skiing in Europe

Slovakia; Štrbské Pleso, Jasna

Ukraine; Bukovel

Romania; Poiana Brașov, Sinaia

Bulgaria; Bansko

Switzerland will be the most expensive, but has its charms. Great time to hit the Berner Oberland, namely Wengen or Muerren. of those two, Wengen will have the most slopes, but a regional ski pass will get you between the two.

Austria is nice, especially St Anton, Soelden, Mayrhofen/Hintertux. St Anton is right on a mainline railroad. Soelden and Hintertux have glaciers that are snow-sure.

France has some of the highest and most snow-sure resorts. Val d'Isere, Morzine. A lot of the higher resorts are purpose-built with modern structures and even 20 to 25 story concrete towers. Like Avoriaz, above Morzine, which is the strangest place (visually) I've skied.

Italy in the Dolomites is my favorite. Most beautiful mountains in the world, perfect mix of Italy and Austria. Most extensive lift network in the world, making day-long ski tours through various villages possible. Selva di Gardena stands out.

In all of these, take the Half Board option at hotels, so they include breakfast and dinner every day. Italy and France have the best food. Its a very good value.

You have a great problem with so many solutions. Some places can be accessed by train but a car gives so many more options.

One great place where I skied is
Les Carroz, France where you can ski The Grand Massif including a 14km run, Les Casades, from Flaine to Sixt. We also skied a day at Morzine/Avoraiz and another skiing Chamonix. Fantastic.

Another trip we spent a week in Canazai, Italy and skied the Sella Ronda one day, Cortina on another and also other nearby areas. We couldn't get to Marmolada due to a road closure from an avalanche.

On two trips we also skied Austria once based near St. Anton and another driving to 7 different areas in 8 days, both trips were also fantastic!

For planning, we used the websites referenced above and the book "Where to Ski and Snowboard" which covers the whole world but focuses on Europe.

Enjoy the planning and the trip!

In Norway "skiing" means cross country skiing or Nordic skiing. If you want to ski lift assisted slopes you need to say "downhill" or "Alpine" skiing. I'm assuming you are interested in lift assisted downhill skiing. I'm a Nordic skier who has sampled skiing in Central Europe - Germany, Italy, Austria Switzerland. Central European ski areas are almost all "charming" by definition with generally easy access to lifts. Some are more expensive than others, but there is truth to "you get what you pay for".

A couple of web resources that I subscribe to:

http://www.onthesnow.com/europe/ski-resorts.html

Skiing the big four: France, Austria, Switzerland & Italy

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland is home to Europe’s largest glaciers and some of the most
iconic mountains: the Eiger, Jungfrau and Matterhorn. High-altitude
off-piste powder is found in Verbier, Davos, Laax, Nendaz and Zermatt.
Glitzy resorts like Klosters and St. Moritz are undeniably expensive,
but on the whole Switzerland offers a good choice of accommodation and
restaurants for all budgets. Don’t leave without having a cheese
fondue at least once. Switzerland’s super-efficient public transport
system means virtually all ski resorts are within easy reach of
airports.

https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/

Ski Resorts in Europe

We feature 1666 European Ski Resorts in 25 countries.

An example of "what you pay for" is our Klosters trip this past winter. Klosters' sister village is Davos. The two villages are connected by train and our hotel guest pass included free train transportation between Klosters and Davos. Village snow removal was amazing with small rotary plows discharging snow into dump trucks and sidewalks cleared almost as fast as now fell. And Swiss trains run like Swiss watches.
https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Switzerland/Klosters_Piste_Map.html
https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Switzerland/Davos_Piste_Map.html

You can't put skiing and not expensive in the same sentence in my experience.

Charming places tend to be expensive. The cheaper places such as Bansko in Bulgaria are modern, purpose built resorts with little character.

The ski season in some places is getting to be quite short over the past few years due to changing weather patterns and a lack of snow. When you go is key. Snow on American slopes is more reliable than the European slopes.

Morzine in France is relatively good value and Val d'Isere.

Flew into Milan traveled by train to Venice (Spent 2 days) then headed up to Dolomites via car.. We loved the Dolomites they were absolutely beautiful. Cortina d' Amprezzo was spectacular and enjoyable skiing there was even better. Our trip was split up between La Villa (Hotel Savoy) and Cortina (Savoia Palace) with staying two nights in La Villa and Three in Cortina. Headed back to Venice to stay one more night then flew out. Could not have been happier.

We went to Austria two years ago flying into Vienna and out of Salzburg. Vienna was amazing then we headed down to Innsbruck. We skied in Axamer Lizum. The trip was super affordable and transportation from cute town of innsbruck took us up to mountain range. Was also nice being able to see two big cities within a ski trip that each offered an entirely different taste of europe.

This year we are trying to do zermatt (really want to go) but its trying to balance the budget as prices are high.

And if you want to reaearch the Haute Pyrenees in France, supposedly prices are less than many of the resorts in the Alps.

Sportgastein, Austria

Sportgastein is near Salzburg which is a great day trip when you can't ski due to white outs.

My Swabian (re: cheap) friends all ski in Austria. They don't consider the skiing in Germany to be good enough, and Austria is way cheaper than Switzerland.

I can't speak to Italy, but I have friends who ski in France. Those are my "rich" friends, though. No, not even they ski in Switzerland.

I know a ton of enthusastic skiiers who spend every winter weekend on the slopes and they never, ever, ever go to Switzerland.

I'm sure it's lovely but it's incredibly expensive and skiing is expensive enough.