At this time of year many skiers and snowboarders start booking and planning their ski break, with most of us heading to Europe in search of winter adrenaline thrills. This year we need not waste the airfare, as Scotland can offer good to excellent skiing experiences, which comes wrapped in some of the finest mountain scenery anywhere in the world.
I'm sitting outside a restaurant in France, 700ft up a mountainside and the winter sun is out. Not so strange really, considering that this particular region of the Catalan Pyrenees receives over 300 days of sunshine every year. It is, however, a region that has remained under wraps for years, enjoyed in the most part only by French and Spanish locals.
Font-Romeu and its sister resort, Les Angles, provide some spectacular winter sports activities at prices well below those of their more illustrious neighbours.
Where are you having dinner tonight? Instead of trudging home to eat a takeaway in front of the TV, you could be enjoying a four-course meal in your cosy chalet in the French Alps with free-flowing wine (and no washing up after). After a day on the slopes, you'll have worked up an appetite, so there is nothing more welcoming than a home-cooked meal along with some great conversation to get you in the mood to party.
Yes, it’s that time of the year again when we fish out our furry boots and become amateur meteorologists in the hope there will be a decent covering of the white stuff, because one thing sure to ruin a wintery holiday is no snow. One place where you don’t need to worry about snowfall, during winter and that is; The Kitzbuhel ski area in Tyrol, Austria. This place is as powdery as it will ever gets, with an average 180 days of snow a year, making it the country’s first non-glacial ski area.
With the winter ski season coming, the craving for that soft white powdery piste is starting to kick in, and you might be thinking, where should I go? With so many options where can you go to get this year's fix of adrenaline rush and the feeling of that fresh scripts wintery wind in your face as you ski down chosen run: blue, red or black. For this season we want you to set your sights beyond Val d’Isere, because we have a list of some weird and wonderful mountains from which to hurl yourself.
BEST FOR: Steep and deep skiers looking to channel their inner cowboy.
Arguably the last remaining gem in Colorado’s world-famous portfolio of ski towns, Crested Butte is overflowing with authentic skier soul. Located a mere 35 miles as the crow flies from Aspen, Crested Butte has a vibe that couldn’t feel further away from the glitzy celeb-fuelled world that exists just over the hill. ‘Crusty Butt’, as it is also affectionately known, is a genuinely welcoming place of locally owned businesses and ‘real’ people who are fiercely proud of their funky little Rocky Mountain cowboy town.
The Kitzbühel resort is the first non-Glacier ski area to open in Austria, with 179 kilometres of perfectly groomed slopes, 36km of ski routes; 180 ski days throughout the season, romantic mountain huts and cosy hotels. The area is home to the world famous Streif, a spectacular downhill ski race piste. It is easy to see why Kitzbühel is regarded as one of the best ski resort in the world.
For those of us who like to ski or snowboard, choosing a resort can be a daunting task when the time comes to select a destination of your next winter trip. Let us introduce you SalzburgerLand in Austria, it has everything you need, modern spa resorts and traditional huts to 550 state-of-the-art lifts. SalzburgerLand has 22 ski resorts, which as a combined offer cover 2,000km of pistes for all levels of difficulty.
Kronplatz is one of Italy’s larger ski regions with more than a dozen towns and villages linked on to the huge Plan de Corones ski mountain. Plan de Corones/Kronplatz popularity in Europe is hard to ignore, thanks in large part to its astonishingly impressive facilities, including more than 20 gondola lifts, one of only a few resorts in the world to have so many of these fast, comfortable all-weather lifts.
Alpe di Siusi/Seiseralm, located right next door to Val Gardena/Gröden, has positioned itself as a winter wonderland for families, beginners, and anyone looking for a more relaxed winter holiday experience. The largest high mountain plateau in Europe is also one of the most peaceful , safe and environmentally friendly, as cars have bee banned from the area and instead the ski lifts and gondolas form all necessary transport links.
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