 Poster: A snowHead
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Never been away over Christmas or New Year but we fancy it for next season.
For those who have done it, which is better? Skiing over Christmas or seeing in the new year (or both?). And where did you base yourselves? An actual alpine village or a purpose built resort up the mountain? Any noticeable differences between countries?
What do you prioritise more? Guaranteed show in somewhere like Val T or Tignes? Or somewhere with a bit more charm like Zell am See or Megeve?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Christmas preferable from the point of view of cost and hideously crowded slopes (not that Christmas is quiet or cheap). And Christmas Day on the slopes is SO much preferable to slobbing on a sofa watching TV, having eaten and drunk too much. Obviously neither is ideal for snow - but the risk in somewhere like Megeve is being surrounded by brown slush at resort level, or just being rained on. Not that charming. The days are very short, whichever you choose. Obviously New Year is very popular - but to my mind, it ranks alongside half term as to be avoided if at all possible. I shall never understand why people without kids go skiing in school holidays!
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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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Lech has it both.
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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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| Langerzug wrote: |
| Lech has it both. |
Hideously expensive though isn't it?
| pam w wrote: |
| Christmas preferable from the point of view of cost and hideously crowded slopes (not that Christmas is quiet or cheap). And Christmas Day on the slopes is SO much preferable to slobbing on a sofa watching TV, having eaten and drunk too much. Obviously neither is ideal for snow - but the risk in somewhere like Megeve is being surrounded by brown slush at resort level, or just being rained on. Not that charming. The days are very short, whichever you choose. Obviously New Year is very popular - but to my mind, it ranks alongside half term as to be avoided if at all possible. I shall never understand why people without kids go skiing in school holidays! |
Yeah I think as much as a guarantee of snow as possible is probably up there as a priority, which does start to rule out lower more "traditional" resorts I guess.
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IME... Christmas is cheaper and quieter than NY though slightly less snowsure. Mitigate the the snow issue by going high.
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Christmas day falls on a Sunday this year, so I'd guess that for most tour operators there will be a pre-Christmas week and an 8 night Christmas + New Year week.
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Christmas every time. New Year is high cost, high expectation, high volume of holiday makers.
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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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Went to Solden 3 years ago for New Year, found the prices reasonable for accommodation, slopes weren't as busy as we thought. Apres ski was busy though and we had to stagger book our New Years eve dining out as the restaurant (and it appeared all other restaurants were the same) had a 3 slot booking over the evening.
As we drove from the UK, journey down was busy through Germany into Austria.
I would do it again and loved skiing on New Years day.
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The quick answer is both. New Year is more crowded and more expensive and going over Christmas is definately the better of the two weeks. And it avoids you having to spend Cristmas in the UK. Until Covid stopped skiing we spent almost every Christmas and New Year in Les Arcs. The resort is beautiful and snow cover has been perfectly adequate. Spending the last two Cristmases in The UK with all the pressure to spend and eat and drink and not much else hasn't been great.
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I shall never understand why people without kids go skiing in school holidays!
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The reason is simple @pam w, we get the whole of the period between Christmas eve and New Year off work and good Friday to Tuesday afer Easter off work. You can go skiing over that period without eating into your holiday allowance. There is also a feeling amongst some people that the only time to go skiing is Febuary (one of my friends oddly thinks the snow goes att he end of febuary even though we have had to negotiate snow filled couloirs in August). I know there are no school holidays in Feb in Italy but 4 weeks of school holidays makes it hard to avoid.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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If I had to choose between the 2, I'd go for Christmas week, but probably hold off booking as there are usually some last minute deals for that week compared with NY-so you can go where the snow is and for much less money than NY. I confess we head out for NY week on Boxing day (normally-not this year cos the French wouldn't let us in!)-but the only real reason for Christmas at home is compulsory is the need to ensure the elderly family members can participate. NY week is busy though- but as @johnE, says-it's "free" holiday time, with the added bonus of no work emails to speak of.
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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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The Dolomites will be nice and festive - and should have extensive snow cover on the pistes due to their supreme snow making skill even if not much natural snow .
Christmas week will be busy but NYE week will be packed - I don't think I would ever go again in NYE week....some very long lift queues.
We have also been in Austria (Saalbach) at Christmas and although we did not enjoy the resort as much as e.g. Selva they did have nice Xmas celebrations.
La Rosiere in France was much more low key... didn't feel quite as festive although we had a very good weeks skiing and not really busy.
Not sure I would do Xmas in France again for a festive exerience.
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| Quote: |
La Rosiere in France was much more low key... didn't feel quite as festive although we had a very good weeks skiing and not really busy.
Not sure I would do Xmas in France again for a festive exerience.
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To me this lower key "festivities" is a major plus point.
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You know it makes sense.
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Have done both and prefer NY, we go to Austria and Christmas is usually first week of the Season, all my kids are now adults so we like some nightlife which can be missing over Christmas week, also gives another week for a dump of snow.
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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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| Langerzug wrote: |
| Lech has it both. |
Hideously expensive though isn't it?
Not necessarily.
Lech has plenty of old fashioned (in the good sense) reasonable Austrian B&B and also apartements.
Plenty of reasonable restaurants too. (Much more so than France, and much better quality)
Skipass: very reasonable.
Lech is very popular though, especially for the Holidays
And only DIY
Www.lechzuers.com
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Poster: A snowHead
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As per many other responses, Christmas is typically quieter and less expensive. There's also normally some last-minute availability from Christmas, but much less for New Year.
What we've done several times is book last minute for Christmas (typically a day or two before travel) based on snow conditions. We commonly try and sneak a few extra days either before or after Christmas week, normally staying in a hotel down valley (we've ended up in Chur and Martigny most recently), which is also possible to book last minute. Note that this only works if everybody in the party is comfortable with the idea of not knowing where they'll be spending Christmas week till a couple of days before. If there's really no snow in the alps (nor Pyrenees or Scandinavia) we'd just stay home, but that hasn't happened yet.
In the past we've got decent last minute discounts for smaller British run chalets, but most of those operators (SkiVal, Supertravel) have now gone bust, or no longer do ski trips. This may or may not be a coincidence
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Quick question - I’m thinking about a month in Europe for January 23 - with the way the days fall - with new year at the start of a Saturday / Saturday week - will the whole of that week after new year be worth avoiding or do the crowds go straight after new year ?
Will probably leave Southern Hemisphere on Boxing Day but can just spend a week or so away from a ski resort en route if that’s best.
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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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Yep, busy until January 7.
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When Christmas and New Year are on a weekend, it's always a bit less predictable. I expect that in 2023 it'll still be busy during the start of the w/c 2nd Jan, but will dropoff during the week, but i've no idea what the curve will look like.
What sort of accommodation are you looking for ? I'd suggest looking at that allow searching by flexible dates (e.g. most tourist office sites, AirBnB, booking.com), and seeing what the results look like for different starting dates in the first week. If you do the search 2 or 3 months out, you'll probably be able to get a reasonable picture
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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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Cheap! Location more important than type for me, but haven't really worked out any destinations yet, more than likely Austria. Very flexible on resorts and dates.
Good tip on searching around. I'm not keen on big lift queues and busy slopes. Could get that at home without sitting on a plane for 36 hours.
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Christmas definitely. You get a few crowd free days of skiing before it starts to get busy around Boxing Day.
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New Year (we've done it a few times) is incredibly expensive, with lift queues and packed pistes everywhere (as is the Feb half term week, for resorts frequented by Brits, Dutch, Belgians etc).
Snow can be very dodgy, even higher up. Family of mine spent the Xmas week in Les Arcs about 4 years ago?, it so mild that they couldn't snow-make and after a long drought, brown mountain slopes everywhere. There was a blizzard on coming home day.
I'd say pick a higher altitude French/Italian resort, or in Austria something at least the altitude of Schladming as an example.
Lech/Zurs/St Christoph/Warth always seems to amazing for snow - that part of the Alps catches precipitation, seemingly never in the lee of weather systems.
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We have been to Maria Alm for both Christmas and New Year for the last 8/9 years. Of the two I would say Christmas week is by far our favourite. It is quieter and as Maria Alm is a traditional Austrian village there are lots of wonderful Christmas things to do there (eg Advent Markets, Nativity scenes, church illuninations etc).
I would say that New Year week is at least twice as busy as Christmas week in Maria Alm (still not busy by the standards of most resorts though).
There is a slightly higher risk of poor snow at Christmas, however they have invested heavily in snow making and we have never been unable to ski whilst 3 years ago we had so much snow we were digging our cars out each morning.
One final thing, as most Austrians celebrate Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day it is very easy to book into a good restaurant for Christmas Day Evening so all the hassle of cooking Christmas Dinner disappears.
Last edited by After all it is free  on Wed 9-02-22 18:59; edited 2 times in total
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