 Poster: A snowHead
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Seeking recommendations for a base town for skiing northern Italy in February / March 2023 staying for a month? Want to drive up and back each day. Recommendations?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Welcome to snowHeads!
There is quite a bit of collective wisdom to tap into here, but your post doesn't reveal much about your thinking...
...so not exactly sure what you want from a town and why you want to 'drive up' each day.
Is it to save money? To have more facilities at hand?
Guessing from the vegemite reference you might be from downunder and maybe the ski areas there have very little other than accommodation at the base, so you might want to be staying somewhere bigger. Many ski resorts in the Dolomites are like small towns and have all the life and facilities you might need for your stay. The only reason you would commute is to access more variety of skiing or to save money maybe??
Anyway, somewhere in Val di Fassa like the small town of Moena has access to lots of ski areas within 5-20mins drive inc the Sella Ronda at the head of the valley at Campitello/Canazei/Alba.
You could save a bit of money looking further south in Val di Fiemme, Cavalese & Predazzo are handsome little towns with some skiing on the doorstep and more a short drive away, but a longer drive to the Sella Ronda.
Ortisei in Val Gardena is a small town with skiing on the edge of town and access to the other resorts in Val Gardena.
Brunico/Bruneck is a German-speaking town with easy access to Kronplatz and a drive away from a few more.
If you want a larger town, Bolzano might fit the bill, but it's quite a long drive up to the skiing in Val Gardena or Carezza.
There is the unique resort town of Cortina d'Ampezzo with its amazing setting, but accommodation there is often quite pricey.
Perhaps if you give a few more clues about what you're looking to do and your reasoning for wanting to commute, we could offer more tailored recommendations.
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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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Good proving questions - rationale is for cheaper accomodation costs and ease of accessing other towns / cities by car on non-skiing days over the 4+ weeks stay. Would seek advice on where to find accomodation - airBnB but are there other websites? If we do drive, is parking easy to find? Does it cost? All help appreciated!
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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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OK, so it is a lot about cost.
Obviously, the closer you are to good access points to the skiing, the more you tend to pay. The Sella Ronda resorts of Selva, Corvara, Arabba & Canazei tend to be priciest. Cortina too. More outlying places get cheaper. Not sure you would save a huge amount being in a distant town though, esp when taking into account the inconvenience and cost of driving.
Airbnb is a good call. Booking.com is good too, you can put in Dolomiti Superski into the search area and it will pull everything available, so you can see how location in relation to the ski areas affects the price. Local tourist offices often have inventory that isn't offered online, so for a long term rental where you might get a discount on weekly prices, might be worth dropping them an email and you might get some offers in return. Some options may not be loaded for next winter, sometimes only appears in September, as most locals wouldn't be booking until then.
I would say that places in Val di Fassa (around Pozza, Vigo, Soraga, Moena) would offer a good compromise between proximity to skiing versus price. You have the huge 500km linked Sella Ronda area at the head of the valley and numerous worthwhile smaller areas all along the valley (Buffaure, Carezza, Catinaccio, Alpe Lusia, Passo San Pellegrino, Latemar, Alpe Cermis, etc)
Parking is available at most liftbases, sometimes free, sometimes payable. eg, this year Carezza & Passo San Pellegrino were free, Canazei was €7 per day.
Not sure where you want to go on non-skiing days, but there is a modern spa in Pozza. There are also lots of other winter activities like tobogganning, skating, snowshoeing, etc. Cultural places like Venice, Verona & Lake Garda are all very nice places to visit and possible within a daytrip, but better to be based near the skiing if that's what you'll be doing most days.
Just as a suggestion on the overall concept of the two threads you started, you're looking to do 2 months+ skiing in the Alps, a month in France and a month in Italy. If it is a lot about cost, the liftpasses are going be a lot of that and I explained on that thread that the French way of doing things won't let you ski many areas economically, then you would possibly need to add to that a Dolomiti season pass for the month in Italy...So would Austria work instead?? That Salzburger Superski Card covers a huge amount of skiing for around €800 season pass, so possibly less than €15 per day which is a crazy bargain considering you might not have to ski the same run twice!! https://www.superskicard.com/en/ski-areas.html
You have Dolomite scenery in Austria at Gosau/Dachstein West & Hochkonig, Glacier resorts like the Kitzsteinhorn and some of Austria's largest ski areas like the SkiWelt, Saalbach Ski Circus, Kitz Ski, Ski Amade, etc I think there would be plenty to do for a couple of months there. The apres in Austria is second to none. The city of Salzburg is a beautiful place to visit. If you stay somewhere near Zell am See, you would be able to access most of it, or perhaps better, do a week or two in one place exploring all the areas close by and move on to a new base. Perhaps start in the East around Flachau or Radstadt, then head to the centre areas accessible from Zell area, then move west to one of the towns or villages near Kitzbuhel/Ski Welt areas.
Maybe top and tail the trip with a week at Chamonix and the Dolomites (long enough to see the best of both) to earn the t-shirt and bragging rights and maybe a day at a Swiss area on the way through to claim all 4 major alpine countries...and save a fortune!! 
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Sun 19-06-22 13:38; edited 1 time in total
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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The Snow Card Tirol would be an excellent Austrian multi-resort option too, though a bit pricier at around €900. Probably covers even more resorts than the Salzburg card with 90 resorts, 1100 lifts and 4000km of skiing, you would struggle to do it all even if you had the whole season!! The Tyrol has some amazing mountains, 5 glaciers with skiing over 3000m. If you started in France and did a week in Chamonix first, it wouldn't be too far to cross Switzerland into western Austria, where you could visit the resorts up the valleys around Landeck, don't miss Ischgl as you can ski across the border to Swiss Samnaun there. Then East to Otztal. Then move North to the resorts around the Zugspitze. Then East to the resorts around Innsbruck and Stubaital, then the Zillertal resorts, then into the Kitzbuhel Alps, then drop south into East Tyrol to visit the 7 resorts there.
Then you could cross the border into Italy and do a week in the Dolomites, Badia/Pedraces or La Villa might be a good base approaching from the north. You can access Kronplatz at Piculin, the Sella Ronda at Corvara, visit the fabled Hidden Valley of Armentarola, drive over to Cortina, ski the highest peak the Marmolada, etc.
Another practical question that has a big bearing on cost...Where are you flying into? Are you renting a car there? Will it have winter tyres? Does it need returning to the same place?
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@luigi’s post is spot on.
Val di Fassa tends to be the cheapest area around that central Dolomiti superski area, the further down the valley from Canazei the cheaper it is.
We’re the area for 4 weeks in 2023. just booked Corvara/La Villa for a few weeks and have stayed there a few times. We find AirBnB quite limited and expensive in that area, booking.com is better but we tend to book directly with the apartment block.
To find accommodation try the website “yes alps” and the local tourist boards as most self catered accommodation wont use the big name websites in the ski season due to costs. The system in that area seems to be that you use the website to request a price and then receive a non binding offer so you can reach out to a few places. Be prepared to send a lot of emails.
You can get some quite good deals on studios but we prefer a one bed apartment and fyi just paid 900eur pw for a place we stayed before which is virtually ski in/out in Corvara and ca 800eur pw for a place in La Villa (looks nice but a walk or ski bus to the slopes) but most places we looked at were already booked up. Val di Fassa is noticeably cheaper. Brunico might be a good option as it’s close to Kronplatz but an easy drive to SR area as you don’t have to go over any passes.
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Further question - we now have accomodation in Laion and plan to drive up to ski. Would Ortisei be the closest / best place to park and ski? Are there any requirements for winter tyres or chains in the Dolomites?
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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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You must have either chains or winter tyres
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I think you have a couple of choices in Val Gardena -- go to Ortisei to ski Alpe di Siusi for a day (or maybe drive around to the "back" of Alpe di Siusi and take the gondola up); drive further in to Santa Christina or Selva (maybe Dantercepies), or all the way to Plan Gralba (easier to get to the rest of the Sella Ronda maybe). In any event, I don't think parking is all that expensive. Ortisei is closest but more limited, and the other two towns are just a few kms up the road.
We have been to Selva a bunch of times in late feb/march and honestly only needed chains or snow tires a few times. It just doesn't snow that much and the roads are cleared right away.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Vegemite skiier, [quote]
Laion and plan to drive up to ski. Would Ortisei be the closest / best place to park and ski? [quote]
Decent choice, hopefully good value. As @Pasigal said, Ortisei closest but others a bit further to drive to give better skiing access. Maybe some free car parks but those closer to lifts likely to cost a few euros per day. Kronplatz worth a day trip, bit further north, near Brunico.
Could gather useful up to date info when there next Feb if you're interested. Nice warm up for you, before joining a snowHeads trip some time in future? 
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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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Hi Peaky, a little confused - are you saying you are there to gather info in February or asking me to do this?
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@Vegemite skiier,
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Hi Peaky, a little confused
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That's OK, I leave most very confused 
I mean I'm there early Feb, probably before you are? So I could gather information locally that may not be on internet.
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You know it makes sense.
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Would be great! Insider knowledge.
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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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I'm flying to Treviso and thinking of trying San Martino Di Castrozza. Not loads of skiing and nothing too challenging but for a four day trip perfect and it's been called the prettiest town in the Dolomites because of it's beautiful backdrop.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Ignatius wrote: |
| I'm flying to Treviso and thinking of trying San Martino Di Castrozza. Not loads of skiing and nothing too challenging but for a four day trip perfect and it's been called the prettiest town in the Dolomites because of it's beautiful backdrop. |
That does look beautiful. I'd never heard of it but I'm guessing you can't really go wrong...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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Few photos in the first vid
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FAQ
