Ski Holiday- Where???

Let me fire off a list of some of the places where I've skied in the past few years.

Oberstdorf, Germany. This is a very nice town, although lodgind tends to be a little on the more expensive side for Germany. Two major ski areas, one of which straddles the German-Austrian border. I've had nothing but great ski experiences here.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Germany's main ski resort. I like the town very much. Somewhat large, but still filled with Bavarian Gemütlichkeit. But the skiing is not my favorite. Too many rope tows, and the upper skiing area takes almost an hour to reach by train. There's so many places to lodge that you can probably easily find something relatively inexpensive.

Lech am Arlberg, Austria. A beautiful little resort town hidden in a high Alpine valley. Skiing is pretty good, about average for the Alps. Lodging tends to be very expensive, though. This is the kind of place where the rich and famous go for a more "rustic" feel than you might find in some of the more jet-setting resorts, like St. Moritz.

Kitzbühel, Austria... where I happen to be at this very moment. Trip report to follow.

Flumserberg, Switzerland. This is like the rustic weekend getaway for Zürich residents. It isn't so much a single town as a series of high-altitude hamlets spread across the side of a mountain. For a mountain resort that's relatively light on tourist infrastructure, the skiing is really good. And for Switzerland, prices are reasonable... but emphasis on "for Switzerland".

Berner Oberland, Switzerland. There's three main skiing areas here, Grindelwald First, Männlichen (between Grindelwald and Wengen), and the Schilthorn, above Mürren. Although Mürren is a favorite on this website for summer visiting, I found the skiing there disappointing. If you're considering this region for a ski holiday, I would stay in either Grindelwald or Wengen, with Grindelwald getting a higher recommendation due to the ease of access to the awesome skiing at First and Männlichen. Wengen's a little more cozy, though. Except to pay a lot to ski and lodge in this area.

St. Moritz, Switzerland. If you want a cozy mountain atmosphere, this isn't the place for you. If you want lots of bling boutiques, aprés ski partying, European celebrity and royal sitings, very expensive hotels, and, oh yeah, some decent skiing, go here. I also enjoyed watching the snow polo they play here.

Åre, Sweden. This resort gives you a whole different feel from the Alps. It's in a really remote location deep within central Sweden. Åre has a very rustic feel to it- think a lot of red wooden houses, saunas, smoky tasting food, etc. The skiing is pretty good, although this being northern Scandinavia, it can get very cold. One advantage, though, is that some of the pistes are illuminated after the sun goes down. Very important at that high latitude, with it's short hours of dayligh. This being Sweden, also, expect to pay quite a bit for the pleasure of skiing here.

Passo del Tonale, Italy. I haven't visited here in the winter, only the summer. The town itself is just a modern ski resort, nothing special to look at, although the natural scenery is stunning. But this place deserves special mention because one of the ski areas sits on the former front line between Italy and Austria-Hungary in WWI. There's memorials carved into the bare rock, remains of trenches and barricade and even a museum dug into a cave that gives a very sobering look back at the high altitude hell that occurred here almost a century ago. I have no idea if you could see this in winter, though. The snow might cover everything. Skiing in Italy tends to be cheaper than Switzerland and Austria.

Coming up: trip reports for Tux, Austria and Trysil, Norway.

Thank you Thank you Thank You! Lech was on my list! We have been to Berner Oberland and Garmisch Partenkirchen but just in the summer and fall. Since you are currently closer to me Tom why don't you hop over to Breuil- Cervinia Italy, Im wanting to check that out. I have been wanting to hit Kitzbühel as well so I can't wait to hear your trip report.

I was just in Zermatt for the first time in 10 years, and it is still a really fun town (even for an old cat) with lots of great skiing. You can ski over to Cervinia on a nice day.
Davos doesn't have the charm, but fabulous, and very extensive skiing.
Skied one day in St Anton (my first time), and it is bit less expensive than Lech. It is also easy to get to with a main line rail station right in town. If it's just a couple of people, I can recommend a REALLY nice place stay for reasonable cost.
My favorite has to be the Dolomites. Stunning scenery, 500 odd lifts on your lift pass (not all interconnected, but close), Austrian Gemuetlichkeit meets Italian Dolce Vita.
France is good too. We stayed in Morzine last year and was a lot of fun as well. It still has some Alpine village charm, unlike its neighbor, Avoriaz, which is like skiing in Manhattan. It is part of a large interconnected area known as the Portes du Soleil that spans into Switzerland.

I was in Kitzbuhel for Christmas, loved it!
(I don't ski. Not on purpose, anyway.)

Two places...
* The Dolomites...unlike anywhere else on Earth...beautiful towns oozing with alpine atmosphere!
* The 4 Valees in Switzerland...Verbier, Nendaz, La Tzoumaz, Veysonnaz area...all are interconnected by lifts with hundreds of kilometers of skiing and stunning views of the Swiss, Italian, and French Alps. Not many Americans seem to go here to ski which surprises me! Verbier probably has the best atmosphere of these towns and feels very Swiss-French with a compact town core and really good restaurants. You can easily walk to everything including the lifts which are right in the town center. Tons of rental apartments and hotels to choose from.

I forgot to mention these details about the Berner Oberland. It's also a pretty good destination for non-skiers. They have extensive Winterwandeling and sledge trails that are very closely integrated into the lift systems. Most resorts I've seen just have a small sledding hill near the bottom of the mountain, but here, the trails descend down the entire mountain. You can even stop off at mountain restaurants alond the way. It's a great family activity.

And this probably isn't a concern to 99% of the travelers here, but like all of Switzerland, the Berner Oberland is extremely dog-friendly. Our dog accompanied us on a sledge outing, she wasn't refused entry to a single restaurant, and she even skied with me. And I wasn't the only person I saw with a dog running after their skiing owner.

In the last 25 years, most of my skiing has been in South Lake Tahoe and Aspen.
My wife and I went to Innsbruck to ski and found the slopes very steep and they were icy that year. Conditions were difficult.
In most years, the snow in Colorado is better quality and there's more snow there than in The Alps. We like California skiing because you don't freeze your tail off most days--better weather--and most years they get more snow than Colorado.
Skiing in Europe can be a glorious experience when the snow's good. But European skiing can be a little tough unless you're a fairly advanced skier.

@David: That was your first mistake, Innsbruck. It is the "cheap" ski destination and having hosted two Winter Olympics who argue that it is not a winter Mecca. But there is so much more! It has a fairly low elevation and requires a daily commute up to the slopes. Yes, Colorado and Utah has the best snow in the universe, but the Alps are different, in wonderful ways. I asked a Swiss skier on the chairlift below the Eiger if he had every skied in the States. He pointed to the Eiger and said "Do you have anything like that in your country?" I had to admit not. "I can get here in one hour from my home in Bern, so why should I travel further." He had a point.
@Aly: I left Verbier off my list because a lot of big money has moved in the last few years and prices have skyrocketed and not just because of the appreciation of the Swiss Franc. But yes, it is fabulous. That's why it got so popular with the oligarchs.

Nobody, absolutely nobody, does aprés-ski like resorts in the Alps. Although I think there's some people who come only for the nightlife.