"Charming" ski locations

Amp34

Amp34

Amp34

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
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Location
Canada
I'm not sure if I'm going to do one week trip or a couple of shorter trips this year but after last year my family are up for going to another place with lots of character. Any suggestions?

I'm a hard skiier, lots of technical blacks and off piste and usually love places like the Trois Vallee etc. but they are soul less and you can't really do anything but ski (snowshoeing in quiet forests, snow mobiling etc., not interested in bars, however charming villages to walk through are a big plus!). We went to Levi, Finland last year and the area was stunning, but the skiing mediocre. I'm really struggling to think of places which have charm yet good skiing.
 
Grindelwald is superb if you want charming and excellent skiing. Its not too pretentious either; I've been a few times and really enjoy it there.
 
Courchavel is nice, but a bit premium and pretentions IMO, and packed! Not sure if there is much to do apart from ski as well (it doesn't have much charm for that other than apre ski drinking which I'm not interested). The Swiss options look kinda like the thing I'm looking for but all are worryingly rammed and expensive... I was thinking perhaps Austria is one of the other options, the resorts aren't towering concrete monstrosities with more valley space. I've been a bit spoiled last year having gone to Lake louise (stunning scenery, empty and lots to do other than ski) and Levi ( stunning scenery, empty and lots to do but a tiny ski resort you can ski in a day).
 
Zermatt and Sass Fee in Switzerland were what sprang to my mind. Both are in good ski areas (Zermatt is better though), are car free (electric or horse drawn buggies only) have loads of gorgeous chalets and plenty of walking tracks. They have the bonus that you can get the train to both from the airport which is good fun and quick.

Grindlewald is nice but the tourists coming through to the Jungfraujoch make it a little soulless, but the far end of town (past the First bubble and toward the church, but then your miles from the train station and the main ski area) is quite nice. The area is very pretty but I prefer Zermatt. Wengen is no better, bit of an ugly town really.

I am sure Verbier, Gstaad and St. Mortiz are nice too. Kandersteg is pretty but the town and ski area are tiny.

Meribel village (round the corner from Meribel proper) is nice, bit less built up and has its own lift that is much quiter but there isn't much to do but ski. I find the small villages attached to the big ski areas are quite nice, not always easy to get to and don't have much apres but if you can find a little family run place they can be quite nice.

And yes if you have skiied much in Canada (espically Lake Louise), most of Europe will be spoilt for you, they have loads of skiining, loads of snow and are relativly quite, though I havn't been for a few years so things might have changed!
 
Check out interlaken and the surrounding regions in Switzerland. I have no idea whether the skiing is any good but I know there are slopes there and it is very charming.
 
Kaprun / Zell Am See in Austria. The area is ridiculously beautiful.

I've been a couple of times in spring and early summer, it's almost Disney how perfect everything is. They do have extensive ski resorts and chalets if that's more your thing.
 
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panthro said:
Grindelwald is superb if you want charming and excellent skiing. Its not too pretentious either; I've been a few times and really enjoy it there.
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My grandparents have cinefilm from skiing in Grindelwald (and I believe zermatt) in the late 50s absolute classic stuff, shame its probably degraded beyond viewable any more.
 
Check out Montgenevre in the French Alps.

It's very close to the border so you can ski in both France and Italy. There are a very good range of slope levels, top instructors if required and the place is not very commercialised, just a small French town in the middle of some mountains!

I've been 8 times and would greatly recommend it!
 
Yamahahahahaha said:
Kaprun / Zell Am See in Austria. The area is ridiculously beautiful.

I've been a couple of times in spring and early summer, it's almost Disney how perfect everything is. They do have extensive ski resorts and chalets if that's more your thing.
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That was my first thought although I did wonder if it might be a little bit big in terms of a town for what Amp34 wants - I suppose it would partly depend on choosing the hotel/chalet carefully.

Igls/Patscherkofel is a bit smaller and may be slightly more charming if charm equates to small size but it doesn't have the widest selection of challenging runs, it's also only a short(ish) bus ride away from Axamer Lizum which has a wider selection of runs. They're fairly close to Innsbruck too if you wanted a day out away from the slopes.
 
Endless places in Switzerland: ley sin, arolling, marrecotes, champex, grimentz, zinal, st-luc, zermatt, saas-fee, ovronaz, anzere, belalp, Bruson, champoussin, Château d'Oex, crams Montana, dissentis, engleberg, evolene, laxx, grindlewald, grachen, les diablerets, villars, riederalp, klosters, Davos, leakerbad.


Those are just places I have skied off the top of my head, most of these have very attractive villages, plenty of decent skiing with a focus on off-piste or touring (some places you would be best to hire a guide). I put a few places like zermat in just because I had to.

you may not have heard of many of these and co spared to the 3-valleys you may think they would be tiny and boring but there is far better terrain at many of these small places, and since they are mostly family places there is minimal co petition for powder. Places like evolene, zinal, ovronaz are off the charts for off-piste potential and are kept quiet because all the swedes and yanks end up in places like verbier or chamonix.
 
semi-pro waster said:
That was my first thought although I did wonder if it might be a little bit big in terms of a town for what Amp34 wants - I suppose it would partly depend on choosing the hotel/chalet carefully.

Igls/Patscherkofel is a bit smaller and may be slightly more charming if charm equates to small size but it doesn't have the widest selection of challenging runs, it's also only a short(ish) bus ride away from Axamer Lizum which has a wider selection of runs. They're fairly close to Innsbruck too if you wanted a day out away from the slopes.
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Basically I'm looking for a resort with plenty of challenging runs, a charming village/town (i.e. no concrete towers!), nice location (tree lined runs, big mountains, nice valley) and somewhere to do other activities. Basically a north american/scandinavian resort in mainland europe, at a reasonable price... Considering most of the suggestions are expensive resorts in Switzerland I'm guessing the latter is going to be tough...!:p
 
Atolla is half price in January, lift ticket is about 10quid then. Hotels can be as cheap as about 30-50quid
 
Amp34 said:
Basically I'm looking for a resort with plenty of challenging runs, a charming village/town (i.e. no concrete towers!), nice location (tree lined runs, big mountains, nice valley) and somewhere to do other activities. Basically a north american/scandinavian resort in mainland europe, at a reasonable price... Considering most of the suggestions are expensive resorts in Switzerland I'm guessing the latter is going to be tough...!:p
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Well, Morzine has all of the above and benefits from being a residential valley town. They have an icerink and new indoor swimming pool/sauna and ski links with the port du soleil.
 
I've done Morzine before and it's not really the thing I'm looking for, especially as it's about a million miles to the good runs in the concrete village of Avoriaz. :p

I don't remember any wilderness snow shoeing or long distance snowmobiling either.:)

I'm going to look through all the suggestion so far, thanks. :)
 
Sow mobiling is not common anywhere in the alps and is not allowed in most places, e.g. It is I.legal in Switzerland except for transportation purposes to a homestead that you own.

Snow-shoeing on the other hand is available absolutely everywhere and anywhere. In Switzerland every resort will have dedicated sow show trails that are signposted. There are thousands of other trails all over the alps and Jura.
http://www.sentiers-raquettes.ch/default.asp?l=e&c=3&s0=1

You can also just buy some 1:25k winter maps and go hike over any of the winter trails. These maps highlight avalanche risks and give suggested directions, highlighting paths good for winter travel cf summer travel.
 
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