Skiing in Europe

We loved Zermatt Switzerland. Great Skiing and beautiful location. My husband skiied down to Italy one of the days for Lunch. Many different ways to go up to the different ski areas. We were able to see the Matterhorn every day we were there.
I hear skiing around Murren is great, but were only there in the summer. We were in St. Anton Austria one winter, but Zermatt is still my favorite.

Zermatt is great. But so is the Lauterbrunnen Valley in the Berner Oberland. As mentioned above, Muerren is the place. It's everything you would envision in an alpine Swiss village. And, it's a major ski area in winter. Take a look at www.muerren.ch and see the pictures (check out the live web cam). It's stunning up there. Grenoble in France is not shabby either.

My husband said he would go back to Murren "in a heartbeat". He keeps talking about taking our nephew there one year in the future. He want's to redo the "North Face" walk with him. If you do choose Murren, fly into Zurich and take the trains. Swiss trains are great and always on time. From Murren I understand you can ski down into other areas and towns and take the a train back home at the end of skiing. I remember reading their are a lots of interconnecting trails. Be sure to go up to the restaurant that was in a James Bond movie. Our hotel included a choice of having breakfast up there one morning. Since we were there in the summer, people were hiking down the trails from there. I am guessing you can ski down from there after breakfast.
The base area in Vail was created to try to reminicent of Swiss apline ski villages like Murren and Zermatt, but the real thing is so much better. They don't groom the slopes as much as we do. You meet people from so many different countries having a wonderful time on skis. Most restaurants on the slopes are family owned, unlike the ones in the USA that seem to be all run by the resort areas. In Zermatt many were converted from their original family homes. My husband said that in Zermatt, when ever you are hungry or thirsty you can find a place to stop and have an enjoyable time. He discovered Raclette for lunch, and we rediscovered how much fun cheese and meat fondue for dinner can be. We brought home a fondue set I fell in love with in a store window, and now enjoy alot of winter fondue dinners by our fireplace at home.
I would be interested in knowing where you choose to go. We bought a book about skiing in Europe, before we decided on Zermat the first time. The book comes out yearly.

I haven't been skiing in Austria, recommending another area will depend on your length of stay and skiing ability. Are you looking for extreme and off piste skiing or all on piste skiing?

Most places have a mixture of both, but have an inclination one way or the other.

Murren has added a couple of lifts since I was last there (www.muerren.ch), but it will be a representative sample of mostly groomed slopes (with some fairly daunting ones). Access to the other areas covered by the region pass involves some travel (down to Lauterbrunnen and up to Kliene Schiedegg or Mannlichen and ski down to Wengen or Grindelwald, with another area (First) available from the latter.

Whilst I'm a big fan of Murrem/Gimmelwald area, I wouldn't use it for a 2 week ski holiday, but good for 1 week with a day or three in the other areas.

Other areas with a good assortment of slopes I've skiied are Zermatt and Chamonix (France). (Actually did all 3 areas in 3 weeks the first time I went to Europe).

Thank you for your suggestions. I am an intermediate skier, so I don't need any black diamonds. Really I am looking for the complete package. My fiance wants to go to chamonix, but I wanted to hear other peoples opinion.

Chamonix and Zermatt are both good all round resorts with a wide variety of terrain and enough variation to keep you doing something different every day for. They are reasonably close together, so if you are going for a couple of weeks you could do both (about a 4 hour train trip, with spectacular views on the train up to/down from Le Châtelard-Frontière (French/Swiss border high in the mountains). Use the http://sbb.ch/en/ (english link) site to get timetables.

If looking at the Murren/Wengen/Grindelwald area I'm sorry to say that Murren is the least viable from the perspective of trying all the terrain. Wengen is probably the best bet, with Grindelwald (not Gimmelwald) being rather more touristy.

Whatever you do, have a great time, I loved skiing the area (I'm a piste only skier), especially when coming up from the valley you break through to be above the clouds with crystal clear views and bright blue skies.