Ski suggestions early January

MaxFactor

Hi,
I am looking for advice for booking a ski holiday the first week in Jan. There will be two of us going, both beginners and apres ski is important so definitely want somewhere lively and fun.
We are limited with time, as only have 5-6 days and cannot leave until monday 1st of Jan.
Any travel agents I rang will only do a week from sat to sat or sunday to sunday at this time of year.
Therefore, we need to book everything separately. I dont know where to begin. Have seen some suggestions regarding which airports to fly to but still at a loss. Would be very grateful for all suggestions as want to book asap.

stevire

You could try snowtrex.ie or tiscover.com for accommodation options. For apres and skiing you can't go wrong with Austrian resorts like Soll, Zell Am See, Mayrhofen, Kitzbuhel. All those resorts would have transfer options direct from Munich airport. Could also fly into Salzburg for Zell Am See.

Andorra is another option, very cheap, tax free, but the skiing would be a little lacking in comparison to other countries. However, would be more than enough if it's your first time. Fly to Barcelona and plenty of transfer options.

I don't have any experience with French or Italian resorts, so can't recommend any options there.

maddness

Not being able todo a full week is going to cost you. It's very easy to organise but will cost you more than a weeks package with a tour operator.
The Austrian options suggested are all good options.
For France fly to Geneva, Morzine and Flaine are both within about an hour and suitable. The three valleys are a bit further but offer a much greater choice.
For Italy Milan Malpensa airport is close enough to Sauze d'Olux or Cervinia.

https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Airports/

Have a look at this link, it's great for an idea of resorts from airports.

a148pro

If you need to choose now choose your airport first on basis of flight cost and suitable times.

Best airports are Geneva (aer lingus and swiss) Zurich (aer lingus), Munich (Ryan and Aer), Malpensa and Linate (Aer) and Bergamo (Ryan). Lyon also a runner (Aer). Munich and Italy tend to be cheaper.

Look at car rental costs also if cost is important. Expedia usually cheapest in my experience. If going to Geneva there are a few resorts you can get transfers from about 25 euro each way. Munich includes some train options, as does Zurich. Otherwise its usually cheaper to rent a car than pay for transfers.

Austria and France are relatively cheap accommodation wise at that time of year as its after the Christmas rush. Italy is still mid to high season so won't be as cheap. If you've time and balls you could wait and see where best conditions are, then drive to them (i.e., book your accommodation late). Bear in mind we are off the back of a bunch of very poor starts to the season so no guarantee of snow. Personally, I would be reluctant to choose resort now but you may want certainty. In that regard Italy has great snowmaking because its colder and will open 600km of piste without any natural snow.

If you don't want to wait use jet 2 ski above and target a resort, go on to booking and get accommodation. Most places will hold out for a full weeks booking until the week before. If they don't get it then they'll become available either on the resort websites or booking in the day or two before the given week. If you look now you tend to get offered mostly expensive places or less convenient places which don't expect to get a full week's booking.

I have done these last minute trips a bunch of times now and never go any other way. They are very doable. Don't stress, you will get accommodation somewhere. There's always a bunch of other resorts just down the road.