 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@sugarmoma666, ah, hadn't caught that. hmmmm,
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| sugarmoma666 wrote: |
| brenster21 wrote: |
| As for renting a car, (pretty sure that is what you mean by car hire), I can drive a stick but have no desire to do so after a red eye flight in a foreign country.car hire for economy was 70 euro, plus fuel, paying to keep the car somewhere ect. |
The OP has made it pretty clear that they're not keen on renting a car, for what sound like good reasons to me. I'd likewise not be keen to get off a long flight and immediately get into an unfamiliar car to drive in a foreign country. It sounds like there are some good options for the OP that fit with their desire to travel by public transport, so let's try and help the OP with that  |
Agreed. It's just that there are some easy drives from Malpensa that could eliminate faff and save a lot of time.
This bus service looks perfect, Malpensa to Aosta: https://aosta.arriva.it/en/aosta-malpensa-airport/. Spend a few days in Aosta Valley, maybe over to Chamonix for a few.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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They must run slower from the airport than from the central station. We got the 12:57 from Centro last week and got to Malpensa at 13:40. I do note that I'm talking about terminal 1 not terminal 2 it takes a longer to get to T2. Very few flights go to T2.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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FYI - MXP T2 is exclusively EasyJet now. Everyone else in T1...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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There is alot of good information available here. I do want to respond to most of the comments here.
To add. I will probably be getting off the flight with limited sleep and hungover. So driving in mountains would probably be a terrible idea.
I am going to look at Monterosa. Champoluc
Should clarify that I am a guy. I am leaning on the austria idea since I do like trains, though am open to other ideas due to the large prices in austria right now.
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| Langerzug wrote: |
| @luigi, you are mistaken. St.Anton might be a more famous name internationally, but already for some decades, Lech is the more expensive side of Arlberg. For really economic options it's best to look at villages like Pettneu and Flirsch. |
Yes, I know Lech & Zurs can be pricey, but there were cheaper options available on Booking.com when I looked vs St Anton for the OP's awkward Monday-Monday dates.
Maybe the tourist office would have cheaper options in the outlying villages on the St Anton side. It can be difficult to book things in advance that aren't Saturday to Saturday in the popular resorts.
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For reference what price range pershould I expect? I had one hotel state 210 euros a night, for 7 nights for room half board right in downtown.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| brenster21 wrote: |
| For reference what price range pershould I expect? I had one hotel state 210 euros a night, for 7 nights for room half board right in downtown. |
That's cheaper than anything I saw on Booking.com and not a crazy price, assuming it's a nice hotel in St Anton.
It's half your budget, but at least you will have your main meals taken care of. Easy to find something on the mountain for lunch.
Should leave enough to get ski pass, ski hire and a few beers at the Krazy Kanguruh or the Mooserwirt! 
Just work out if you can do that long-winded transfer
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| luigi wrote: |
| brenster21 wrote: |
| For reference what price range pershould I expect? I had one hotel state 210 euros a night, for 7 nights for room half board right in downtown. |
That's cheaper than anything I saw on Booking.com and not a crazy price, assuming it's a nice hotel in St Anton.
It's half your budget, but at least you will have your main meals taken care of. Easy to find something on the mountain for lunch.
Should leave enough to get ski pass, ski hire and a few beers at the Krazy Kanguruh or the Mooserwirt!
Just work out if you can do that long-winded transfer |
On a side note I don't recommend writing in this forum on a phone. It was 310 not 210 (should have been 285) with half board. So I should be able to afford a set of skis or will bring my own.
Sports hotel in st. Anton.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| brenster21 wrote: |
| I do like trains, though am open to other ideas due to the large prices in austria right now. |
Check out https://www.seat61.com/ - best way to plan a train journey in Europe.
"large prices" are kind of everywhere. In my opinion Austria and Italy still offer best value compared to Switzerland (obviously) and France.
The journey into Milan Centrale from MXP isn't too bad and I reckon on an hour. I think you kinda have to go that way anyway. One option might be Milan-Verona (Venice train), Verona-Innsbruck (Munich train). Staying in Innsbruck has advantages - lots of hotels, lots of local ski areas accessible by public transport.
The Verona-Innsbruck also stops at Bolzano for access to Val Gardena and the Sella Ronda. Maybe 40 minute taxi. Personally, I think I'd do that.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I want to put to rest the back and forth on public transport vs rental car.
I don’t think most of the Brit’s appreciate enough of what it feels like after a 6 hour night flight to “wake up” 6 hour ahead of your body clock. Driving solo in a foreign country after that is not ideal. Without someone to walk to, it’s far too easy to doze off on the wheel and end up in a roadside ditch. 
The OP knows himself well. Good for him.
I’ve done quite a few solo trips from New York to the Alps. I’ve always done train/bus. The “slow” train/bus afford the chance to nap/rest which is actually very nice! Moreover, as long as it gets me to the ski resort by the end of the day, “longer” transfer makes no difference. It doesn’t matter it takes the rest of my arrival day. I arrive better rested than when I got off the plane!
On that note, don’t just focus on the length of the transfer. But minimize the number of transfers will be nice. That way, you can rest/sleep through a longer period while on each of the train/bus leg.
Something else to keep in mind though, stick to routes have frequent service. That way, if your flight is late, no big deal. If one leg of your train is late, no big deal either. What you don’t want is a route that only has a few services in a day. Then if you miss one, you’re stuck for the night.
The last time I skied in Europe was some 10 years back. So take some of what I write from here down with a grain of salt.
1) many Swiss/Austrian hotels offered “package” which includes ski pass, half board meal (breakfast +dinner). It may work out to be a good value. May want to look into it
2) finding a gang to hang out with maybe a little harder in Europe. There’s language barrier (not a problem in logistics as signs are often in English. But random conversation is). Plus, Europeans aren’t as outgoing as Americans from my own experience.
Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Sun 4-02-24 0:18; edited 4 times in total
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| brenster21 wrote: |
| luigi wrote: |
| brenster21 wrote: |
| For reference what price range pershould I expect? I had one hotel state 210 euros a night, for 7 nights for room half board right in downtown. |
That's cheaper than anything I saw on Booking.com and not a crazy price, assuming it's a nice hotel in St Anton.
It's half your budget, but at least you will have your main meals taken care of. Easy to find something on the mountain for lunch.
Should leave enough to get ski pass, ski hire and a few beers at the Krazy Kanguruh or the Mooserwirt!
Just work out if you can do that long-winded transfer |
On a side note I don't recommend writing in this forum on a phone. It was 310 not 210 (should have been 285) with half board. So I should be able to afford a set of skis or will bring my own.
Sports hotel in st. Anton. |
Nearly €2200 for lodging for a week for one makes my eyes water, but if it's what you want to do...it doesn't leave a huge amount in the budget for transport, ski pass, ski hire, lunches, drinks, etc.
There is also that complicated 6 stage transfer through 3 countries all with different ticketing systems to get done with red eye & jet lag.
The routing that Google Maps was showing was train to Varese, train to Mendrisio, train to Bellinzona, bus through the San Bernardino to Chur, train to Buchs, train to St Anton, lots of changes and waits, around 7 hrs total and potential for delay and missed connections.
It may be possible to do Milan, Verona, Innsbruck, St Anton, all by train, but I assume it takes longer that way, or the connections don't work as well.
Just spotted a Flixbus direct from MXP to Innsbruck, leaves 1610 and arrives 2225, only €19.99. But probably too late for onward connection to St Anton, last fast train leaves at 2147.
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You know it makes sense.
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To be honest, I can't see that you won't be bored (skiing wise) spending a week in Courmayeur. If you like piste skiing then La Thuile is (IMO) far more preferable. La Thuile is linked to La Rossiere (France). Wonderful though the restaurants in La Thuile are though, it might be a little quiet in La Thuile for what you are looking for.
From your description of what you are looking for Chamonix sounds more appropriate. You may, however, have to rent a car to do it without taking a ridiculous amount of time .
Details:
• I get that you’d prefer train to driving, but the significant driving is only at the beginning and end of the holiday. If it helps to sway you, I did once drive from Salt Lake City to Jackson Hole once after 24 hours of flying from London (on air-miles with 2 changes)
• If booked well in advance they can be pretty cheap from the Milan airports
• If driving to Chamonix, make sure you can drive the car into a different country
• https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/ gives links to cheap car rental sites
• In Europe you get some insurance with the car, but there can be a pretty large excess – check the policy details. Generally from the UK people book a second policy to cover the excess (see details on the above website)
• Others can probably provide more details than me on getting to Chamonix without a car (but be aware that it is spread out along a valley)
• When renting in Italy, make sure to get snow chains included – I’ve generally found this possible without having to pay anything/much extra. It’s certainly far easier than organising them from Calgary airport.
• A great starting point for information on train travel in Europe is https://www.seat61.com/european-train-travel.htm
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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So funnily enough turns out I have the wrong return date. My flight home is on the fifth. So I am probably going with the sports hotel in St anton, since it appears to be a decent place and getting to the hotels deeper into the mountains late at night would be rather difficult. Thank you to everyone who wrote and helped me. I will probably update this after the trip.
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Poster: A snowHead
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That's great that you have more more day to ski than you originally thought.
A thought about how to reduce the number of transfers and/or travel time: if you plug in Milan Centrale to St Anton into the Austrian railways (OBB - but website is oebb.at ) it automatically routes you through Zurich - just one transfer, which is hardly the 6 stage nightmare mentioned above.
The route goes from Milane Centrale via Como and Lugano. Given MXP is northwest of the city and arguably closer to Como than the centre of Milan, it might be worth checking the cost of a taxi transfer from MXP to the Como train station so you save yourself from backtracking into the city to catch the Zurich-bound train.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| AndreaC wrote: |
That's great that you have more more day to ski than you originally thought.
A thought about how to reduce the number of transfers and/or travel time: if you plug in Milan Centrale to St Anton into the Austrian railways (OBB - but website is oebb.at ) it automatically routes you through Zurich - just one transfer, which is hardly the 6 stage nightmare mentioned above.
The route goes from Milane Centrale via Como and Lugano. Given MXP is northwest of the city and arguably closer to Como than the centre of Milan, it might be worth checking the cost of a taxi transfer from MXP to the Como train station so you save yourself from backtracking into the city to catch the Zurich-bound train. |
Good spot! That does sound a lot better than the Google option!! 
I checked on OBB and they are also offering the convoluted multi-stage route on the Postbus through the San Bernardino as theoretically the quickest, but there is a train-only route from MXP on 26/2 at 1219 via Lugano and Zurich that gets into St Anton at 2101, the 1419 departure takes a bit longer and gets to St Anton at 2343. Standard fare, which allows for cancellation and later travel is €104 one way.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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That is interesting route. I ended up doing a flight from Milan to zuroch and train from zurich.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I know the OP doesn't want to hire a car, but is flying into Milan and then taking a 9-10 hour epic train journey to St Anton really sensible, when there are oodles of resorts with a couple of hours of Milan, wasting 2 days skiing on an already short-ish trip? A number of resorts do shared transfers or suck it up and take a taxi.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| brenster21 wrote: |
| That is interesting route. I ended up doing a flight from Milan to zuroch and train from zurich. |
All the better! I suspect that flying is cheaper than taking the train, not just faster - and the long journey goes through a lot of tunnels so you don't even have the upside of seeing the most stunning scenery en route. I'm sure you'll have a great trip - enjoy St Anton
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| brenster21 wrote: |
| That is interesting route. I ended up doing a flight from Milan to zuroch and train from zurich. |
As this thread was last updated a couple of weeks ago, I take it you're all booked up and getting the additional flight to Zurich?
I'm toying with the idea of booking a flight to Milan Malpensa for next Monday 26th Feb, grabbing hire car, doing 3 days boarding in Italy, before driving back to airport for flight home on Friday 1st March.
Thought me driving might have allowed you to do a few days in Italy and then transfer across to somewhere else when I head home.
Only problem with the Arriva service is that they only do one bus from Malpensa to Aosta on Mondays and it's at 11am (and my flight wouldn't land until 2pm) as it's the bus returning to the area having left for the airport in the morning. Plenty more options on Fridays though.
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| jebroni3_16 wrote: |
| brenster21 wrote: |
| That is interesting route. I ended up doing a flight from Milan to zuroch and train from zurich. |
As this thread was last updated a couple of weeks ago, I take it you're all booked up and getting the additional flight to Zurich?
I'm toying with the idea of booking a flight to Milan Malpensa for next Monday 26th Feb, grabbing hire car, doing 3 days boarding in Italy, before driving back to airport for flight home on Friday 1st March.
Thought me driving might have allowed you to do a few days in Italy and then transfer across to somewhere else when I head home.
Only problem with the Arriva service is that they only do one bus from Malpensa to Aosta on Mondays and it's at 11am (and my flight wouldn't land until 2pm) as it's the bus returning to the area having left for the airport in the morning. Plenty more options on Fridays though. |
Currently weighing up either Italy or Chamonix - where abouts are you looking for?
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Aosta Valley somewhere. Possibly staying in Aosta itself and driving from there each day to wherever takes my fancy
Chamonix is a piece of wee wee from Geneva for a solo trip with a whole load of public or private transfer options
But I was there for 4 days last year and ended up getting Flixbus (and another company) to Courmayeur for 2 day trips and conditions were so much better
That made me want to stay in Italy and as easyJet now do Birmingham to Milan on Mondays & Fridays and the weekdays are good for me, I'm thinking of giving that a go
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| jebroni3_16 wrote: |
Aosta Valley somewhere. Possibly staying in Aosta itself and driving from there each day to wherever takes my fancy
Chamonix is a piece of wee wee from Geneva for a solo trip with a whole load of public or private transfer options
But I was there for 4 days last year and ended up getting Flixbus (and another company) to Courmayeur for 2 day trips and conditions were so much better
That made me want to stay in Italy and as easyJet now do Birmingham to Milan on Mondays & Fridays and the weekdays are good for me, I'm thinking of giving that a go |
Great thanks; yes I went to courmayeur for the first time last year and it was brilliant. Stayed in hotel Courmayeur, first time staying somewhere with breakfast and it was an absolute game changer for me. Struggling to go back to airbnb now !
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[quote="johnE"]
| Quote: |
As far as I can see it the problem with the Monterosa area and @brenster21's criteria are: a crowd of her own age (we don't know what that is). |
We do. It's 27.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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[quote="Bergmeister"]
| johnE wrote: |
| Quote: |
As far as I can see it the problem with the Monterosa area and @brenster21's criteria are: a crowd of her own age (we don't know what that is). |
We do. It's 27. |
I took the "taught at Whiteface for 10 years" to be active teaching rather than passive learning, but seems less likely if they're only 27. Either way, I think they're sorted, but have been some really useful tips for my possible trip, so thanks everyone! 
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FAQ
