Choosing a Ski Holiday Resort

The following are our suggestions on the factors that must be considered when choosing a resort in which to spend your skiing holiday.

Snow Reliability

It is obvious that you can not ski if there is no snow, but also very important to the enjoyment of your holiday is the quality of the snow. We live in South Africa and a ski holiday is an expensive undertaking and to secure the best airfares we need to book a long time in advance. Too far in advance to have any knowledge of what weather conditions will be like.

This is even more important for those of you who are confined to taking your ski holiday during the school holidays. With the exception of 2007 recent years have been bumper years as far as snow in Europe has been concerned but it does happen that snow doesn't fall, or it doesn't fall in sufficient quantity, or it melts because it is too warm. These conditions can also prevent the making of artificial snow.

Early in the season, such as the December school holidays, is also the time of greatest risk because later the snow that has fallen has had time to build up after successive snowfalls.

There can be sufficient snow and yet, if it is too warm, the snow melts in the heat of the sun and becomes slushy, only to freeze when night time temperatures fall below zero presenting icy unpleasant conditions in the morning. Many big name resorts have habitually presented their paying guests with slush, ice, and even grass.

Ski resorts with north-facing slopes will preserve the snow that has fallen better than one with South facing slopes and some resorts have a good snow record as a result of unique meteorological conditions in their specific geographical location but are not necessarily at very high altitude. See our page on La Thuile.

In our experience though we have never been let down when we have used altitude as our guide when it comes to reliable, good quality snow. Being near a glacier affords a level of insurance but when there is no snow in surrounding villages, skiers are bussed into the relatively few glacier areas in significant numbers and the result are crowds, queues and "skied out" pistes.

Our advice is look for ski resorts where the top of the ski area exceeds 2500m and even higher if you want to enjoy significant vertical drops and long runs.

As can be expected these high altitude resorts can and do, command higher prices than the low level resorts but in our view the difference is worth the peace of mind and enjoyment. It does make it important when comparing the prices for a packaged ski holiday that you take into account the altitude and snow record of the village you are being offered. At TomSki we only go to these high altitude, snow sure skiing resorts and yet you will find that our prices are similar or better than comparable packages to low altitude resorts where the tops of the surrounding mountains often don't exceed 2000m.

The skiing abilities of the members of your party

By the very nature of their slopes, some resorts are predominantly suitable for beginners while not offering much to intermediates or better skiers. Others will suit experts and yet others intermediates. There are predominantly resorts that suit two of the categories while a fewer number have something to offer every level of skier.

In this respect the extent of the slopes in the resort are important. If you are a first time skier or even on your second ski holiday you are not likely to be concerned about this but if there are confident intermediate km hungry piste cruisers in your party, they wont want to be in a resort in which they have covered all the runs a couple of times by lunch time on the second day.

This is why that perfect place with beautiful long, groomed flattering "highways" in which you spent your first ski holiday can be very disappointing when you return years later after you have become a skilled skier and find that those highways are now boringly "flat".

At the end of this page we have provided a summary of our evaluation of which resorts suit what category of skier.

The Ambiance of the resort

This is very much a matter of personal preference. For some people the partying, night time tobogganing, and romantic strolls through snow-covered streets is as much a part of a skiing holiday as the skiing (or snowboarding) itself.

Others go for the skiing. There is no doubt that some ski holiday destinations cater more for these than others while some resorts, St Anton for instance is good no matter your preference.

Tignes on the other hand is a skiers resort and we read a comment recently which said that the main difference between the folk who go to Val d'Isere on the other side of the hill is that in Tignes, stopping for lunch is regarded as a sign of weakness. (This is not really so, Tignes has some wonderful spots to sit out in the sun at lunch time.)

Your budget

As we have said the high altitude resorts are the more expensive but in our view for the difference it can make to your ski holiday it is well worth it. There are some exceptions to this rule. Livigno is such an exception and although we don't go there for other reasons it is by all accounts a good destination for first time skiers on a tight budget.

On the othe hand there are some very fine minor suburbs of several of the high altitude resorts where one can stay and still enjoy the benefits of the main village without significant inconvenience.

Transfers from the airport to the resort

Being within two hours of your skiing resort can mean you can be skiing at least a half day on day of arrival and almost a whole day on day of departure. This means six and 2 half days of skiing on a seven day skiing holiday as opposed to the six days normally achieved. Being 2 extra half days it actually feels like more than that and the additional cost is quite minimal.

Long transfers after a night on the plane detract quite a lot from your enjoyment on arrival day and on the return, by the time you get back to Johannesburg, the time spent travelling feels like 4 days with only 6 spent skiing.

Transfers from the airport to the resort

Being close to the arrival airport can be a double edged sword. Germans, Swiss, Italians drive from their cities or catch trains to reachable resorts for the day or weekend which in some resorts results in crowds and queues over weekends.