Skiing in Austria, France, Switzerland, and Italy

Skiing in Austria

A ski holiday in Austria is unique. With very few exceptions the resort villages were not originally purpose built for ski holidays and many are still functioning farming communities with the livestock housed indoors for the winter. They are cute villages each with the typical onion domed church and occupied by friendly hospitable people.

Schnapps and beer fuelled Après ski is very much an Austrian "thing" and starts as early as lunch time, on the mountains, in the village, on the snow, and on the tables - people dance in their ski boots to loud Euro-pop music.

Horse drawn sleighs and tobogganing are part of an Austrian winter holiday.

Because of the generally lower altitude of the Alps in Austria, snow conditions can be poor, however there are some wonderful exceptions to this generalisation,most notably Ischgl, St Anton, Obertauern, Obergurgl and the glaciers at Neustift, Kaprun, and Hintertux.

Skiing in France

The biggest Alps are in France and here the resorts are, in the main, purpose built villages with the convenience of the skier uppermost in the planning. Here the villages are in the middle of the mountains affording "ski in - ski out" opportunities from many of the dwellings.

Vertical differences of over a km are common in the big French ski resorts and we have to say our observation is that the general standard of the average skier we have seen in France is higher than that of the other 3 countries.

Après ski of the Austrian type does not exist and what we have enjoyed is the "no smoking" in bars and restaurants. Nevertheless the French resorts have splendid bars and restaurants in which to relax and socialise at the end of a day's skiing.

Skiing in Italy

In Italy there are skiing areas extending from the French border in the West to the Dolomite mountains in the North East. We have also found skiing in the 2 geographic extremes different.

The area around the Dolomites was once a part of Austria and German is still spoken here. It is also quite readily accessible through the Brenner pass and there are many German visitors.

The much vaunted Sella Ronda ski area is in the Dolomites where Selva is a resort well known to South Africans. The Sella Ronda we found it to be a not very exciting, over crowded "cattle run" most days. The ski buses in Selva are not a free service as in Austria and France and are erratic and overcrowded at days end. The scenery in Selva, as in most ski resorts, is stunning but most of the ski slopes are gentle making it ideal for beginners but there is little to challenge confident intermediate or better skiers and frankly Cervinia in the West of Italy is a better choice for beginners.

On the western side of Italy along the French and Swiss borders the resorts are in our view quite different to the Dolomite resorts. Here and particularly in the Aosta valley resorts, it seems, the Italians only ski over weekends. At this time the slopes can be quite crowded bit on Sunday afternoons the villages empty and very often one finds there is no one but oneself on the mountains. The snow in this area is also usually very good.

Across the north of Italy between are several well known Italian resorts, LIvigno and Bormio among them.

The typical Austrian Après ski is not a feature of Italian ski resorts.

Skiing in Switzerland

Switzerland is home to some of the most stunning, spectacular scenery to be found anywhere. The views from the Schilthorn above the village of Murren across the valley to the peaks of the Jungfrau, Monch and Eiger, or from the other side of the valley, the views to the awesome North face of the Eiger from Grindelwald or the views from the Jungfrau itself and the spectacular peak of the Matterhorn from Zermatt are truly breathtaking.

Switzerland has some of the most famous name resorts, Davos, St Moritz, Klossters all skiing resorts frequented by the rich and famous together with other well known resorts such as Verbier but it is nevertheless the home of farming villages that converted to being ski resorts still maintaining the unique charm of a country village.

Switzerland is also home to some of the biggest, highest and toughest runs to be found in the Alps as well as having an abundance of slopes suitable for intermediates and beginners.

Like a Swiss watch: everything has an air of precision about it.