My husband and I will be visiting Switzerland for the first time from Oct14-28. We would like to try downhill skiing at least once while there. Wondering where at that time skiing will be available (with equiptment, etc) and for a reasonable price? Any ideas? Thanks.
There may be other places, but the one place I know you can ski in October (indeed every day of the year) is on the glacier at Zermatt. They offer a number of packages, but one offered through October is a "ski test" package, with 2 nights lodging and a 2-day ski pass, plus skis (you need to provide your own boots). This package is meant for ezperienced skiers who want to test the new equipment, so you would probably better off renting skis, boots, and poles as a package. Equipment rental runs around 80 CHF per person for 2 days. Lessons would be extra. The package price depends on the type of lodging you choose; the lowest price is for a 2-star apartment, at 283 CHF per person. In a 2-star hotel, the price is 335 CHF per person, breakfast included. A 2-day lift ticket alone is 114 CHF per person. You can find all this information on the Zermatt website, www.zermatt.ch (click on the little flag in the upper right corner for English).
I don't think "reasonable price", "Switzerland" and "skiing" are three things often seen together in the same sentence (maybe "un-reasonable price"). If you've never skiied before, I'm not certain how much you'll enjoy off-season glacier skiing, but I wouldn't presume to tell anyone not to try it.