 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all, I am looking for some advice before I book my snowboarding trip for next year. I am an intermediate snowboarder with only experience of Val Thoren and my girlfriend is a complete beginner skier going on her first skiing holiday. We are looking to book in europe for next year and would like advice on best resorts to accomodate a beginner and intermediate, with guaranteed snow. Preferably cheap, nightlife not important, but at least a couple of decent restaurants. I was thinking possibly Cervinia, Italy, any thoughts? Your suggestions are all much appreciated!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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vestax32, main decision should be, IMO, what ski school your girlfriend uses rather than think about the resort as the first priority. Most resorts will have terrain suitable for beginners and early intermediates. The choice of ski school will probably be the biggest influence on whether she enjoys her first holiday. My recommendation would be to go with a good British run ski school, but they tend to be mainly located in France.
Welcome to snowHeads 
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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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vestax32, welcome to snowheads.  rob@rar is dead right. And don't forget that there's really no such thing as "guaranteed snow". Not guaranteed good snow, anyway. What dates are you looking at? And what sort of accommodation?
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She has started all the lessons etc so will be proficient before we go so no need to worry about ski school. Lookin at mid january and am open on accomodation, but would prefer a hotel / aptment with access to a pool and sauna etc.
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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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vestax32, I am likely to be only the first of many people to suggest that giving up ski lessons too early is a big mistake that lots of people make, especially if they then go off round the mountain with someone more able or more brave/reckless. Where is she having lessons? It's a huge step from indoor snowdomes to even a blue slope out on a real hill. All except the most gifted and athletic skiers need a good few weeks of lessons to become proficient, or even to be able to dodder round a blue slope without endangering themselves and others. It's a very different learning curve to snowboarding. The glib saying is that snowboarding is hard to learn, but easy to master, and that skiing is easy to learn, but hard to master. There are loads more ways of doing it badly..... A brave beginner snowboarder can be riding around red runs quite proficiently by the end of a week. But for most people, skiing's not like that and sometimes women need more time to build up the confidence.
Mid January is a great time, and with just two of you you can look forward to lots of last minute bargains. Absolutely no need to book, or decide on a resort, yet - you can wait till Christmas and see where the snow is and what the weather's like. If it's cold and windy, Va, Thorens can be pretty bleak. Somewhere much lower, with some trees and a pretty village, would then be a good bet.
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| vestax32 wrote: |
| She has started all the lessons etc so will be proficient before we go so no need to worry about ski school. |
OK, best of luck with that.
Cervinia is well regarded for having lots of cruisy, unchallenging terrain so that might suit you. It is high, so has a good snow record (although the downside of that means it can get a bit bleak if the weather isn't good, and from memory there's not much in the way of tree skiing to bolt to). Not sure about hotels with pools, perhaps someone else can recommend one.
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We went to Zermatt one year but managed to ski accross to Cervinia twice. Took several attempts as they kept closing the lift over due to high winds. We really liked Cervinia and one year we would like to stay that side. The food and drink was cheaper than the Zermatt side and there were lovely sunny runs.
I would second the suggestion to do lessons once out there as well. It is really, really good to do some lessons before going out, but it is well worth having some out there. Maybe even just 3 half days or something like that (we did this one year as a top up thing), that way you can ski a few runs in the morning before the lessons start as a warm up. Then you still have the afternoon, and you still have the second half of the week to venture much further afield e.g. over to Zermatt if you fancy where you have the whole day. If you do go over to Zermatt they have (or at least did when we went?) a different currency so it is worth taking a few swiss franks with you. Though from memory, when we went over to Cervinia the signs did say they accepted Swiss Franc notes but gave change in Euros, and I seem to remember the reverse signs over the Swiss side.
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You can add me to the list of people who will tell you that your gf should definitely have lessons out there. I would recommend spirit in arc 1950 or new generation in meribel or courchevel. All of those are great areas for beginners
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