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A Compelling Case for Skiing in Europe

by Charles Leocha

Miles and miles of trails plus immense resort-to-resort interconnected lift systems combined with low winter airline tickets, great exchange rates, lower lift ticket and bargain chalet prices in Europe all add up to a compelling reason to look at a winter ski vacation across the Atlantic.

Take a close look. A European ski vacation can cost less, a lot less, than skiing in North America. With frequent affordable low-season flights and excellent transfers to resorts, getting there is less expensive and less of a hassle than reaching many out-of-the-way resorts closer to home.

Prices in Europe have simply been rising more slowly than those in North America. Major European resort lift ticket prices have increased on average only 20 percent in the past seven years, while some resorts here at home such as Aspen, Vail and Sunday River have seen lift ticket prices soar almost 50 percent. Plus, exchanges have been steadily improving for skiers visiting the Alps from America. That means plenty of European skiing bargains for the coming season.

Like the mountain peaks that punctuate the rugged Alps, every Alpine ski resort has its own unique personality. The Schilthorn, the Mont Blanc, the Valluga and the Marmolada all tower above very different resort towns. Some resorts such as Saalbach, Austria, are better for singles, others like Meyrhofen in Austria are better for families. Some offer cozy chalets, others feature modern, slopeside hotels. And while one resort such as Arosa in Switzerland may be heaven for beginning skiers, it could prove hellishly boring for the expert. Megève is as traditional as resorts come in France while La Plagne, only a few peaks away, is nothing but stark highrises. Before you go, figure out what you want, and do your homework to find your personal perfect Alpine resort.

In Europe you can often tell the age of a resort by its architecture. New ski resorts are filled with high-rise apartment buildings, created strictly for skiing, and set in the midst of expansive snowfields. The original villages where the sport was nurtured are packed with weathered chalets and barns and surrounded by extensive trail systems that have grown over time.

Whatever Alpine resort you choose, you can find far more resort-to-resort skiing than here in Canada, lodging ranging from family-style chalets to luxury hotels with a uniquely European flair and restaurants serving the real French or Italian cooking that never seems to be duplicated here. Simply put, Europeans have perfected the art of the winter ski vacation. It doesn’t matter whether the resort is modern or traditional, good skiing mixes well with good food and wine.

European resorts specialize in creating joint lift tickets and interconnected lift and trail systems. This means skiers staying at one resort can easily experience most of the trails in the surrounding area.

The French resorts of Val d’Isere and Tignes are linked by lifts, as are the towns of Courchevel, Meribel, Les Menuires, St. Martin de Belleville and Val Thorens. The Chamonix lift ticket lits you ski a dozen other nearby towns surrounding Mont Blanc.

In Italy, the Dolomiti Superski, the world’s largest interconnected lift system, allows skiers to enjoy over 460 lifts and over 1,000 km. of prepared trails!

In Austria, the entire Arlberg region, including renowned resorts St. Anton, Lech, Zürs and St. Christoph offers interconnected skiing, and Kitzbuhel, home of the Hannenkamm downhill, is linked with a dozen other towns in what Austrians call a massive Ski Safari.

Switzerland has its own interconnected ski resorts such as Flims/Laax, Davos and Klosters, and the Jungfrau region with Grindelwald, Wengen and Mürren.

These regions are punctuated with quality mountain restaurant food that seems to match the unforgetable panorama. If you want to take a couple of hours in the early afternoon off from non-stop skiing, Europe is the place to indulge yourself on the slopes. Full afternoon three- and four-course meals with wine can end up costing little more than a burger, Coke and fries or the cafeteria daily mystery-meat special here at home. And on the way back to your hotel or condo, take time to enjoy a drink with friends at mountain huts strategically placed along the ski trails back into town.

Here are a couple of the famous and not-so-famous resorts each alpine country has to offer.

Courmayeur, Italy

At the Italian end of the Mont Blanc tunnel, the picturesque village of Courmayeur huddles beside Mont Blanc, just over the border from France and Switzerland.

Snow is virtually guaranteed, with skiing accessed across the valley or by cable car up to the shoulders of Mont Blanc, where skiers can choose to ski back into Italy or over to Chamonix and return by bus through the tunnel. If a skier tires of the Courmayeur slopes, Cervinia and La Thuile in Italy are within striking distance. Chamonix in France and Verbier in Switzerland can also be reached for a full day of skiing.

Courmayeur’s star quality is found in the restaurants tucked into its medieval streets and in the surrounding villages, where Italian skiers seem to spend as much time savouring Canadian their meals as they do enjoying the slopes.

Madonna dei Campiglio, Italy

Madonna dei Campiglio’s wide, sunny valley in the western Dolomites qualifies as one of Italy’s top ski resorts. Italians seem to keep Madonna a secret to themselves. Crenelated peaks surround the small town which is built around a lake cleared for ice skating.

Madonna has hotels that provide far more that simply a bed. In this resort the meals provided by the hotels and pensiones for full- and half-board guests are an important part of Madonna’s all-star Italian dolce vita. They take on added importance since they have little competition from surrounding trattorias and restaurants.

Ski trails surround the town. On one side of town, seemingly endless snowfields stretch between sharply etched peaks. On the other side, trails wind through dark green mountain forests. When the snow is good, skiers can adventure down to Pinzolo for more terrain. During storms, many of the mountain’s tree-lined trails are left to those who dream of powder. This is home to fair-weather skiers.

From Madonna, a short one-hour drive links skiers to the far-flung Dolomiti Superski with more than 450 lifts and 700 miles of prepared trails.

Sass Fee, Switzerland

For many, this is a perfect ski resort. The village is car free and the slopes surrounding this narrow valley offer something for everyone. This village is the next door neighbor to Zermatt and the Matterhorn. But Saas Fee is cozier and more compact with excellent skiing for every level of skier.

The fairy-tale setting enconpasses a village of Swiss chalets and narrow streets, timbered homes and balconied hotels,  and no cars or trucks. Local transportation is by horse-drawn sleighs or electric taxis

Saas Fee is a true destination resort--the long ride up the valley keeps most day skiers away. This isolation means that even in the busiest season, lift lines are not impossibly long, and slopes are uncrowded.

Davos, Switzerland

Davos is not a traditional village at all. It’s a big city with plenty of relatively high-rise hotels and an urban flavor. But the skiing here on the Manhattan-sized Parsenn is fabulous. Wide-open, very long internmediate skiing combined with some expert pitches are the secret of this resort’s success. In addition, four other mountains are skiable from the town on the same lift ticket.

Urban Davos is also linked with the quintessential Swiss chalet town of Klosters that positively oozes charm. This combination of Davos’ perfect service, Klosters’ charm and the Parsenn’s snowfields and challenging trails, makes this region one of the top destinations in Switzerland.

Méribel, France and the Trois Vallées

Méribel made up of a series of villages lies at the center of one of the largest ski areas in the world. From this group of villages at the center of the region, one lift takes skiers to the slopes of Courchevel, another reaches toward Val Thorens and a third carries skiers and snowboarders to the ridge above Les Menuires and St. Martin de Belville.

The skiing at this1992 Olympic venue is above-treeline at the upper reaches and treelined at lower altitudes. The most difficult slopes are the furthest from the town, and the final part of the day can be a leisurely cruise back to your condo or hotel.

You won’t find a convenient town center. And don’t expect too much nightlife here since most of the accommodations are apartments and the layout of the villages make strolling akin to climbing. However, getting to and from the slopes is a breeze, strategically placed restaurants serve local Savoyard-cuisine for great lunches and small supermarkets make shopping for evening meals easy. For overall skiing enjoyment, any one of the Trois Vallées resorts is hard to beat.

Val d’Isère, France

Home to the 1992 Olympics and scores of World Cup races, Val d’Isère is a town where skiing reigns supreme. Skiers looking for some of the best on- and off-piste runs in the world need look no further. The ski area is linked with Tignes, creating “l’Espace Killy,” with 186 miles of marked runs for every level of skier, plus tried-and-true off-piste itineraries for serious experts. Skiers will find an area where skiing up top is normally intermediate and the drop back into town can be harrowing.

Val  d’Isère over the past years has undergone a facelift, restoring its unpretentious Savoyard appearance. Peaked roofs of wooden chalets blend with the mountains above. Local wines and Alpine specialties are served in rustic restaurants together with well-known French cuisine.

Saalbach, Austria

Framed by rugged mountains, just south of Salzburg, this town is the undisputed aprés-ski capital of Austria and perhaps the world. The skiing is extensive with an impressive lift system inconnecrted with the next-door village of Hinterglemm. Ostensibly, people come here to ski, but Saalbach mountain huts and bars host the biggest parties in the Alps.

Entire chalets and once-upon-a-time barns are transformed into dance floors so crowded, many resort to crawling to make their escape. No one waits to change into dancing shoes and lighter clothing— the parties start when the first skiers clomp into the chalets and bars in their ski jackets and ski boots. Then it’s dance-’till-you-melt time.

The skiing almost matches the nightlife. Experts can find tough skiing, but intermediates and advanced skiers will revel on the entire north side of the valley, dropping down wide-open slopes toward town.

Ischgl, Austria

Living in the skiing shadow of its better-known neighbor to the north--the Arlberg--Ischgl (pronounced Ish-gull) has maintained its small-village character and serves as the principal resort in a wide-open ski area that stretches over the border to Switzerland. The town itself is a small Alpine resort built on a knoll in a wide valley.

Church steeples rise beside wisps of smoke streaming from Austrian chalets. Snow-covered streets wind between shops, coffee houses, bars and restaurants. The scent of wood smoke mingles with the aroma of fresh pastry. No square, concrete and glass, modern hotels mar the effect.

The far-flung ski area with more than 200 kilometers of trails combined with extensive off-trail areas is far above the road, the base stations and the town. Most years, the high altitude ensures skiing until the beginning of May. From the top, skiers can take the long trail descending to Switzerland for a cross-border experience.

The best way to ski is Europe is with a tour operator. Anyone who knows me finds this statement unbelieveable, but packaged tours of the ski areas are nothing like taking a bus tour with 50 other tourists. Ski packages have all the benefits of traveling alone together with the savings of hotels, meals and transfer costs based on group sales. These tour operators offer the best of both worlds.

Central Holiday Tours 1-800-929-7000

Adventure On Skis 1-800-628-9655

Any Mountain Tours 1-800-296-2000

Austria Ski/Ski Europe 1-800-333-5533

Trip prices range from Chamonix, France, for $1,249 in late-February for eight nights to a week in Saas Fee, Switzerland, in January for $1,285 to a week in Saalbach, Austria, in March for $1,239. All these tours include airfare, transfers, breakfast and dinner!

Charlie Leocha is the author of Ski Europe and Skiing America ’99  both in their 12th editions. He has skied at more than 250 resorts in Canada, the U.S.A. and Europe.

Skiers can take the first step in planning a winter vacation to Europe by picking up a copy of Ski Europe to compare resort terrain, personality, amenities and prices. Ski Europe (World Leisure, $24.95) and Skiing America ’99 (World Leisure, $24.95)  available in many bookstores including and on the Internet through http://www.worldleisure.com , http://www.amazon.com or http://adverturoustraveler.com , or call 1-800-444-2524 or 1-941-753-9396.

-Updated 1-14-99-
 

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