 Poster: A snowHead
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So far have we, a family of three (2 adults and one 6 year old) have booked Serfaus for pre Xmas and looking to book Tignes for Easter. We were originally looking to go Serfaus at HT but prices we were quoted by the hotel were significantly more than what we paid there this HT.
Our half term week is 11th - 18th of Feb, so unfortunately that clashes with the Main Ski-Regions of Austria's school holidays: Tyrol, Salzburg, Vorarlberg with additional traffic from Zurich. On top of resorts being expensive I also imagine there will be a lot of day trippers with Tyrol Snowcards, etc. This leads me to a few questions.
Is Austria really that bad during their main holiday period? (Since that week does avoid Dutch and German school holidays)
If it is busy, does that spill over into adjacent areas, such as Dolomites?
What potential alternatives are there that may be relatively quiet but still offer decent size, good lift infrastructure and are family friendly (good kids ski school, hotel). Also, as I snowboard, I am also keen to avoid resorts that have excessive amount of flat sections.
A few places I'm currently looking into, but have some doubts:
Verbier - too busy due to proximity to France?
Zermatt - expensive, faff to get too?
Cervinia - windy? (have seen that mentioned a few times)
Arosa or Laax - busy due to proximity Zurich (school holidays)?
St. Moritz - expensive I guess?
Sella Ronda - busy, too many flat sections?
Happy to hear people's suggestions, as you can probably tell by the list above I'm all over the place at the moment.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Sestriere Italy? Or Sauze d'oulx over the other side of the area to ski from.
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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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@ski3, I wouldn't book in advance for either of those places. It's renowned for being dry there and fresh dumps fewz and far between
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@ski_free, we did Champoluc Feb half term just gone and found it surprisingly quiet BUT that was because UK half term and Italians carnival nicely avoided each other that isn't the case next year.
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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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@ski_free,
Verbier is pretty pricey but it's offshoots like La Tzoumaz and Nendaz less so. Lift passes for families offer decent reductions. I've never been Feb half term but reports are that it is not too bad.
La Thuile is meant to be a lot less busy than the French side and offers pretty good skiing.
We often went to Ischgl , could be busy to get up the mountain at half term but once you knew the area it was good.
Lech was pretty good when we went at half term.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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We're going to Les Sybelles area next Feb HT accounts tell me it's not bad even in HT hope they're right.
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| Mother hucker wrote: |
| @ski3, I wouldn't book in advance for either of those places. It's renowned for being dry there and fresh dumps fewz and far between |
Yep, see what you mean and hadn't considered the obvious of needing to book in advance for HT security of getting something. Sestriere is at 2035 mtrs though and possibly reliable in comparison to the altitude difference over SdO.
For the OP, Verbier perhaps, as already mentioned above, via one of the other areas. Nendaz good for access and generally lower cost of accommodation, also Siviez as very few mentions but very central to ski and with it's own children's facilities etc. Certainly no flats in those two  for a boarder.
In same vein of Swiss location, PdS from Champery and again with very good children's provision.
Mentioned by OP, Cervinia is a good choice. I really like it there but often the wind comments are deafening on here. In reality I've lost more days for localised (high winds) in other places Les Arcs, GM and Chamonix as there's always a risk in such extreme environments. Most ski station are going to have a weather risk of some description.
Outlying choice, Grimentz for really good mix of attributes and probably least crowded.
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It looks like 11-18th Feb isn't crazy week next year...
That's the following week when the Germans will be in town.
I guess it won't be quiet anywhere as it's high season in February, the Austrian (OO on the chart) holidays will make a bit of difference locally, but not as much as the flood of Germans (DUI) who mostly choose Austria.
Germany has the world's largest skiing population with 14.9m skiers, France comes 2nd with 8.5m, Austria has 2.9m (higher percentage of population but much smaller population overall).
The largest contingent for 11-18th Feb is the French (FRA) and since the vast majority of them ski in their own country, avoiding French resorts would be advisable.
With Italy, it varies by region, South Tyrol (Kronplatz & Val Gardena/Alta Badia on the Sella Ronda) gets a lot of German weeklong skiers, so is busy during German holidays. I wouldn't recommend the Sella Ronda at HT after the day I spent at Canazei this year which was rammed full of Danes. Other places tend to be busiest at New Year when all Italians seem to want to be in the mountains, a bit at Carnevale long weekend and sunny weekend days throughout the season, particularly Sundays when they bring up coaches from the cities on the plain. Some larger areas attract an international crowd on weeklong trips, but smaller resorts in Italy can be deliciously quiet on weekdays at HT though.
Cervinia is a great way of skiing Zermatt on the cheap. I've not experienced the wind issues there when I've visited. I've heard it can cause issues at altitude with the high links across the border, so you would have to stay lower down in the bowl on the Italian side, but I think you would be unlucky to have a whole week when you couldn't get over to the Swiss side.
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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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When our daughter was at school we found it was cost-effective to ski in Switzerland at half term. While Switzerland is expensive (when paying in pounds), prices don't increase significantly for the half term week as they do other places. Plus it was easy to DIY holidays since Swiss public transport is so reliable you can efficiently get from the major airports to anywhere.
It pays to self-cater though, you have to be careful with costs eating out - and especially alcoholic drinks in restaurants and bars.
(Of the places you mention, we skiied in both Laax and Lenzerheide - linked with Arosa - at what was our half term those years, and didn't suffer unduly with crowds in either).
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@luigi, I know, but it was cheaper than what we could find at the time in France for half-term - though I think we restricted ourselves to tour operators who would organise the transfers as well.
I just looked at notes I still have from going to Lenzerheide a few years ago. Flights that week were well priced into Zurich, though had we booked further ahead we would no doubt have managed even cheaper. I can't remember the train cost, but the Swiss rail system has family deals. The apartment for three was under CHF1000 for the week, and we also booked a hotel for CHF180 to allow us to ski an extra day and benefit from cheaper Sunday flights. Lift pass and ski hire seemed a bit expensive compared to previous experience though some of that was the difference between CHF and EUR. Ditto private lessons, but it was the best instruction we have had and in completely fluent English.
But we definitely chose our lunches carefully, and only ate out a couple of times in evenings.
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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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Thank you all for the suggestions so far folks. Definitely some interesting ideas.
Will certainly look at a few of the suggestions in more detail.
We were in Serfaus this half term this year 20th - 27th with coincided with NL north holidays. The resort was quite busy and about 70-80% of the people we encountered in lifts were Dutch. Whilst it was busy, it wasn't too bad in terms of queues or bodies on the slopes. So was wondering how that week compares to Austrian school holidays.
In general we would also prefer hotels, as we are traveling by ourselves and it is easier for our son to find other kids to play with in a hotel setting. Also I love hotel breakfasts
One thing I am also interested to know about is what peoples experiences have been with children's ski schools in Switzerland and Italy?
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| ski_free wrote: |
| One thing I am also interested to know about is what peoples experiences have been with children's ski schools in Switzerland and Italy? |
In general or for specific resorts. I imagine it varies from school to school.
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You know it makes sense.
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