recommendation for spending 1 month at a place in the Alps

A snowHead

Hello snow friends,

I'm new here and not entirely sure if this is the right section to post. Apologise if not...

I am looking for advice for spending 1 month in an area in the Alps.

I used to live in America and spent 1 month at salt lake city every season.
It was perfect because
1) cheap accomodation (<$1000 for a month), food, and reliable internet,
2) ikon pass,
3) a proper city with access to various resorts/mountains,
4) ski touring possibilities and resources.

Now that I live in England, I'm looking to do the same thing in the Alps. I hope to spend one month anywhere in the Alps.
Is there an equivalent of salt lake city in the Alps? I'm thinking innsbruck? What should I expect to spend there for housing and car rental?

Thanks a lot in advance!

A snowHead

I lived in the US for a few years and I really enjoyed driving up every weekend to go skiing in Vermont. Also did trips to CO and UT (I had an epic pass).

For the Alpes I don't think there's an equivalent for an epic or ikon pass that gives you access to a range of resorts. You are better off staying in a specific resort and get a season pass there (rather than staying in a city a bit out like SLC in your example). You save on car rental in this case too.

In terms of resorts you probably wanted to stay in a big one like the three valleys. Internet on the mountain accommodation is patchy at best. Depending what you need the Internet for (e.g. if you need to work from home) you may be better to look for a co working space like the Ski Locker in Chamonix.

If you insist in staying in a nearby city you could consider Grenoble say. I was a student there a long time ago. It has good connection to resorts nearby and a good night life and it was cheap (at least when I was there).

I appreciate I haven't really answered your question or meet your conditions in my suggestions but I just wanted to give you a feel that skiing in Europe is quite a bit different from skiing in the US.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Dolomites
See which you get of bored first - the skiing or scenery or pasta

Best of all…. You can there by train from Innsbruck!

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I think that you are right with Austria. The Superski pass or the Tirol snow card offer enormous ski areas. If you have transport, you can easily travel to local areas and cover big and small ski areas. Staying in a town without lifts should allow for decent accommodation in places which have a summer season but not a winter one.

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@yoyowoo, very tricky questions. I have a couple of suggestions

How big a city do you want? candidates could range from the big, such as Turin to the medium like Grenoble and Innsbruck and the smaller like Cortina or Wolkenstein

For accommodation Have a look at airbnb or other rental agengies but for less than €1000 per month you'll be looking at a bunk house or hostel. Car hire will also be expensive. I think you'll be better off buying a car and selling it at the end of the trip. Don't forget you will have to pay to park it in a city.

As @euanovsky, says you will probably be better off stying in a large resort such as the 3 valleys and forking out for a season pass. (or Bourg st Maurice commuting to the resorts). Internet access should not be a problem. Our apartment in Arc 1600 gets 25mb/s

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Do you have a car in England? If so then why not drive out to wherever you decide to go?

Somewhere like Albertville can be a similar drive to ski to SLC but there isn't a lift pass that covers every station around it, don't know whether there is a pass to cover places around Grenoble. Also don't know about medium-term rents in the valley, I have just stayed a few nights in a cheap chain hotel whenever I skied aroung Grenoble.

Innsbruck sounds closest to what you ask to me.

After all it is free

I’ve always thought Bourg st Maurice would be a good shout as a base for a few weeks - proper town with all facilities and pretty normal prices. Default (high and extensive) skiing via furnicular in Les arcs/ La Plagne. Also within daily/overnight distance - Tignes, Val D’isere, 3 valleys - and could always shoot up to some resorts around Annecy/Geneva.

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Basically I don't think you will find a "proper city" with lots of different accessible resorts on the same pass. And you would have to research available rent prices. But assuming you had a car and were content with a town, people have mentioned Bourg St Maurice with access to Les Arcs (directly), La Plagne, Tignes, Val d'Isere and St Foy you could be further down the valley in Moutiers and have all the Three Valleys and Valmorel also accessible. You would need very early morning starts to cover travel times to some of those though.

Or slightly further north in the Haute Savoie, a place like Cluses would give you access to Les Gets or Morzine for Porte de Soleil, Les Carroz for Grand Massif, Combloux, Megeve or St Gervais for Evolution Mont Blanc, most of the access points for the Chamonix valley, plus other places like Grand Bornand, La Clusaz, Les Contamines, Les Houches and some smaller resorts.

In Italy Aosta would give access to Pila (directly), La Thuile, Courmayeur, and potentially over to Cervinia and others. In Italy Innsbruck gives a range of Tyrol resorts, but there are other possibilities and it is the one place where some resorts have combination passes.

Without a car you would be more limited. I remember Moutiers has bus links to a lot of resorts though, and I imagine Bourg St Maurice does. In the Haute Savoie Le Fayet (very definitely much smaller than a city!) would give you public transport access to the Chamonix valley and Les Houches, and Evolution Mont Blanc including Les Contamines - and you can get a Mont Blanc Unlimited pass covering them all. I think Austria is pretty good for public transport but know it less well.

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Not a city, but peripheral to Geneva and with so much within easy reach is Cluses in France. Possibly doesn't come up on many a radar but good cost and very well located for relatively short journeys (it's effectively on route from Geneva to many of the north west alps principle ski areas) to reach and explore such a variety of sporting interests.

Although geographically "central" to so many areas, not generally a tourist destination as such but with that will come better cost for the items of interest to the OP.

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Crossed over there with you @j b, but as already mentioned Cluses is very central to so much (sitting right in the centre of lakes Geneva, Annecy and Chamonix valley) it's often overlooked but able to offer a lot.

I’d aim for a season pass that covers a wide area first, then find somewhere to stay.

https://www.superskicard.com/en/superskicard.html
https://snowcard.tirol.at/
https://www.skiamade.com/seasonpass

Any of these would all be good.

If you want a proper town, you could live somewhere like Andorra La Vella. Then access to two ski areas within about 20 mins and a third in 40 mins.

https://skiandorra.ad/en/menu-14/ski-andorra.html

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@Arctic Roll,

A snowHead

Another couple of ski pass options are:

Aosta valley pass, using Aosta as a base. Car hire and accommodation are likely to be cheaper in Italy than France or Austria
MagicPass for a random selection of resorts in South West Switzerland. You could use Martigny, Sion or Sierre as a base. However, Switzerland will be more expensive

A snowHead

@johnE, was introduced to us by a Ste Foy resident - she had a stack of receipts, that covered the 6 of us visiting!
Not sure what to do with my season pass - I've had 5 days on it, not sure what they do about refunds in that case.

It's all so frustrating not knowing what's going to happen. Maybe cancel, and then rebuy a weekly if we do get out there late season.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Salt Lake city has a population of roughly 200,000 - a bit less than Milton Keynes (but that is still awaiting city status). Now are there any ski slopes in the vicinity of Milton Keynes?

So we are looking at quite big cities. Even Grenoble has only 80% of that population. Some others mentioned are really little more than villages. For example Cortina has a population of 6000.

Looking at other Cities with a population of around 200,000 I came across Geneva and wonder why no one has mentioned it.

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I must confess (and I have used SLC as a base for a trip) I'm not sure I'd be wanting to try and replicate that experience in Europe. I think you'd miss out on much of what makes Europe different.

It's perhaps a little analogous to saying, "I used to spend a month a year in Manhattan. I'd like to spend a month in Manhattan, except in Europe".

Personally, I'd be looking to find accommodation in a "satellite" village in one of the big European areas. Portes du Soleil, Espace Killy, etc., Or somewhere like Chamonix which is pretty easy to access many places e.g. Aosta valley, Verbier, PdS, etc.

Cluses is a bit of a hole, if one has to be rude!

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@under a new name, your last sentence was what i have been thinking whilst reading this thread. Absolute dump.

After all it is free

@yoyowoo Well, if I was young and wanted a lively city/large town near to a ski area, then I'd live in Lausanne - it's a relatively young, lively, international university town on the shores of Lake Geneva. But not for just a month's break, focused on skiing. I'd favour a satellite resort and a studio or 1-bedroom apartment as four weeks isn't very long once you settle in. But you won't get even a studio for $1,000/month however, even in a satellite like La Tzoumaz, Nendaz or Veysonnaz: you might get a single room in a hostel somewhere like Le Chable, but if you wanted a studio, I'd say quadruple your accommodation budget.

Various SnowHeads have stayed at the Mt.Fort Swiss Lodge hostel in a one-person room and given good feedback. Standard rate is CHF 80-100 /night, but my guess is you could contact them and possibly get a discount for a one month stay.

But then you could do the same and get a discount on a studio, by contacting the Tourist Office or individual rental agencies. You might find that an owner would happily give a discount for a longer rental, especially in the quiet inter-school-holiday weeks. But to make this approach workable you'll probably need to narrow-down you choice of resort quickly, otherwise the search would be just too broad. I took a quick look for studios on the books of our rental agency and the Téléverbier (who run the lifts) apartment block and rates ranged from CHF 570-870 a week, but you might get a discount for a longer booking.

I'm discussing the Verbier ski area called the Quatre Vallées (400Kms+ in total) which is centred on Verbier, because we have an apartment there and so obviously know it well. There are many other large ski areas with cheaper satellites within them, some already mentioned.

@LaForet, hmmm, depending dates, maybe double the budget ...

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@j b, I'm not sure how happy I'd be walking around Cluses late at night!

Off the main street it gets pretty ropey pretty quickly!

@under a new name, well maybe you have tried that. As I said, an hour or so at lunch time and the main issue was the town seemed dead. Scary only in the ghost town sense.

But the question was where to stay for maximum ski access. As I wrote in another post, you would do pretty well in Le Fayet (also lacking excitement, no idea whether there are problems at night but seemed OK when we have driven through) where you have direct access to the train connecting the Chamonix valley resorts, the Tramway du Mont Blanc up to Les Houches, and buses to St Gervais, Les Contamines, Combloux and Megeve (all on the Mont Blanc Unlimited pass, though you would have to pay cash on the bus). But I don't know how that skiing compares with Salt Lake City.

Cluses just offers access within a reasonable time to a further range of resorts.

You know it makes sense.

@yoyowoo, Luzern is a proper city, with less than an hour drive to some world class downhill and uphill skiing. So fits (3) and (4). Housing will not be cheap. On (4), CH lift tickets are cheap compared to US, and there are discounts (Andermatt 50% for example).

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@yoyowoo - it would help if you could clarify your criteria and priorities. What "proper city things" do you want to do?

Do you speak French, German or Italian? That would help clarify which city would be most congenial to you.

Dates are important too - French resorts are expensive and crowded during the French "vacances scolaires" - four weeks starting in the second week of February.

A snowHead

@j b, I haven't tried that at all, based on advice. Le Fayet an interesting idea. Although Sallanches itself might be a little livelier.

Salt Lake City (being in the US) has no non-bus public transport e.g. rail. rolling eyes

and I'm not sure (although I have vague recollections of comments else times) that buses to ski stations exist. I mean, it's 'Merka and all y'all have a car

A snowHead

@under a new name, you are right, Sallanches seems more like a town. But I suggested Le Fayet simply because you could get straight on the train connecting the Chamonix resorts, straight on the Tramway du MB, and catch the bus to the EMB access points (and also Praz sur Arly, though that isn't covered on the MBU pass).

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@under a new name, I thought that SLC did have rail now, it had buses up the canyons even mid 90s.

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recommendation for spending 1 month at a place in the Alps

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