young, different ability but not heavy drinkers- where to go??

miss no stars

I'm hoping to get away over maybe new years with my boyfriend and am looking for advice on where to go. I've been away twice before, the first time with my family to Niederau in the Tyrol and the second to Killington in Vermont.

I've a reasonable skiing ability and can hold my own on red runs. I'd like to get competent enough to tackle some black runs by the end of my next skiing holiday so I'd like to go somewhere with a good variety, unlike Niederau which was great for a first trip, but my more advanced father was bored.

My boyfriend has never skied before so he needs somewhere with enough baby slopes to learn comfortably. It'd be also nice to have a few runs we could do together where both of us would be comfortable yet gaining from the experience.

We will be 20 and 21 going away but neither of us are mad drinkers. It'd be nice to have enough non drink based activity in the evening so perhaps a larger resort. I really enjoyed being in Austria and Vermont but just found that VT was just too cold and you need a car (neither of us drive).

Does anyone have some recommendations as to where we should start looking? (Btw, is Austria cold enough around new years or is it dicey as to whether they'll get enough fresh powder regularly?)

Static M.e.

Is cost an issue?

What about Val D'isere\Tighnes?, big resort, plenty of snow, quite scenic and a nice little town for going out to dinner. Its kinda a non drinkers resort mostly due to the cost of drink.

miss no stars

cost is a bit of an issue, I couldn't really afford more than about 550pp for a week. Maybe a little bit more if it was very nice. Obviously that excludes ski hire and ski school! I'll certainly have a look at those resorts, from a quick glance at google they look nice! Thanks!

Static M.e.

Some links for you to check out;

Val D'isere Village Map (Handy for finding out where hotels are)
http://www.valdisere.com/gb/sejour/hebergement/plan.php

We stayed here (No 39 on the map) Rooms were decent, Hotel was nice and quite near the slopes.
http://www.cretes-blanches.com/val/index.php

Main Val site
http://www.valdisere.com

You should also check out the Winter Resort Report thread lots of good info

robinph

I think you'll find it almost impossible to find anything cheap over New Years in any resort though, if you went the week after the holidays though you may well find a bargin. Christmas/ New Year weeks and all of February are the most expensive times to go skiing so if you can go early January or sometime in March you'll tend to find much better prices.

chuci

i learned in la tania( think thats how you spell it) in france. i went with a group of experienced skiers and snowboarders and the runs were great for beginners and the people who had been skiing before had brilliant times loads of blacks and challenging reds. think it was expensive though.

Polarbear2020

Livigno seems pretty perfect for what your looking for and it's a great little spot. Due to its tax free status it's great value, but it still manages to not have a "budget" feeling about the resort. Price wise directski.com are hard to beat and their staff are competent and friendly.

There are plenty of nursery slopes for beginners(most of which are on the carosello/costaccia side of the valley) and intermediate's(loads and loads of reds). There are a few blacks thrown in there aswell to keep the more advanced occupied. It's a good spot for you to progress from red to black as you were saying you wanted to. There are a couple of short and gentler blacks in the costaccia area which are a nice introductory to black and after you mastered these there are some more challenging ones across the valley on mottolino which run from top to bottom. Mottolino has a huge snowpark(one of,if not the biggest in Europe I think) which trust me will keep the better skiers/boarders entertained for hours. Just note hats are compulsory in the park but they can be rented locally.

There is a fab ski school at lift 20 directly behind the famous Galli's pub(looks a kip but it's a great spot for one or two after the slopes, just DO NOT eat here!). It's smaller than most of the others in the town but they have some of the best instructors I have ever come across. Go private if you can (approx 40e an hour and 6e for each extra person you add into lesson), you just get so much more done (otherwise ski school for the day was about 27e I think).

Regarding you and your boyfriend wanting to ski together, there are a number of big long blues which start from nice and high up so your boyfriend wont be stuck on low altitude nursery slopes all holiday. There is a big wide blue which runs from almost the tip of Mottolino along the top of the mountain and eventually right down to the bottom. It is great for beginner's who want to get up the mountain and do a long run and experience varied scenery, but at the same time you won't get bored as there are loads of kickers,jumps,hills,steep shortcuts,bits of powder,fun trails etc all along the sides of the run so you can mess about on these while your boyfriend stays on the groomed part. There are plenty of reds of all levels so you can bring him up some of the easier ones of these too.

Nightlife is lively too, but your not just confined to getting drunk and partying(although there is plenty of this too!). First of all the food, for being a ski resort is top-notch and at ridiculously good value too, you wont be short of good restaurants(La Canoa is a must). There is also ski-dooing (loads of fun especially with a group so you can all race), huskies, ice-skating, night skiing on thursdays, and if you do one thing do the "Mountain Feast" on wednesday(you get ski-dooed halfway up a mountain, cook your own meat at your table, free wine, dancing on tables, walk/craw down by torchlight), even if your not big drinkers do it anyway it's great craic.

Being such a high altitude resort, it's one of the safer bets for snowfall. I've been more than once around the new year time and snow has been fine.

Anyway good luck with wherever you book miss no stars and enjoy!!:D

miss no stars

Thanks a million! The replies here have been fantastic and I'll have loads to check out! Seems to be right about the prices though! A little mad! I think it may end up being the week before christmas or the week after new years!

Static M.e.

Livigno is another good choice.

Last year for the first time, I went Pre-Christmas and I have to say I loved it. You take a lot of risk snow-wise but we got very lucky, every single lift was open, No Queues ever! and we had the whole mountain to ourselves. Even going up the lifts you could only see people in the distance.

It is a risk though.

Why not go the last week in January, first week in February? Its the perfect time to go to maximize your chances of good snow without the added cost of going high season.

edmund_f

if you can head out of season it is great, made the mistake of heading to Slovakia last christmas - crowds were nuts, impossible to board.

miss no stars

Unfortunately we're limited by exam dates and term dates so going off season isn't really an option despite however much I would like it to be everywhere is so much better off peak!!!

Static M.e.

Mr.S wrote: »

Just at tip, bring your own lunch up the mountain, its a ripp off up there in the places to eat, that was the only bad side, but there are lots of Supermarkets to make sandwiches etc.

Good point, I forgot about that. It is very expensive up the mountain, it even costs you 30 cents to use the bathroom! No Joke!