Where to go in the Northern Hemisphere?

A snowHead

Me and the family are heading over to the UK from NZ next December, seeing family for Christmas, but probably only staying for a week, because otherwise Mrs Hang11 will try to single handedly fix the UK economy and bankrupt me.

Kids are on summer holidays, so off for the whole of January, and we don't need to be at work in January.

So I'm thinking we should have a look at some Northern Hemisphere snow, and we're flexible on where we go.

Travelling from NZ to Europe, pretty much anywhere is on the way. I'd be keen to get a week in Hawaii/Indonesia/South Pacific to go surfing on the way home, and that would leave us one to two weeks to have some fun in the snow.

So I guess we're looking at a choice of Europe, USA, Canada, or Japan. Me, wife, and two kids under 13, all fairly competent on most terrain, definitely not needing somehwere beginner friendly, and probably after a bit of an alternative experience to what we get at home. Obviously plenty of bluebird powder days would be great.

Any suggestions on countries and resorts that would be good fun and not ridiculously expensive, in January? I know its a fairly vague question Very Happy

But I would be interested to hear others thoughts.

A snowHead

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Cheers, it's a bit daunting really, and just because of the distances not something we would do that often, so want to do it right. I've been to Chamonix a couple of times and Val d'isere, but the wife has never been to any overseas ski resorts and the kids have only been to the UK once. They were a bit surprised by how big the cities are (having grown up in NZ) Very Happy

Dunno about the pacific peso vs swiss franc, but it's pretty good against the Euro, US and UK currency which makes it a lot easier financially.

Where flights route to isn't a huge drama - we could fly into Oz, Singapore or Dubai easily and just pick up a connection from there. Most flights into and out of NZ do that anyway.

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Gosh, you're spoilt for choice, aren't you? Maybe narrow down the range a bit by thinking about what kind of holiday you want, apart from the skiing. What kind of town/city/village? What kind of accommodation? How will you want to travel? Would you prefer somewhere a bit of the beaten tourist track, with more "local colour" and culture? Will you be hiring guides and looking for some touring/off piste? How much do you want to spend? Maybe the last question should come first. wink

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I knew it would get hard

Budget - $35-$40k kiwi, but flights will be $15k. So I'll have $20k - $25k to get me and the family through a month, with one week in the UK, but accommodation covered, and probably won't need a car. Shopping is a fairly open ended cost, but Mrs Hang11 did manage $9k in three days in London last year, but I would be very happy to not see that happen again.

$3k will easy cover me for a week on the beach unless I go to Hawaii.

Probably won't hire guides, but a heli day would be nice. So off the top of my head I'll have $17 to $22k for spending money and a snow trip.

Beyond that, I fully hate package holiday type places, so something interesting, where a half metre of blower pow falls every night, it's sunny every day and nobody else goes to Happy

Preferably not full of d1ckheads either. Very Happy

Exchange rate is about $2 NZ to one pound.

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hang11, discount Japan IMHO, very little chance of bluebird, count on cold,overcast and snowing, so probably not suitable for the family...

If your in the UK then Europe seems the most sensible to me, BUT given Jan is a very quite period I wonder if you could leave it last minute then follow the snow ie bad snow in Europe goto NA, bad snow in NA, goto europe?

you could have an epic 3 weeks in Europe, ticking some big boxes, Verbier, Chamonix, St Anton, Trois Vallees, Espace Killy......

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Would it be worth hiring a car and touring round Europe?

After all it is free

You are scheduling a day or two skiing in Scotland as well aren't you hang11 ?

If I go to scotland I'm eating the nice food, catching all the fish and drinking nice whiskey Very Happy

I went there last October. Had such a good time. Especially the fishing. And the whiskey Very Happy

Personally I want to go to Alaska. It looks just like home except more snow, bigger fish and bigger stuff to shoot. But the idea went down like a cup of cold sick with Mrs Hang11.

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I went to zermatt for the first time this year and I loved it, as Alistair says the setting is iconic and the skiing is amazing. We didn't do any off piste but there is definitely heliskiing there, however I would have thought that the USA and Canada would provide a better guarantee of deep powder days around that time of year?

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Another vote for Zermatt. Good skiing, beautiful scenery and as others have said - everyone should ski there once in their lives Smile

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I haven't been to Zermatt but I know its expensive and they don't get great snowfall (but because it is high there will be lots of snow there). However you are going in januuary. Also a 40 min slow train up the mountains every morning.

You mentioned you were all pretty good skiiers and that you had been to Val d'Isere. Would you consider going back there? If you think runs to resort are too steep for kids you could consider Tignes next door and same ski area.

Another thought for jan is alpe d'Huez. They get great snowfall but south facing so loads of sunshine, and plenty of challenging skiing

Fly in to Zurich and out of Geneva and try a few Swiss spots along the way. Gives you the chance to do Zermatt amongst others.

You know it makes sense.

Alaska in January not a good idea for seeing sun I'd have thought. California might be viable - often super clear and sunny when it's not storming, but perhaps not as much of a contrast with Hawaii for you. I guess conceivably you could double stop in Calagry or Vancouver and somewhere else in US while maintaining overall travel direction.

If I was you though I'd probably go a couple of weeks in Europe as it's further away if you decide to do a ski only trip in the future. Hire car and roadtrip between Innsbruck and Geneva (or Lyon, Turin etc)

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

A snowHead

Europe or North America. N.A. is a bit of a detour since you're already in Europe, though not by much. Japan is close enough you can do that any time you want. Might as well save that for another time.

The skiing is quite different between the 2 continents. There're a bunch of thread on that you might want to read about and decide which continent is more to your liking.

If you do decide on US/Canada:

You can tour around, or you can stay put, or something in between.

It's just so 3 week seems a ideal time to explore between 2-6 resorts. Any more than that, you move too much and don't get to know any one place well. Less than that (single place), it needs to be a big enough place to entertain you all. There're simply none in N. America as big as the linked resorts in Europe.

While travel and lodging will be a significant portion of the cost, lift pass will be too. So you might want to consider an nterchangable pass deal. On that note, keep in mind the Epic Ski pass, which is an interchangable pass for about 8 or so resorts in the US, split in Colorado and California, for something like $659.

So you can work your way back home from UK by stopping at Colorado first, then California then home.

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Thanks everyone for suggestions. Looking like a roadie round Europe will be the best idea. We've got friends near Munich, so it would be good to visit them as well.

the runs back to val d'isere won't be any problem for the kids. I think flying out of Geneva would be fairly easy for us, as there are connections from there to a lot of hubs.

What's saint foy like? A mate in the UK has recommended it us.

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hang11, if you can get ahold of some back issues of Fall-line skiing magazine there's an article in there, by Graham Bell I think. Underrated it would seem, and on the road up to Tignes so if you can drive the Paradiski and Espace Killy regions are within range. I love Tignes myself, treeless and a bit barren but a magnificent playground. The park is fun as well, depends on what time of year.

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Where to go in the Northern Hemisphere?

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