains run directly from Geneva and Zurich into resorts like St Anton, Grindelwald and Zermatt, for example. |
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| Nightlife |
| Walking down the high street of Les Deux Alpes when there are a couple of school trips in town can feel like crossing the floor of Brixton jail. The balconies that look down on either side are full of drunk teens shouting, banging cups on the railings and then dropping empty bottles of Malibu onto the pavements below. By contrast, in somewhere like Zurs in Austria, the most après-ski you can hope for is a game of bridge in the hotel bar. Ask around to gauge what level your resort sits of the apres-ski spectrum. |
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