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Planning a Ski road trip

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Greeting snowheads

I am planning a 5 week trip to the Alps next year looking to go early March time. I am thinking about loading up the 4WD and driving down so I have maximum flexibility.

Anyway myself and my g/f are both late 20's fairly average skiers who usually ski on piste reds and blues (although will be trying a bit of off piste on this trip). I am thinking of just visiting resorts in Switzerland and Austria as we have never been to either before as we usually go to France or Italy or USA

We both are turbo tourists who always like to move around a fair bit and try and see as much as possible so with this in mind I am thinking of visiting 2 resorts in each country.

So far we are trying to narrow it down from this list

Verbier
Zermatt
Davos
Saas Fee

And

Ischgl
St Anton
Saalbach

We don't want to be driving to much as we want to spend as much time on the slopes as possible. I do like my Après but if there is good snow I always like to be on first lift up

So which resorts will best suit our requirements?

And does this sounds like a good plan, or are we trying to fit to much into 5 weeks???????
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
ajbaldwin, if you include Zermatt, you get Italy (Cervinia) for free - lots of nice blues and reds there, and Zermatt itself is stunning. snowHead
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 brian
brian
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I'd definitely recomment Zermatt (Verbier isn't great for the intermediate motorway mileage types, big area but the links, eg. Tortin are tough runs) but Verbier/Zermatt are off the Rhone valley which is a long way from the others on your list. Davos is much handier for the Austrian resorts. Other places on that side of Switzerland like Flims/Laax or St Moritz would cut down on your drive time.
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Before everyone gets too excited by Zermatt bear in mind this is a road trip and Zermatt is car-free, so ajbaldwin will have to park somewhere else and get the train in, which he may not be aware of......

I think Saas Fee is car-free too. Not an insurmountable problem, but something to bear in mind on a road trip.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Cheers Ice Perv that was news to me, although there must be a car park I can dump the car infor a week
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ajbaldwin, sounds like a great plan. And no, I don't think you're tring to fit too much into 5 weeks....if anything, I'd look at a few more places! If you are looking at 2 resorts in Austria and 2 in Switzerland, then you are spending just over a week in each.

In April 2006, I did the following (very similar to what you are thinking of)

1 week in Zell am See (that was a fixed week of work)
3 days in Saalbach
1 day in Kitzbuhel (en route)
1 day in Davos (en route)
5 days in Saas Fee
4 days in Zermatt
1 week in Val Thorens (EOSB)

I wasn't particularly bothered about the apres side, so made sure that I skied every day, and did the travelling of an evening.



Okay......recommendations/stuff I learned

Austria has cheap accommodation, and the tourist offices are good at sorting you out. At Easter, I stayed in a pension (B&B) in Saalbach for €28 per night (single room en-suite)
Davos does not have cheap accommodation, and the tourist office shuts early. The youth hostel is nice, but was more expensive than a hotel in Saas.
You have to pay to park if you stay in Saas Fee. Get a hotel in Saas Grund, pay a fraction of the price you would in Saas Fee, enjoy the free parking, and get the ski bus up to Saas Fee (included on the full area lift pass)
You have to pay to park in Tasch if you stay in Zermatt. Get a hotel in Tasch, pay a fraction of the price you would in Zermatt, enjoy the free parking, get a "lift pass" for the train that gives you unlimited journeys between Tasch and Zermatt - you can then go back in of an evening for apres.


If you want any more info, or the names of hotels I stayed in, then let me know snowHead
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
You will have to head high. The Alpine snow starts melting from early Mar onward.

Saalbach is very low. This must be your first stop.

Ignore Saas Fee. Great scenery, but the ski area is tiny. You will exhaust it in a couple days.

Spend atleast a week in each place. Skiing is tiring. Hauling luggage, and driving, from place to place every few days will soon irritate.

I recommend going from East to West:

Week 1 = Saalbach (1000m). Plenty of mid-level skiing on mid-sized hills. Busy, but downmarket, nightlife.
Week 2 = Lech (1450m). Don't stay in St Anton. It is frightfully chavvy.
Week 3 = St Moritz (1850m). The world's poshest, richest, best allround ski resort. Walk on the lake. Check the trophy wives. Unmissable.
Week 4 = Verbier (1500m). World-beating on- and off-piste. Plenty of ya-yas out on the hop.
Week 5 = Zermatt (1600m). Not quite as good as the hype suggests. But well worth it just to see that giant piece of Toblerone.

You won't see much change from £10k. But you will have a wicked tan.

Enjoy.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Whitegold wrote:
You will have to head high. The Alpine snow starts melting from early Mar onward.


Except I had fantastic powder when I was there in April rolling eyes

Whitegold wrote:
You won't see much change from £10k.


I managed to do 4 weeks for £2.5K. I'd have managed it for a lot less had it not been for the EOSB costing me more than the previous 2 weeks put together. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't really go in for the apres ski too much. I generally ate a main meal on the mountain at lunch, and just had a cheap easy meal of an evening that I could make myself (take a travel kettle with you!!)
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I second the addition of St. Moritz. Especially good for the red cruisers, from what I heard.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Elizabeth B wrote:
Whitegold wrote:
You will have to head high. The Alpine snow starts melting from early Mar onward.


Except I had fantastic powder when I was there in April rolling eyes


This is like the old classic of 'my grandpa smoked all his life and he lived until 101' rolling eyes

The stats are clear. Alpine snow depths peak in late Feb to early Mar, and decline rapidly thereafter. The sun is hot. Spring has nearly sprung. The snowline rises at an alarming rate.


Elizabeth B wrote:
You won't see much change from £10k.

I managed to do 4 weeks for £2.5K. I'd have managed it for a lot less had it not been for the EoSB costing me more than the previous 2 weeks put together. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't really go in for the apres ski too much. I generally ate a main meal on the mountain at lunch, and just had a cheap easy meal of an evening that I could make myself (take a travel kettle with you!!)



Slumming it in the Alps is a bit sad for anyone over 25. They need to dig deep and large it up.


Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads on Fri 27-07-07 19:54; edited 1 time in total
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Whitegold wrote:

I managed to do 4 weeks for £2.5K. I'd have managed it for a lot less had it not been for the EoSB costing me more than the previous 2 weeks put together.

You went to an EoSB Shocked
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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.
Whitegold,

2K/ Week !!!!! Are you mad?

I could do it for alot less than £500/ week and still have a bloody good time
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
johnboy wrote:
Whitegold,

2K/ Week !!!!! Are you mad?

I could do it for alot less than £500/ week and still have a bloody good time



Upon review, I amend my estimate.

£5k is a more realistic total. A grand a week should cover everything.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Whitegold,

I could bring along Mrs JB for 1K/ week!!!
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
You could do a whole season for £5k... Trust me.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
This Mar I spent 3 days Crans Montana/Verbier, 4 days in Cervinia/Zermat, 4 days Serre Chevalier/Milky Way and 3 days with L2A/LDH.

Last year 3 days Grimish Partenkirchen, 6 days in St Antob/Lech and 5 days in Dolomites Sella Ronda.

The Year before 3 weeks in Tarantaise covering Valmorel/ Courcheval/Meribel/Les Menuire/Val Thoren/La Plagne/Les Arc/ La Rosiere/La Thuille/Tignes/Val D'isere.

The year before that we had one week with Zell am See/Kaprun/Saalbach/Hiterglemm and then another week Ski Welt (8 resorts)+Kitzbuhel.

Think the wife and I spent one average GBP 1k/week. We like visiting skiing resorts with a 4x4 and able to go freely where we want. Changing skiing resorts is pretty easy as everything can be booked by Internet. After finishing one day skiing say at 5pm driving another 2 hours can get us over 100miles radius to many places we want. I have a good memory of every place I visited because I drove there and can remember by the place I parked the car which is close to the a lift station.

Now planning to retire early so that we could drive around for the whole season going through the Alps and then USA later.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Whitegold wrote:
johnboy wrote:
Whitegold,

2K/ Week !!!!! Are you mad?

I could do it for alot less than £500/ week and still have a bloody good time


Upon review, I amend my estimate.

£5k is a more realistic total. A grand a week should cover everything.


That's really a very exagerated sum! I did it with less than 1k for 10 days that's including a flight from N. America!

I think Whitegold must have confused £ with Euro!
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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?
ELizabeth cheers for the info, I though we would struggle with accommodation if we tried to book anything less then a week, did you book via the internet or just arrive and head straight to the tourist office??

Whitegold I was thinking around th 4-5k estimate as well, you missed Davos off your list do you not rate it much as the piste map seemed pretty good?
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ajbaldwin,

Unless you are hitting peak times, I wouldn't be wanting to book hotels in advance...generally. The whole point of the trip must be about timing your stay to suit you both..and the snow and everything else. If you are mobile you can afford to stay down the road and drive in daily...or free bus etc . that would be the decider of where I picked to stay..along with price and availablity etc.

As for moving between reosrts..100km can take you half a day when all is said and done....checking-in/out lift passes.
How many times you want to do this depends on you and travelling in the dark in bad conditions...??

Personally, I try and keep all the resorts as close together as you can so if you start east and head west, you do not want to be doubling back.

St A and Ischgl are nicely grouped then Davos is on your way to Zermatt. You may notice some very nice stops in between and vow to visit them next year. Just because it isn't much on the Brit TO radar doesn't mean it isn't a local favourite and hot spot. St Moritz seems a good idea to me if you have the time.

My road trip is pretty well going to stick around the Vaiais with 3 resorts/stops in 2 weeks and I'll allow changeovers to take half a day, all said and done. You will need the rest anyway.

Might have to detour at the last minute though to follow the local micro clmates that some of these places might throw up.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
ajbaldwin, with Saalbach, I headed straight to the tourist office. They have a board outside listing accommodation, and I think a computer that will search vacancies, so if you arrive "out of hours" then you are okay. Pensions will usually be happy to book you in for a few days rather than a full week, especially off season.

Davos was were I came unstuck. I expected a similar sort of board, but couldn't find one. I was resigned to spending the night in my car when I remembered that a mate had stayed at the youth hostel. I asked around and someone gave me directions. I could have got a room in a hotel, but at a price I wasn't prepared to pay!

With this in mind, I got the Davos tourist office to phone Saas Grund for me (for that night!), and booked in a hotel there. I could only get the room for 2 nights, so asked around and found another hotel for the other three nights (this was Easter weekend!)

Tasch I turned up to unannounced. There was only one other room occupied in the hotel, so no problem there.

Zell and Val T I had already booked accommodation for the week.

If you go to the tourist office in Switzerland, they will charge you a couple of CHF to book the room for you. In Austria and Switzerland if you ask nicely you can get the tourist offices to talk to each other, so it is possible to phone ahead and book somewhere before you set off driving.
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From memory, what I paid for rooms (per night)

Saalbach €28. B&B single room with en-suite shower/basin. Shared loo.
Davos CHF60. B&B dorm room (Had to pay YHA membership on top!)
Saas Grund (1) CHF44. B&B single room with en-suite shower/basin. Shared loo.
Saas grund (2) CHF 78. B&B double room, en-suite, free use of pool/sauna/steam room.
Tasch CHF 80. B&B double room, en-suite, free use of whirlpool/steam room/fitness suite/wi-fi.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
ajbaldwin, FWIW our place in Laax will be up and running by then. Most of the non-peak season we'll be offering Mon - Fri lets so stays that aren't your usual full-week stays can be had, especially outside school hols - prob best to talk to the tourist offices. Apologies in advance for pimping but if it's of any interest to you the week of 8 March is one we'll be letting in full and you could extend to 10/12 days (before or after) quite happily, parking included. Apart from being a large resort in itself, if you have a car with you it could make a good base for visiting other places for the day too as Lenzerheide and Arosa are only about 40 minutes away, Flumserberg is about 45 mins, Davos is prob about an hour, St Anton is also an hour and so is St Moritz. Plus there are quite a lot of smaller lesser-known resorts inside an hour radius. You could then move onto Austria if you wanted to head to somewhere further East. Feel free to PM if interested
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Eng Cheers for the pimp and once I have my route sorted I may be in touch
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Just a point about Driving & Apres Ski

If you are drinking? In the winter the Police in Austria & Switzerland are red hot with Alcohol control . This includes roadside testing in the mornings.
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As opposed to France where we had to drag the most p****d guy ever out of a ditch.... in retrospect we should have left the car there...
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