Future half term planning - want to avoid France! Got any ideas?

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

Thinking well ahead and we'll be needing to ski during school holidays. Possibly Christmas but probably February half term.

I'm keen to find out about places that we've not previously considered and try to take advantage of cheaper flights to non-skiing specific airports. I don't want to spend the week standing in queues for lifts. Up until now we've always stayed in catered chalets and we enjoy that set up but, as the dc will be older, hotels or self catering apartments are more of an option.

Sierra Nevada and The Dolomites spring to mind but I know nothing about these areas - are they snow sure, what are the ski areas, lift pass prices, ski schools etc like?

Are there any other places that I should look into?

[Melassa]

Don't know about the Sierra Nevada but the Dolomites are beautiful, very well equipped, good range of pistes and pretty villages, but it has also got a lot more expensive recently.

We go the the Italian Alps in Piemonte or Val dAosta and tend to frequent the smaller places with better prices and not huge queues for the lifts. Most places have English speaking instructors too. It all depends though on what you're looking for, what your level of expertise is, whether you need a lot of off piste facilities or apres ski etc.

[Melassa]

PS. Feb half term is pretty snow sure. Christmas is often a bit hit and miss, there will be snow cannons in the larger places but the smaller resorts might not have many pistes open.

[Ragusa]

Dolomites all the way but I don't fancy your chances getting cheap flights these days. You can sometimes get malpensa for less but airlines really seriously hike their prices for weekend flights that week. To the point that we have bitten the bullet this year and booked Wednesday to Wednesday.

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

Thanks.

All 4 of us are competent skiers. The DC love jumps parks but none of us are off piste skiers. DC still tend to have a few lessons as they like to ski faster and harder than their ageing parents!

A few non skiing activities (swimming pool, skidoos a few shops and small bars) would be ideal but we don't need any loud or late apres ski!

[Notmybag]

We're flying to Boston - flights were £200 with Norwegian Air. pp. several resorts in Maine.

[Ragusa]

You could also consider places like Jasna-Chopok (poprad tatry airport or others) or somewhere less popular with Brits, like Sweden or Norway but brrrrrr. Not keen on Sierra nevada personally.
Nuremberg often has cheap(er) flights, not too bad for some Austrian resorts.
That's a bit of a brain dump!

[Ragusa]

Blimey @Notmybag that is amazing. Is that the 11-18 Feb week?!

[Melassa]

For the Dolomites you can fly to Verona or Venice, I think Ryanair still do flights? Milan Malpensa is 3-4 hrs away. Bergamo is a bit nearer and there is skiing nearby, but I find skipass prices in Lombardy shocking.

OP I will see if I can dig out the link for one of the smallish resorts we frequent. Loads of English speaking instructors, some relaxing pistes, some more challenging plus a glacier.

[Melassa]

Austria is also good but I can't remember where we went

[Notmybag]

Yes, booked last summer I think. We've found prices don't jump for half term if you're looking at USA or Canada. Norwegian have some great fares

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

Thanks for the ideas.

It's so difficult to get a real idea of things from glossy websites.

I'd not considered going transatlantic just for a week but with those flight prices it could be worth looking into.

[Notmybag]

Boston is only 6.5/7 hours flight.
"Ski Safari" is my go to company for North America trips
Agree that Colorado or West coast needs longer though

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

I've started a word document with ideas!

[dontcallmethatyoucunt]

I'm not sure why I keep telling people, but. ... Baqueira Beret

[Mumtofourandnomore]

Go on the skistar website and have a look at the Scandinavian resorts - we've skied in both Are and Sweden and love Swedish skiing (and husky rides, and skidoos !) Christmas would be a bit dark, but February half term is fine - we are going to Are again this Easter. We fly to Trondheim for Are (eith Norwegian) and Stockholm Vasteras for Salen.

[dontcallmethatyoucunt]

Ruka in Finland was amazing at Christmas if you really want different. No queues and lots of other things to do. Skiing under floodlight is great as no flat light.

[poshme]

Trysil in Norway. Or Geilo in Norway.
Cheap flights to Oslo then bus for Trysil, or flight to Bergen then train to Geilo.

Trysil is busier than Geilo. But neither anywhere as busy as France for half term.

But take your own wine with you - it's very expensive.

[EssexCat]

We've just spent half term in katschberg in Austria. Apart from pancake day which is a national holiday, it really wasn't too busy at all. Maximum lift queue time was 10 mins I think.

[lizkt]

Finland is great. Our half term is their low season - it was empty.

[dontcallmethatyoucunt]

lizkt which resort did you go to and how did you travel - I'm always keen to get other options!

[lizkt]

We went to Yllas with Inghams - flights were with Easyjet.

The only downside is lots of drag lifts but we didn't mind this. There were lots of other things to do there as well as skiing - snowshoeing, northern lights, reindeer farm.

[lizkt]

Ps. Who did you go to Ruka with?

[dontcallmethatyoucunt]

Crystal ski. It was excellent. Stayed in Ruka suites (with a sauna in the apartment), bang in the centre.

We would love to go back, but something always gets in the way!

[helterskelter99]

Voss in. Norway, fly to Bergen
Not loads of runs but nice runs, not massively difficult but that was cool with the kids.
Empty this week, apparently busy on Saturday but nothing compared to the French resorts

[Backinthebox]

We are just back from Konigsleiten in Austria. Further along the valley from Mayrhofen and Zell am Ziller, but with access to miles and miles of piste. It was Dutch half term and the Austrian/German holiday Fasching last week too, so it was a bit busy, but nowhere near as rammed as French resorts I've been in at similar times of year. Our kids' dutch ski instructor told us that next year's UK half term doesn't clash with the Dutch half term or Fasching, so it will be quiet. We only heard 2 other English speaking families all week out there.

We hired a private instructor as our kids were a mixed ability group but wanted to stay together, but if they went in a ski school group the lessons would probably be conducted in German or Dutch. My daughter didn't find this a problem when she was in a group class a couple of years back as even the younger children were keen to practice their english on a native speaker, and the instructors all speak english too.

There was plenty to do too outside of skiing. We went down the toboggan run at Bramberg, which is the longest in the world, and we went on the Zillertal Arena Coaster, which is a kind of semi-lethal bobsleigh on tracks. Great fun! There was also swimming nearby with slides and outdoor heated pools, and night-time snowshoeing treks if you wanted something different.

Mountain restaurants were cheap by Alpine standards, if you like Tyrolean food and lots of wiener schnitzel! The supermarket was a bit more expensive but only because there was only one in town. We could have gone down to Zell am Ziller for cheaper groceries but couldn't be bothered.

I went to Sweden over the Christmas holidays too, and in terms of value for money - cost of lift pass with regard to skiable area, places to eat on the mountain, etc, the less well-known resorts in Austria win hands down. Sweden was limited in mountain restaurants, the swedes seem to mainly take a picnic to eat in warm rooms at lunch time. The food in the supermarkets was eyewateringly expensive and you could only buy alcohol above a shandy in a government monopoly shop (nearest one was 60km along snowy back roads from where we were staying.)

We went to Selva in the Dolomites a few years back too, and I would return in a heartbeat given the chance (just not enough days to ski everywhere I want to!)