High altitude + short transfer + quiet at Xmas?

[Decisionsdecisions1]

Any recs for a snow sure resort for Xmas/NY in December with a short transfer (as likely to be for less than a week) and somewhere likely to be quiet?

We’re literally going to ski - not bothered about restaurants/bars/non ski activities and don’t need lessons. So basic, ugly and non trendy would suit us fine!

Am a bit stumped as it’s very different from our usual trips (Easter Tignes or St Anton Feb half term).

How short a transfer do you want? Are you prepared to fly/drive?

fwiw we ski in the southern French alps and have done for over 20 years, almost always at Xmas/new year. I’ve never had a problem with no snow, although some years have been better than others.

check out Vars, Puy St Vincent, Serre Che. Fly to Marseilles and get a hire car… just over 2 hours.

Obergurgl

Sestriere.

Thanks all will check these out.
Has anyone skiied in Flaine at Xmas?

Your criteria rule most resorts out, but this is a good shout. Obergurgl is a bit more expensive, but as a consequence tends to be quieter.

I'd be a little more wary of Sestriere. it's cheaper, but the lift management in Milky Way is stuck in the 80s, and it's often a coin flip whether they get the links open to the wider resort.

I agree they cut corners

High, short transfer, quiet, doesn’t exist… or we’d all be there!

Cervinia. Done a few times at Christmas. If you fly to Turin, its less than 2 hours. We have literally had slopes to ourselves.

Yes, I was going to say Flaine

Xmas tends to be less busy than NY especially in France. Both still busy though!

You may well struggle to get any accommodation for less than a week, as it is prime season. If you can manage to go just after NY then there are more likely to be short breaks available then

If it has to be less than a week and across Xmas or New Year then I suspect your choice will be driven by what is available for less than a week. Try ski weekends or plug your dates into booking.com or airbnb and see what comes up.

Just to add, Italy seems to have lots more choice on booking.com / airbnb - we've only stayed in a hotel once in Cervinia over Christmas (I think that was for 6 nights), every other time we've done 4 or 5 nights and stayed in Airbnbs which have been fab. We did look at Obergurgl once as suggested above (it looks beautiful) - it came highly recommended - but accommodation was largely hotels and would only book for 7 nights in "peak" season but that was a few years ago - it might be more flexible now.

We've just done Easter in Val Thorens - great for high altitude and transfer not that bad - but its likely to be busy. Having said that, the ski area is so vast that other than first thing in the morning and last thing in the afternoon, it didn't feel busy.

Yes. Not much snow before we arrived and it rained when we were there. Only skiied one out of the four days as a lot of lifts were shut. May have been unlucky with a bad snow year

Thanks all - we're looking at a few options. Agree our list of requirements might not be all possible - and the snow is hard to predict.

Tignes/VDI/VT - we've done those a few times, really like them but thats a long transfer. We;re half wondering though whether going somewhere we're familiar with will save time overall, even if the transfer is longer.

Obergurgl we had on our list but two sets of friends didn't rate it for range/convenience of pistes and both said it was v busy. We might still try it though.

Cervinia has been on my list for a while, we've never skiied Italy, will look into transfer times.

Our dates are really restrictive due to Xmas with extended family 5 hours from home and return to school date. That will be the case for the next few years tho unforts...

This is very similar to the experience friends had at Flaine in Dec too....

My early season Flaine experience wasn’t great
I find La Plagne super reliable

I've never skiied any European resort over Christmas, but was also going to suggest Cervinia. You just need to be mindful if crossing over into Zermatt. If the lifts shut, there is no easy route directly from Zermatt to Cervinia. You have to go all the way around the mountain and its a 4hrs drive! I love Italy and rarely go anywhere else now- great food and people.

If a long transfer wasn't an issue, I was going to suggest Livigno. We've skiied there in Apr a few times and over Easter with plenty of snow. I haven't been since brexit, but its duty free so we always bought back great value liquor camera lenses, perfume and things like chocolate and dried porchini mushrooms.

This site used to be very helpful. I never signed up, just accessed the free info. You could look at pros/cons for each resort, filter by skiing ability, short/long transfers etc. www.skiclub.co.uk/

Thanks so much for the link, really helpful.

If you want a shorter transfer to Tignes/Val then look at flights to Chambery. Jet2 has them I believe and possibly other charter companies (Tui maybe)? Ski Solutions agency can book them for you, other travel agents too possibly. However they will of course be the standard Sat to Sat so no good if you can’t make that work.

The only thing I would say is if you are used to Arlberg and Val/Tignes you will find Cervinia infrastructure very poor in comparison (old and slow lifts). it’s also very bleak in poor weather. The slopes are also rather boring and unchallenging. I accept I’m in a minority here but I just didn’t feel the vibe.
I would consider somewhere like Courchevel Le Praz or La Tania. While these resorts are not high they offer some tree lined skiing if weather is poor and if you are lucky and weather is decent you have the whole 3V right there to offer high altitude skiing. Appreciate it may not tick your “quiet” box though.

3 Valleys will offer slopes appropriately challenging for you in Courchevel/Meribel and higher in VT which is very easy to reach in good weather as the lifts are good and fast. Even Zermatt is easy apart from the yellow itineraries and they may well not be open that early in the season anyway.

@domenica1 I already posted up thread, but you have reminded me now of the weird lift layout in some parts of Cervinia! I recall coming down a slope which ended abruptly at a road! Not off piste, but a groomed slope! We then had to walk in our boots across said road and up a hill on the other side to find another lift. We made sure we never came down that run for the rest of the holiday! 😆

Our chambery flight still meant hours and hours of transfer at Xmas as the roads were crazy!

@Decisionsdecisions1

Unless you have a private Learjet and can fly into Courchevel airport, for a short transfer you can't really beat flying to Salzburg and then going to any of the resorts within 60-90 minutes from the airport. Most are snow-sure, either because they get good natural snowfall or because they have invested heavily in snow-making. Altitude is less of an issue in central Austria than it is in France, but if all else fails, there is the option of the Kitzsteinhorn glacier at Kaprun.

You could book flights (Easyjet, BA, Ryanair, Eurowings, Jet2) as soon as you have confirmed your dates, and then keep an eye on the snow during November and December before finally deciding on a resort. Bergfex has webcams and snow forecasts for a multitude of resorts - you could look at Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Leogang, Zell am See, Bad Gastein, Flachau, Wagrain, Maria Alm and the Hochkoenig area or the Steinplatte area. Christmas is always going to be busy, but nowhere near as busy as New Year or half-term.

Another good source of info regarding all things skiing is the Snowheads forum - Ski Club 2.0, real snow reports! :: snowHeads global ski club

Thanks Havana, really appreciate that.

I go to 3 valleys every Christmas. It’s not massively busy and it’s big enough so you can go where the snow is best. It’s a much shorter transfer than Tignes as you leave the main road at Moutiers so you often miss a lot of traffic.
If you stay in the Val Thorens valley it will be cheaper and there are loads of apartments so you should be able to find something for less than a week