Do you ever just close your eyes and imagine escaping your day-to-day surroundings? Wishing you could travel to some far-flung destination? All of us do this at some point and especially of you are a lover of the white stuff when winter comes around. Well, we have a destination for you. With its awe-inspiring mountains, expansive lakes, powdery snow and perfect vistas, the Austrian ski resort of Zell am See-Kaprun can certainly the answer to that dream.

Austria is famed for its beautiful mountains and amazing snow sports. Every year, visitors from across the world travel here to enjoy the country's incredible slopes and mountain lifestyle.  With pristine slopes, off-piste powder and the snowiest ski area in Austria, Obertauern is set to become your new favourite winter destination.

Thinking of going skiing this year, but not sure where your budget can take you? Let us help you with a few options. You have to be quick though before these well-kept skiing and snowboarding secrets are discovered by the masses.  Destination ranges from Europe, North America to the Far East. Some of these were once used as Winter Olympic destinations.

A 30-minute drive from the city of Lucerne is the freeriding heaven of Engelberg-Titlis, based around the mighty 3,238m-high Titlis mountain.  Sticking strictly to the pistes, Engelberg is a resort more accommodating to intermediate and advanced skiers than it is beginners, even though there are plenty of routes for all, and the little circle of blue runs at the top of the Jochpass chairlift is a veritable playground for skiers of all levels.  What really brings powder fiends – and international freeride teams – to Engelberg, though, are the vast opportunities beyond the boundaries.

The colossal peaks of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau dominated the Interlaken-Jungfrau region, which has been at the centre of skiing and mountaineering for more than 200 years.  The 4,158m-high Jungfrau was first climbed in 1811, which kick-started tourism in the Swiss Alps.  Almost 150 years on, Heinrich Harrer released The White Spider, his legendary book describing the first successful ascent, in 1938, of the North Face of the Eiger – nicknamed ‘Mordwand’ or ‘death wall’.  Sir Arnold Lunn organised the first ski slalom race in the village of Mürren in 1922, while the first men’s World Cup do

The ski area of Arosa Lenzerheide comprises two resorts linked by the Urdenbahn – a cable car that was installed in 2014, creating a whole new world of winter opportunities.  Skiers can now get from the Hörnli in Arosa to the Urdenfüggli in Lenzerheide via a five-minute ride over the Urdental valley.

On the French and Swiss border, in the shadow of Mount Blanc, the Portes du Soleil ski area attracts skiers and boarders (and hardy sledding fans) who come for the thousands of kilometres of runs on offer between December and April, and the chance to ski in two countries on the same day.

Looking towards the north face of the Bec de Rosses, a fabled mountain in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier, I ask a friend whether the extreme skiers and boarders zoom down the left - or right-hand side of the mountains. "Neither," she replies, "they go down the middle".

'Simply not possible' is the first term that springs to mind. How anyone could navigate a slope that's so steep and so strewn with jagged rocks and cliffs, that it looks more suited to rock climbing than skiing or boarding, is beyond me.

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.

Winter sports heaven 

Font-Romeu and its sister resort, Les Angles, provide some spectacular winter sports activities at prices well below those of their more illustrious neighbours.

CRESTED BUTTE, United States

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.