J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Wanderer

Gareth

Ischgl or St Anton are both good bets for what you want - both have excellent skiing and mad après ski :shock:. However, you will struggle to get accommodation near the snow for anything close to sensible money :cry:. Finding accommodation can be a struggle for short stays but can be done. Best to keep to one week if at all possible, i.e. start your trip on a Saturday. Alternatively, take the late flight to Zurich on Friday evening and stay somewhere half way to resort on Friday night and then head straight to the slopes on Saturday morning. This way, you only mess up 1 week for property owners. Decent ski bus services in both places so be prepared to stay out of town but budget for a few taxi fares for drinking evenings :wink:. St Jacob or Pettneu near St Anton have lots of apartments/rooms while Kappl is not a bad option for Iscghl if you can't find anything closer to town.

If these don't work out, you could look at somewhere like Flims/Laax in Switzerland. It is only about 2 hours drive from Zurich and has wonderful skiing. Hotels are much more open to weekend trips but apres ski and food are expensive:evil:.

As Snapzzz has said, there are a few bars in the "village" but they are pretty unexciting. I like the area as a base in La Plagne, especially if you are thinking of heading over to Les Arcs on a couple of days. On the other hand, it does make for quite a long journey over to the other side of the resort! It really is a genuine, ski-in, ski-out location.

I don't have any info specifically about Mayrhofen but New Years Eve is huge in Austria. There is usually a massive party everywhere. Expect fireworks at midnight :lol:.

I would have a look around the better local hotels. Most of them will have a gala dinner that evening often with music and dancing. Expect to pay a good bit but it will probably be worth it :shock:

No "Auld Lang Syne" - instead you will get a Strauss medley :lol:

God - we are a myopic group. The Scottish people come within a whisker of one of the most monumentous decisions of the last 100 years, if not longer, and all we worry about is whether our EHIC cards will still be effective :oops: :oops: :oops:

It reminds me of a rather crass study that the OECD carried out a few years ago into the effects of climate change on the ski industry. The study concluded something along the lines that a 2 degree increase in temperature would basically ruin all skiing below 2,000m or most of the resorts in the Alps. While this may well be true, it ignored the fact that such an increase in global temperatures would probably wipe out a large chunk of the world's population along the way :shock:. Low lying areas such as Bangladesh (and the South East of England) would probably be near permanently below water. Rather insensitive to be considering a leisure activity against that background :roll:.

As far as I can remember, run 80 is fine for getting back to the town and down to the cablecar. However, there is a long flat section at the end. I think there is just about enough slope to keep you moving on skis - not sure about on a board :shock: . Run 60 will also get you down on the Samnaun side but leaves you well below the village and the cablecar. Its a bus up from the end of the run :evil: .

I am sure there is somewhere to get a drink in Samnaun but I don't think it is a very lively spot. Also, it is definitely quite a bit more expensive on the Swiss side of the mountain. Even the mountain restaurants on the Swiss side are significantly more expensive than on the Austrian side. This seems weird since they are all part of the same ski area but there you go :lol:

The apres ski in Ischgl itself is particularly lively :oops: :oops: :oops:

I wouldn't have expected much from the new guide but then I suspect we are not the target audience. Most J2skiers already know their way around the slopes pretty well and generally want a much deeper level of information than you will ever get from a TO brochure, no matter how well presented :wink:

I haven't use a TO now for several years, finding that I can usually source something much more interesting directly, and often at a much lower cost :D

Still the brochures are often a handy starting point, even if it just to eliminate possibilities.

Gareth Fair wrote:How did you book Dolomites from Dublin? Did you do DIY ?

Hi Gareth.

Yes, I have gone DIY. I am actually flying to Venice with Lufthansa through Frankfurt. It does involve changing planes but is very competitively priced (bags, including skis are included in the price) and total travel time is about 5 hours - a bit longer than a direct flight but I reckon you lose the travelling day anyway so no great issue with this. You could also fly with the lovely Ryanair to Bergamo, though the transfer will be longer (and more expensive).

I got a nice hotel through Booking.com. Its in Vigo di Fassa. Not directly on the Sella Ronda but reasonably close with regular skibus connections.

I am going out on the Saturday and back on the Sunday so will get 7 full days skiing :mrgreen:. Really looking forward to it - was there 2 years ago and had a fantastic time :wink:.

It used to be simpler when Aer Lingus flew direct to Venice but bizarrely, they only start the service to Venice in the middle of the mid-term week :shock:. Still it would be available for trips starting at the end of the mid-term :lol:.

Have just booked Dolomites for mid-term :mrgreen:. Was there 2 years ago and really enjoyed it :D. The skiing was great, people really friendly and prices that put most other resorts, especially in France to shame. Sorry, I forgot, French ski resorts have no shame :shock:.

If finances hold up, I will probably also look at long weekend, probably in mid-March :wink:.