Long January Weekend

A snowHead

Long time lurker, first time poster, so please be kind!

After a bit of an absence (8 years to be precise, following a nice MCL tear last time I skied) I rediscovered my love of skiing this winter just gone. As such I’m hoping to try and get a couple of trips in next winter. Hopefully a family trip in the Easter holidays, but also a trip with some mates probably around January.

I’m hoping I can draw on the combined wisdom of this forum for some ideas of good resorts that I can have on my shortlist.

Ideally not too long a transfer so we can maximise skiing time and hopefully squeeze an extra day/half day out of the holiday.

We’re a group of intermediates who probably need a bit of rust knocking off, so nothing too crazy but also some terrain that offers a challenge and demonstrates that we are (hopefully) improving.

Not looking for dancing on the tables-style apres, but somewhere we can have a bit of fun in the evening.

Somewhere not too expensive. Realistically this is going to be a bit of a shoestring budget to allow for the family trip later on.

Cervinia was suggested as an option, but having read some of the stories of wind closing the lifts I’m a bit worried that if we only have 3 or 4 days then we run the risk of losing valuable skiing time if we go in January. Flaine was another option.

I’d love to hear what others think, or even if January is just a daft time to be going and we should reconsider the timing. Any thoughts much appreciated.

A snowHead

Welcome! I’d start by looking at flights, Geneva has the most generally and some very late evening flights which mean you can still get a full day on the day of your flight. As an example, I sorted a group trip out for this January and stopped in La Plagne which you’d think might be too long a transfer but we still got a day in until about 3pm before the minibus pick up for a 9.30pm flight from GVA. This works especially well if you’ve got people in the group flying from different airports (we had Manchester, LHR and Luton).

In terms of resorts, look at Flaine as you suggested, Avoriaz, Chamonix, La Clusaz, as well as considering somewhere like La Plagne. If you want to keep costs properly low have a look at places with hostels (we stopped in Ho36 in La Plagne which has bunk rooms though we booked twin rooms).

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Thanks so much, that’s really helpful. Great advice on the flights. I’ll take a look at Geneva and see what’s on offer.

I’d sort of discounted La Plagne as last time I went there was over a new year and there was barely enough snow to cover some of the pistes and our ski-in/out chalet was a long way below the snow line. Probably a bit irrational as I know it varies year on year. I’ll definitely add it back to the list.

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@Chico, No idea about how easy the flights are but fly into Innsbruck and then look at one of the Zillertal resorts. There are plenty of other options near to Innsbruck too, generally shorter transfers than from Geneva but I guess less flight options. Similarly Salzburg has some nearby areas (Ski Amade being the obvious one).

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

If La Plagne is struggling for snow then you can pretty much guarantee that everywhere else will be too. It’s got most of its skiing at 2000m and above so unless you’re stopping somewhere like Montalbert then you should be absolutely fine in January. Of course anything can happen but compared to the likes of Morzine I’d say it’s reliable.

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@munich_irish We’re all in London so pretty fortunate that flights are quite good to most places. I’ll check out Innsbruck and Salzburg and see what timings are like. What is the snow likely to be like in these areas in January (I realise this isn’t a perfect science!)

@bigtuboflard That’s useful to know. I guess it was just ‘one of those years’ when we were in La Plagne.

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@Chico, in terms of the Zillertal, while the towns/villages are quite low down in the valley c.600/650m, virtually all the skiing is around 1500/1600m and above, so you should be fine. Obviously the weather is different every season, but January this year everything was open.

With the Zillertal you also have Hintertux Glacier so if things were really bad you could jump on a bus up there.

The Zillertal is only 1hr from the Airport by car, or around 2hrs if you used public transport.

After all it is free

If you get a 7am flight to INN you can often get an afternoon skiing somewhere like Patscherkofel or Axamer Lizum and be skiing only an hour or so before check in.

@swskier, @Dave of the Marmottes, thanks both. I’ve had a look at Innsbruck flights but sadly don’t work with our current dates. I do like Austria and have had fun when I’ve skied there previously. I may see if we can persuade the party to extend by a day, although it’ll be closer to a week by then…there’s a thought!

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Another option to look at if you're keen on Austria is to fly into Innsbruck and out of Salzburg, or vice versa, and see if that opens up better flight options. For somewhere like the zillertal that could work as it's in between the two.

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I agree that flights are the key in terms of timing, maximising ski time v days off work. The one time I've done a weekend we flew Luton to Geneva on a Thursday evening. Transferred to Argentiere/Chamonix (1 hour) and then flew back out on Monday evening after a full days skiing.

Mid-Jan is mid-winter - conditions should be fine everywhere for what you want/need (presumably piste skiing only?). But being mid-winter I would be thinking about access to tree skiing. If the weather closes in that will give you at least some terrain to knock out those laps and work on technique/have fun.

@Chico, We have done a couple longer weekend skiing trips. The normal plan is to get the latest flight out of the UK and the latest back. It has been more about finding the flights than anything. The trips have included:

Les Arcs a couple times. Late flight from Luton to Geneva, gambling on the M1 not bing a car park. Then 22:00 ish flight back on the Sunday evening. Getting home the early hours of Monday morning.

Gressoney. Late flight to Malpensa from Luton on a Friday, once again gambling on the M1 then late flight back on the Sunday. Be careful on this one the last time we came back from Gressoney to Malpensa on a Sunday evening the traffic was terrible and it took almost 4 hours.

Crolles. A small industrial town near Grenoble that allows easy access to Les Sept Laux and Charmrouse. Once again the stress of getting to Luton but a really successful weekend.

Zakopane. This turned out really well but we flew out on a Thursday afternoon from Birmingham to Kraków (far less stressful), had a couple days skiing and then a day looking around Kraków before coming back on the Sunday night. I'd actually reccomend it for a weekend.

You know it makes sense.

@Chico, The Briancon sleeper train from Paris for Serre Chevalier might just about work depending on how close you are starting to St Pancras and if you'd get away with working remotely for an afternoon on the Eurostar and/or in a Cafe near to the Gare d'Austerlitz in Paris. Cost will depend on how many people you have with a party of 6 in a single couchette being the optimum.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

I've done several ski weekends with the kids. The thing that has worked well for us is to fly to GVA or ZUR on a Friday evening after work/school and stay in a hotel at the airport.

Early the next morning, we just walk to the hire car place and drive straight to a ski lift. It's usually possible to get there for opening time. After skiing we drive down the valley to a budget hotel, but in some cases it's possible to find accommodation nearer the resort if you're after some apres-ski.

A snowHead

A few random thoughts:
Engelberg works from a transfer perspective (if flights to Zurich work), but may not be so good from a budget perspective. Partly because it's Switzerland, but also because it does get a lot of weekend visitors, so accommodation probably won't be that cheap on a weekend even in January.

I agree with @HilbertSpace that staying at an airport hotel on arrival works well. Airport hotels almost always have 24 hr check-in, so you've no worries about issues with delayed flights. I've often gone for early morning flights aiming for an afternoon's ski, which can work, but I do find myself getting grumpier and grumpier at any slight delay that might reduce the skiing time.

Another destination airport that's worth considering is Basel. EasyJet have several flights there, often at either end of day, and it's a smallish airport, so generally less faff. I've had a full day's skiing in Grindelwald, then driven a hire car back to Basel for a late flight back to the UK.

it can work to use different airports for outbound and inbound, though if hiring a car, this is only cost-effective if in the same country. At least once I've flown out to Geneva, then back from Basel, as that gave the most skiing time for sensible flight prices, and there was minimal additional charge for dropping the car off in a different location

To keep the cost down, you could stay slightly out of resort )though that limits the apres). A couple of Swiss options are:
Stay in Le Chable, below Verbier. There's a gondola directly up into Verbier from Le Chable
Stay in Chur, and get the bus to Flims or Lenzerheide

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If you want maximum convenience and ski time for minimum cost, have a look at UCPA centres booked through Action Outdoors. It is very much at the budget end and you'd have to check ages, but I've now done quite few short breaks with them.

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1. Flights

2. Transfers ; which generally (out of Geneva) means PdS, Grd Mass, Chamonix or Verbier (train) (unless you have a big taxi budget) - or are hiring cars ; Zurich probably gives loads of train served options. ; Malpesa, Turin, don't (I think) have well developed transfer infrastructure (if any)

3. do flights match with transfers?

Then and only then you can look at available locations.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Perhaps look at Innsbruck, it has nightlife and very inexpensive accommodation. You could get the Innsbruck city pass and then take the bus to whichever local resort you wanted depending on weather.

There are a couple of resorts that are super close, the bottom of the runs at Patscherkofel comes in as 21 minutes from Innsbruck airport. Patscherkofel also has the run Franz Klammer won the 1976 Olympic downhill on which would be a good run for intermediates.

Both the Stubai glacier and Kuhtai which are on the city pass would be very likely to have plenty of snow in January.

I did this for a week this January and it was very good although it will depend on the situation with flights etc.

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@under a new name, I agree, flights first. I've done about 10 of these type of trips, normally out first thing Friday morning to Geneva, back Monday evening. The choice of Geneva was simply because that's the only real option for this kind of trip from central Scotland. I'd definitely consider going out on the Thursday night, if that's an option (it never has been for us). Agree with others that Innsbruck and Salzburg would both be really good options if there are flights at the right times, as they both have plenty of resort options within a short transfer window.

For me, it's then a resort with decent skiing, a short transfer and availability of suitable accommodation. The accommodation is key, as it can be difficult to get something that runs over part of two different rental weeks. We've found hotels in Megeve, Morzine, St Gervais and Chatel that have been happy to do Friday to Monday in mid-January.

Transfer is then pretty easy if you've got a few people going. Once you're at 4 or 5 people plus, the cost of a private transfer to a resort close to the airport is going to be pretty reasonable. Things get more expensive with a smaller group, at which point I agree completely that PdS, Grand Massif, etc. really make sense with good shared transfer options.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Thanks everyone, there’s some absolutely golden advice here and very greatly appreciated.

I hadn’t really thought about figuring the flights first but will take a look at this now.

I’m hoping we might actually be able to leave on Thursday morning/early afternoon, which would give us time to sort ski rentals, get lift passes and do a shop so we can crack on from Friday first thing.

I hadn’t really thought about train transfers but this definitely brings Switzerland into the mix if we can make it work price wise. I’ve always enjoyed skiing in Switzerland (Lenzerheide earlier this year was great) but this was with the significant added bonus of having some family over there to support on logistics.

Thanks for all your help in guiding me in the right direction.

After all it is free

@Chico, yesss, flights, we spent 17 years renting out apartments and every year we’d get desperate calls -usually for high season weeks which were rigidly Sat-Sat - from desperate folk who’d bought odd dated flights

@Chico, if you are going to Austria and do get into resort in the afternoon to sort ski hire and lift passes, bear in mind that you are able ski for free after 3pm using your lift pass purchased for the subsequent days.
It’s a great little bonus to get up on the slopes for an hour or two and makes the evening beers feel well earned!

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@Chico,
Over the years we've done many ski weekends, from the north east. Mrs B was a teacher so we had no flexibility or long-weekend possibilities, so we went for 1 night. Our itinerary was usually:-

Friday after work - drive 240 miles to Stansted or Luton. Sleep in Travelodge or similar.
Saturday - 6am-ish flight to Geneva, Bergamo, Munich, Genoa, Turin or Zurich. Hire a car then ski the afternoon.
Sunday - ski most of the day then catch a late flight back. Share 4 drivers for the late drive home.

We occasionally managed to find suitable flights from Liverpool or Manchester, instead of London, so that was a real bonus as it meant we had only 120 to 150 miles to drive home on the Sunday night wink

.

Where there's a will there's a way... If you live in London a ski weekend will be a doddle! Very Happy

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@Chico, are you London/SE based? Starting point will make a big difference to flights.

From London airports, there's a bunch of outbound flights to Geneva between 7pm and 8.30pm, and similar return flights 8-10pm on Sunday evenings.

My weekend trips are always very focussed on time-efficiency; max skiing for min days off work. I do one trip each season with a mate who's a teacher, so we do Friday night/Sunday night and we're always in resort by midnight Friday, and skiing till last lift on Sunday. I do other 3-day trips, but nearly always travel in the evening.

Lift pass purchasing can often be done online, ski rental takes 15 mins if you have your own boots. Personally, I wouldn't burn a day's leave from work to use travelling and dealing with ski rental, but everyone's priorities differ.

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If it's flight to Geneva look at Les diablerets, Villars, Gryon. Do not dismiss Switzerland before you look at costs.
Accessibility is definitely on the positive end of the spectrum with lots of trains from the airport running along lake Geneva.

@EdYarker, that is a brilliant bit of intel! Austria is looking pretty pricey on tue dates we are looking at but I’m hopeful.

You know it makes sense.

@Chico, Yes it’s great if it fits your schedule. We had a few years when we travelling down from Munich and got into resort (Saalbach, Flachau) in the pm. Whilst we could have got an extra hour in and started at 2pm, it would have meant effectively paying £50-£80 for that hour’s skiing compared to starting at 3pm.
Obviously the ideal scenario is to arrive in resort in the am and make it worth paying for the pass. This is perfectly doable from early flights into Innsbruck or Saalbach (we’ve done it before in Soll, Mayrhofen and St Anton for example).
If flights don’t work out to Austria, we’ve always enjoyed Morzine for variety of skiing, friendly village and quick transfers from Geneva.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

On the half day skiing point, remember that lots of resorts do half day or 4-hour passes so you can still get some slope time in without paying for a full day. And as someone has pointed out above, most resorts allow you to buy online in advance so you just need to pick up your pass when you arrive.

A snowHead

A snowHead

What @snowdave, says, if your flights allow. When we still lived in London we did heaps of weekends. The last year there we skied 56 days for something like 10 days annual leave.

Our routine was,
Last flight out to, say, Geneva, Friday, hire car ("Gold" type card (which I think are still free?) meaning no car hire queue), drive to resort e.g. Morzine, be in bar for last orders

Ski 2 full days,

Return hire car Sunday evening, last flight home. (So this formula easily 2 full days skiing, no annual leave).

Rinse & repeat.

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Another advantage to a late flight out & car hire is it curbs the first night enthusiasms, enhancing your ski time on day one wink

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consider Münich, rent a car and hea somewhere around Saalbach.
If you have a car you could find cheap accommodation in Maishofen, then driving to Saalbach (if the conditions are ok) or Kitzsteinhorn if the temps are to high etc etc
There is one card for both of them (including Zell am See)
Otherwise Zillertal as already mentioned.
I am not an expert for France but i suppose is easier to find accommodation in Austria outside the Sat-Sat concept

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Jonny996, not if you know where to be enthusiastic Twisted Evil

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I would really recommend trying findtransfers.com if your decide to fly to Geneva. I've used the site numerous times to book good value private transfers.

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Long January Weekend

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