Where would you ski in Europe?

Colingarnes

Colingarnes

Member
Planning a month long Euro vacation next winter with the wife and kids. Problem is... I cant make up my damn mind for where I wanna ski. Tignes, Les Tres Valees, Zermatt, Chamonix...etc.

I know I'll be stoked at all of them but if you had to pick one area to ski... what would it be? Anyone with firsthand experiences? Thanks in advance.
 
If you’re going for a month I’d say morzine / avoriaz (the 2 resorts are connected). Got good parks, great tree runs and the off piste is sick as well. Plus tons of more chill runs depending on what the rest of the fam are into. If you go though, stay in morzine as avoriaz is a fairly quiet town from what I’ve heard (only stayed in morzine before)
 
If you are there for a month I would go to two places and rent a car, port du soleil is a mad range of resorts, about 6 connected, morzine, avoriaz, chatel, morgins, les croset, les gets!

Good range of runs for the whole fam and some typical alpine villages.

Then tignes and val d’isere is also another huge area, and super fun. Tignes is pretty ugly but good terrain, val is pretty village and good terrain.

Win win
 
Are your kids skiing? Is it one day for you to get your skiing jonezes in, or a week, or longer? Is cost a concern if its a longer trip?

Where else are you going so we know what is nearby?

Its late season so good options will be limited. Anywhere you go will be high altitude, so id make sure you schedule at least two skiable days there in case one is a down day. Weather can kill the high lifts pretty easy.

Zermatt is always my first choice, amazing views, but expensive. Dont go to chamonix unless you are hiring a guide and riding vallee blanche, youll be diappointed if you ride the actual resort its boring.
 
I'd probably be going in February. It wouldn't be just a ski trip. But the skiing would dictate where we go. The wife isn't diehard about skiing but she will placate me. We will have to do non ski things as well on this trip.

The kids probably wouldn't ski (only 2 and 4) and we would get day care.

Thanks for the input on Chamonix I'll probably scratch that. Cost isn't really a huge restriction, granted I ain't dropping over $400usd a night for places to stay near a mountain.
 
14033645:Colingarnes said:
I'd probably be going in February. It wouldn't be just a ski trip. But the skiing would dictate where we go. The wife isn't diehard about skiing but she will placate me. We will have to do non ski things as well on this trip.

The kids probably wouldn't ski (only 2 and 4) and we would get day care.

I live in Tignes, its for sure one of the best overall resorts i've ever skied in, almost 2000m of skiable vert (6500ft) glacier at the top trees lower down and everything in between. good mellow groomers and lots of steeper ones. Tons of easy access off piste with varying degrees of gnarlyness. The park was decent this year, triple line of 40-45ft jumps and a good rail selection as well as smaller jumps. It also links up with val d'isere, lots of really good skiing over in val as well. For the family there is a multisports centre with a big climbing wall and bouldering wall, trampolines, football/basketball courts, badminton, tennis and squash courts. There is a decent swimming pool with slides etc. And some really nice spas that are open to the public at pretty reasonable prices.

The other option would be to base yourself in Bourg St Maurice, from there, Les arcs is a 7 minute funiculaire ride up the mountain, tignes & val are about 35 minute drive away, La rosiere and st foy (both amazing family resorts and super quite) are maybe 15-20 minute drive away, les trois vallees are maybe 45 minutes away. Between those resorts there is an absurd amount of skiing to be done, and in Bourg St Maurice your money will go a lot further than in the actual resorts themselves.

Thanks for the input on Chamonix I'll probably scratch that. Cost isn't really a huge restriction, granted I ain't dropping over $400usd a night for places to stay near a mountain.
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I'd for sure do a day trip over to Cham if nothing else. Going to the top of the Aiguille du Midi is pretty spectacular, and there is some really great skiing from up there. The classic vallee blanche is not very difficult but it is a great ski, amazing being able to look up at all the "steep skiing" faces the local guys get into in spring time!
 
Definitely not going to the alps for park although I'll hit it up for a few laps. I'm an advanced skier but dont do much touring or backcountry. Basically keep to the lifts and try to find some hidden booters or stashes. I like to just play around the mountain doing 180's and 360's off tinier things.

Tignes and Zermatt both interest me. When is the best time to ski Europe. I dont mind cold as hell but I'd like heavier snowfall.
 
14033645:Colingarnes said:
I'd probably be going in February. It wouldn't be just a ski trip. But the skiing would dictate where we go. The wife isn't diehard about skiing but she will placate me. We will have to do non ski things as well on this trip.

The kids probably wouldn't ski (only 2 and 4) and we would get day care.

Thanks for the input on Chamonix I'll probably scratch that. Cost isn't really a huge restriction, granted I ain't dropping over $400usd a night for places to stay near a mountain.
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Ok cool. I'm 30ish, lived in Switzerland for 3 years so i've ridden most major places in the alps and travelled a lot too.

Here's what i do if i were in your situation. I'm assuming you're renting a car or taking train, and don't really want to travel more than 3 hours in 1 day with small kids.

Fly into either zurich, geneva, milan or florence and do a loop so that you basically hit all of those (skip zurich you happen to fly in, do lucerne instead with that day), tack on either Rome or south of france - cannes / monaco if time permits (i prefer rome, but it's more out of the way). You can tack pisa onto florence as well, and stop in como/lugano if you can, really beautiful

For a single ski resort with a few days, i would recommend Zermatt if your wife is at least upper intermediate. It's expensive, but one of a kind. If you need something more well rounded, or for longer period / to split with zermatt then verbier, Laax, engadin, portes du soleil, le grande massif (views of mont blanc) and trois vallees are all good options. If you get to choose two resorts, i'd go zermatt and trois vallees - zermatt for the views, trois vallees for the scale (it's huge. If just one for the family and your wife is skiing but not as advanced, go trois vallees. There's lots for everyone.

Eastern alps is also great (austria / germany) but IMO italy / france is more interesting if you don't go to europe often, and travel times between major cities are longer in the east

Hope that helps - any other questions DM me
 
14033774:dbchili said:
Ok cool. I'm 30ish, lived in Switzerland for 3 years so i've ridden most major places in the alps and travelled a lot too.

Here's what i do if i were in your situation. I'm assuming you're renting a car or taking train, and don't really want to travel more than 3 hours in 1 day with small kids.

Fly into either zurich, geneva, milan or florence and do a loop so that you basically hit all of those (skip zurich you happen to fly in, do lucerne instead with that day), tack on either Rome or south of france - cannes / monaco if time permits (i prefer rome, but it's more out of the way). You can tack pisa onto florence as well, and stop in como/lugano if you can, really beautiful

For a single ski resort with a few days, i would recommend Zermatt if your wife is at least upper intermediate. It's expensive, but one of a kind. If you need something more well rounded, or for longer period / to split with zermatt then verbier, Laax, engadin, portes du soleil, le grande massif (views of mont blanc) and trois vallees are all good options. If you get to choose two resorts, i'd go zermatt and trois vallees - zermatt for the views, trois vallees for the scale (it's huge. If just one for the family and your wife is skiing but not as advanced, go trois vallees. There's lots for everyone.

Eastern alps is also great (austria / germany) but IMO italy / france is more interesting if you don't go to europe often, and travel times between major cities are longer in the east

Hope that helps - any other questions DM me
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My friends that have gone over there to ski say Germany/Switzerland/France are expensive as hell but Austria is more affordable with the same environment and scenery.

I would look into what’s accessible around Innsbruck, no?
 
14033781:DesertStix said:
My friends that have gone over there to ski say Germany/Switzerland/France are expensive as hell but Austria is more affordable with the same environment and scenery.

I would look into what’s accessible around Innsbruck, no?
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in terms of sweeping generalizations on cost:

- switzerland is more expensive than the rest. All the rest of the countries are roughly equal. France might be slightly more.

- big well known resorts are more expensive than small resorts (obviously)

- the cost of everything comes down more to what you do and where you choose to stay than anything (obviously)

- Major american ski resorts are far and away vastly more expensive to ski than anywhere in europe (window rate at zermatt is about a hundred/day, vail is 200)

as for the resorts around innsbruck, there surely are good ones (mayrhofen is well known), but the region is mostly notable for glacier skiing in the pre-season and late season. Compared to what is on offer in other areas mid-winter, the resorts don't really stand out, they're just decent, thee one exception perhaps being st anton, which is mainly known for eccentric nightlife
 
Austria and Italy are affordable and they have great Ski Resorts.

I think for a family trip the dolomits are great, it seems to be allways sunny down there. Plus if you want to shred the park, the Seiseralm is one of the best parks in europe. In Austria I can recommend Zillertal, Saalbach Hinterglemm and Sölden.
 
14033827:dbchili said:
in terms of sweeping generalizations on cost:

- switzerland is more expensive than the rest. All the rest of the countries are roughly equal. France might be slightly more.

- big well known resorts are more expensive than small resorts (obviously)

- the cost of everything comes down more to what you do and where you choose to stay than anything (obviously)

- Major american ski resorts are far and away vastly more expensive to ski than anywhere in europe (window rate at zermatt is about a hundred/day, vail is 200)

as for the resorts around innsbruck, there surely are good ones (mayrhofen is well known), but the region is mostly notable for glacier skiing in the pre-season and late season. Compared to what is on offer in other areas mid-winter, the resorts don't really stand out, they're just decent, thee one exception perhaps being st anton, which is mainly known for eccentric nightlife
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The Zillertal Superskipass which you buy if you Ski Mayrhofen offers you over 500 km to ski on. The season there is long and not only because of the glacier.
 
I always go to Saint-Sorlin D'Arves every year both to visit my grandparents and to ski, it is a huge place part of a resort called Seybelles I think, except the town is pretty small and nowhere near famous. I've been told that Courchevel is expensive asf and not worth it, Chamonix and Kitzbuhel are fuckn mint tho.
 
14033680:Colingarnes said:
When is the best time to ski Europe. I dont mind cold as hell but I'd like heavier snowfall.
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If you go to France don’t go during February as it’s school holidays and the resorts will be insanely crowded (unless you’re used to big American resorts, then it won’t bother you that much). Snowfall is impossible to predict in the western alps, so if you really want powder you should probably go to Austria. (This season in the French alps we had a completely dry month of February with spring temperatures and blue bird days every day. It sucked for powder skiing. But December and January were great and then April and even beginning of May had decent snowfalls )
 
Thanks for that. Definitely dont wanna be there during mad traffic.

14034491:BrawnTrends said:
If you go to France don’t go during February as it’s school holidays and the resorts will be insanely crowded (unless you’re used to big American resorts, then it won’t bother you that much). Snowfall is impossible to predict in the western alps, so if you really want powder you should probably go to Austria. (This season in the French alps we had a completely dry month of February with spring temperatures and blue bird days every day. It sucked for powder skiing. But December and January were great and then April and even beginning of May had decent snowfalls )
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14034493:Colingarnes said:
Thanks for that. Definitely dont wanna be there during mad traffic.
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Your best bet is mid to late-january, then. Or March (but that can be a hit or miss for powder).

As for the French resorts, if you want "big mountain" resorts, 3 Vallées and Tignes/Val d'Isère might be your best bet (Val Thorens, in the 3 Vallées, is the highest resort in Europe, with a base altitude of 7500ft).

If you want tree skiing, and super long/wide runs, I really like Les Arcs (were B&E Invitational was hosted).

And if you want good atmosphere, cool bars, great restaurants, then you should definitely go to Morzine (as suggested earlier). The great thing about Morzine is that it's central to les Portes du Soleil, which is a massive area of 12 resorts and a total of over 400 miles of runs. The only thing is that except in Avoriaz and Chatel the snow might not be great... It's a hit or miss as the elevation isn't that crazy, but when it does dump it's by far my favorite area to ski at (also my home mountain...).
 
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