Successful ski holidays require a deal more consideration than simply booking a hotel half way up snow covered hill. Here's a run down listing ten of the best resorts worldwide.
Austria: Winter sees Austria's resort of St Anton get radical with a growing reputation for a heady après-ski scene. However, the slopes' allure remains pre-eminent, those partying hard likely to be skiing hard next morning. Beyond pretty wooden chalets the range of pistes is superb, resort lift passes allowing access to the entire Arlberg area, including Lech, Stuben and Zurs.
Bulgaria: Some still snort with disdain at Bulgarian skiing - the same folks too image conscious to shop at Lidl or Aldi. It's their loss. Close to Sofia in the Rila mountains the higgledy-piggledy village of Borovets has ski-in-ski-out accommodation, an excellent ski school, few lift queues and a friendly feel, all at a bargain price.
Canada: Most aspects of US skiing apply to Canada as well - few lift queues, uncrowded and well-maintained slopes, and good service. The resort of Whistler boasts - in a very low-key Canadian way - the largest ski area in North America. Across the ability range, Whistler's pistes offer so much fresh snow that it's hard to cover the same ground twice.
Finland: Finns have a feeling for snow and cross-country skiing is their sport of choice, the season lasting up to five months. Myriad maintained trails across fells, frozen lakes and through forests cover hundreds of kilometres. Popular destinations include Ylläs, amongst the reindeer herds, beyond the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland.
France: France's unique selling point, outweighing high prices, is its variety of terrain and experience. Val d'Isère has long been popular with British skiers, offering great intermediate runs and plenty of off-piste challenges. The resort shares 300km of pistes and 90 lifts in the Espace Killy ski area with neighbouring Tignes.
Italy: The stunning peaks of the central Dolomites are permeated by more than 1,200km of high level pistes. Corvara, at 1,568 metres, is the main resort village in the Alta Badia region, and offers an excellent range of beginner and intermediate runs, together with challenging skiing on the Col Alt and Vallon-Boè slopes.
Scotland: Skiing in Scotland is an opportunist pursuit, a weather eye on web cams and an ear to reports of winter road closures. That said, when the snow gods smile conditions match anything in Europe. In the eastern Cairngorms Lecht Ski Centre is less developed than some, but queues are shorter and it's a great place for families to learn or refresh their ski skills.
Slovenia: Hardly a big hitter in ski tourism, nine ski resorts populate the Julian Alps as the mountains reach into Slovenia. The most popular destination is Kranjska Gora, near the borders of France and Italy. Cross-country trails as well as downhill pistes are on offer. The latter suited to beginners and intermediates, with professional ski schools, guiding and extensive long, steady runs.
Switzerland: Not far from Zermatt, Saas Fee is neither the country's biggest ski resort nor the most challenging. However, lifts rise to 3,500m accessing almost 100km of pistes where snow is as dependable as the village's car-free Alpine charm. Well-suited to families and mixed abilities, the resort has a long season, its appeal extending beyond the slopes.
USA: Colorado's Rocky Mountain resort of Breckenridge characterises aspects of North American skiing many Europeans find refreshing. Lift queues are short, slopes well-maintained and seldom crowded, service across the resort is professional and courteous. Endless intermediate runs are excellent confidence builders for beginners, whilst elsewhere there's plenty of scope for experts to test their metal.
This article has been produced in association with www.talkholiday.com
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article