Alps Trip Brainstorming

[skibrd]

I’m looking for ideas and places to research for a family Alps trip for next winter. People going would be my almost 70 year old mom who loves long cruising blues, think Breckenridge Peak 6/8/9, my sister who can ski anything in bounds in Jackson but I hear about it if/when we got into too many bumps, and me. Ideally we would like to find a town/hotel to be home base then ski to other towns/villages for lunch and either ski back to home base or take a train/bus back. We are considering a guide for a few days to help us navigate, not for Le Grave/Cham rope and harness type skiing. What do you guys suggest?


In my mind I have the idea of a sight seeing on piste trip involving skis, not a get gnarly off piste trip. I might stick around another 1-2 weeks for that, but not with my mom and sister. I hear about huge 100+ lift areas that you ski to a town, enjoy some bread, cheese, salty meat, and drinks, then ski back.

Also, what time of year would be recommended to maximize the sunny skiing. I know the weather varies year to year, but is there a 2-4 week window that’s recommended? We have found the last week in Feb/first week of March is our families favorite time to ski Breck. Is there a similar window?

Any recommendations on hotels/inns/places to stay/check out? Not looking for a Haute Route style adventure, but maybe a place you can ski to, stay the night, then ski back. I’m ok skiing with a big (40+ liter) pack, my mom is not. I probably will have her wear a small day Avi pack with the bare minimum in it, she was a patroller for 10 years so skiing with a pack is not foreign to her.

Then lastly, any towns, cafes, bakeries, bars, restaurants that are can’t miss in a location? Not looking for a Cloud 9 Aspen vibe, more of a Snorting Elk at Crystal or basement of the Mangie Moose in JH type vibe.


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[skaredshtles]

TBH, the Bernese Oberland would be high on my list of places that meet those requirements...

[Buster Highmen]

Avoid most of February since that's when Euros have vacation and everything is more expensive and crowded.

There's so many places that satisfy your requirements.
Dolomites have a ton of interconnected skiing, awesome views, food, etc but can be short on snow.
The Milky Way in Italy/France (Montgenevre/Claviere/San Sicario/Sestriere/ Saulz d'Oulx is another massive complex, a little shy on the ropes and crampons scene, but lots of great skiing, food, views. Briancon with Serre Chevalier is right there and another good candidate with La Grave, not all ice axes and ropes required, a 30 minute drive.

There's the usual mass complexes of Trois Vallees, Espace Killy (Val d'Isere/Tignes), Chamonix, Verbier/Quatre Vallees that have all that stuff.

A little smaller are the Jungfrau (Murren/Wengen/Grindlewald that would be a good fit. The Hotel Regina in Wengen is super nice old, classic hotel with the Alpenblick a great more budget option in Murren. Engelberg is a lttle smaller yet, doesn't rally have the ski to another valley deal but is a great resort.

A favorite of mine over the years is the Andermatt-Disentis Ski Arena. Just great skiing, lots of sidecountry and huts, great groomers in the 20 miles between Andermatt and Disentis, plus MountainLodge_Sedrun, run by our own vendul.

Davos/Klosters is a sleeper, huge, varied, great sidecountry and fantastic train connectivity as well with the Hotel Wynegg a great room and restaurant.

I like the St. Moritz complex as well with the 4 ski areas and incredible sidecountry.

I don't know much about Austria honestly other than Bad Gastein which is also sort of off the radar but has great snow and hot springs. It's an old, old resort that had fallen on hard times and is being revitalized. Hotel Echo there is cool. The best known place in Austria is arguably the Arlberg and St Anton/Lech/Zurs/Warth. It has everything but is overrun. Other Austrian options include Obergurgl, Kitzbuhel, Solden, Pitztal, Zillertal, Montafon, etc.

[old goat]

What about Zermatt? Can't you ski to Italy and back? I'm asking, not telling.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Not looking for a Haute Route style adventure, but maybe a place you can ski to, stay the night, then ski back. I’m ok skiing with a big (40+ liter) pack, my mom is not.

The Dolomites is a very good place to do this sort of thing. I've got a bunch of old posts about this. Different towns have different advantages, but most are connected by ski lifts, occasionally with a short bus ride.

My mom skinning:


My late step father getting face shots:


Me between the rocks:




Why am I getting thumbnails on these pics?

[Buster Highmen]

The Dolomites is a very good place to do this sort of thing. I've got a bunch of old posts about this. Different towns have different advantages, but most are connected by ski lifts, occasionally with a short bus ride.



Why am I getting thumbnails on these pics?

Use this: https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...7&d=1365006352 between IMG tags instead of 483337 between ATTACH tags



More on Dolomites, here's a map of one of the circuits:



We stayed in Selva/Wolkenstein, great location to access the Sella Ronda.

Another circuit, Civetta, a little south of Pordoi/Sella:

[schindlerpiste]

St. Anton: Hotel San Antonio
Lech: Hotel Bianca

Very comfortable and chill atmosphere. Great for the entire family

[Buster Highmen]

What about Zermatt? Can't you ski to Italy and back? I'm asking, not telling.

True. Big place, staying in Italy is cheaper.

Another great spot is Monte Rosa, Alagna/Gressoney/Champoluc:

[subtle plague]

Alagna is also really sunny usually. So not soo much on the forefront of powderskiing. But massive easy skins and possible small tour side country connection to zermatt/ cervinia, but I think it's easier to get to gressoney from cervinia ( connected to alagna) than the other way around.

[CaliKid]

Following this thread. Would like to plan a family and friends trip there next year and have many of the same desires.

Large interconnected area(s)
Cruiser terrain for some
Ability to tour from the resort and would probably try to get a guide for at least 1 day of touring.
Don't need massive nightlife but a village/town w solid food
Hopefully not insanely expensive lodging and food (so likely not Zermatt?)

Wouldn't be able to book last min and would probably be in mid Feb to take advantage of school holidays here. I know the Dolomites can be lacking in snow but a few spots on the radar are:

Monte Rosa/Alagna
Andermatt
Dolomites


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[Buster Highmen]

The sagacious oracular subtle is right: Alagna is not a snow sure spot.

But in good visibility, there's a monster tour that goes from Alagna->Top of Indren lift->heli to Lyskamm saddle->down Gorner Glacier to Zermatt->Up Kleine Matterhorn lift->ski down into Cervinia glacier->T bar up glacier->traverse around SW shoulder of Monte Rosa->Ski to Champoluc->lifts up out of Champoluc->Ski down into Gressoney->Lifts up out of Gressoney->ski back to Alagna.

Basing out of venduls' MountainLodge_Sedrun for Andermatt-Disentis skiarena checks a lot of boxes for snow surety, ease of access, incredible value for $, fantastic amount and quality of terrain, a number of huttes to skin to, day trips to Davos/Klosters, St. Moritz, Aletsch Arena and on and on. Plus venduls Italian food and hospitality.

Like I said above, Davos/Klosters is probably the best sleeper of all. So much terrain, huttes, tours into Austria (Gargellen) and back in a day, multiday easy trips to Montafon (also huDge and worthy in it's own right). There's 5 separate ski areas there: Madrisa, Klosters/Parsenn, Pischa, Rinerhorn, Jakobshorn, each with amazing sidecountry and easily connected by train which is part of the lift ticket.

Davos/Klosters, Madrisa South and East facing. Vertical drop from top Weissfluhgipfel 2844m) to Kublis (810m) on train, included in lift ticket is over 2000m:


Pischa, Rinerhorn, Jakobshorn North facing.


One option is to do both MountainLodge_Sedrun for Andermatt-Disentis and Davos/Klosters at Hotel Wynegg. Easy train connections, we ski at one all day last day, grab packs at the end of the day and train it to the other.

[plugboots]

Buster’s recs are great as usual.
I’m partial to the Milky Way area for what you want.

[Buster Highmen]

Buster’s recs are great as usual.
I’m partial to the Milky Way area for what you want.

Milky Way with Montgenevre in France about 30 minutes from Briancon and Claviere, etc in Italy:




Oulx is a major TGV train stop, easy access from Paris or Geneva.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Lost of good advice and places for me to put on my radar.

I'd start with what kinda of food do you want to eat, seriously.

Then I'd think about logistics and transport.

[AmmergauerTele]

I'm hitting Vendul's for a couple days the following weekend. Then maybe a couple nights in Chur, couple free days....depending on weather maybe St. Moritz, maybe Davos, then ending with four days in Tyrol, Austria. Got an apartment in Landeck, Austria - planning on hitting St. Anton for 2 days, day at Ischgl, maybe a day at Serfaus or something else. There is so much to see. I'll post when I get back!

[enlosandes]

If you wanna geek out over freeride terrain, the We Powder Alps Bible is a must have.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

St. Anton: Hotel San Antonio
Lech: Hotel Bianca

Very comfortable and chill atmosphere. Great for the entire family

I've only skied in Austria and Germany but this is a great rec. Loved the Arlberg and probably have 50+ days between St. Anton, Lech, and Zurs. We were daytripping it so no recommendations on hotels but just about anything in that area is going to be really nice.

[eggsbenedict]

I have super similar questions, planning for a week long trip next year to get my mom a chance to ski in Europe like she did in her childhood before she can't ski at all any more. While even 5 years ago she would happily ski anything at Whistler she's a bit of a headcase now and reduced to groomed runs in good visibility. So a family ski trip to Europe seems ideal.

I figure our requirements are:
-Huge alpine vistas, big open groomed runs.
-Random on mountain cafes and bars littered all over serving cheese, sausage, etc.
-Not too hard to get to from a major airport via train/bus, ideally no rental car needed.
-Easily walkable village would be nice.
-Would prefer a good selection of family style lodging with 3-4 bedrooms, kitchen, etc.
-Bonus points for being on Epic (though no sense spending an extra $1000 on lodging to save $400 on lift tickets if all else is equal)
-Also bonus points for French speaking (I know everywhere will be able to deal with anyone in English but there's some comfort speaking your native tongue in a foreign land)

Given the above, I've landed on a fairly boring choice, Les 3 Vallees in the second week of March. Seems like arriving in London/Paris/Frankfurt on a red-eye, connecting flight to Geneva, train to Moutiers, bus to the resort is fairly easy (if perhaps a few more connections than ideal). French speaking, on Epic, cheese for days, more groomed terrain than we can explore in 6 days of skiing, not too pricey (compared to Zermatt), and has a classic ultra posh ski town we can visit once to see what it's like (Courcheval) while not having to pay to stay there.

Even if it's not the perfect choice, am I way off base or missing a different obvious option? I'd love to get one family Euro ski trip under my belt just to have a baseline I can compare it to for future trips. I really want to make Zermatt work but I think I'd be stressed out the whole time paying $20 for every beer, no matter how much convince myself I can afford it.

[bobinch]

I have super similar questions, planning for a week long trip next year to get my mom a chance to ski in Europe like she did in her childhood before she can't ski at all any more. While even 5 years ago she would happily ski anything at Whistler she's a bit of a headcase now and reduced to groomed runs in good visibility. So a family ski trip to Europe seems ideal.

I figure our requirements are:
-Huge alpine vistas, big open groomed runs.
-Random on mountain cafes and bars littered all over serving cheese, sausage, etc.
-Not too hard to get to from a major airport via train/bus, ideally no rental car needed.
-Easily walkable village would be nice.
-Would prefer a good selection of family style lodging with 3-4 bedrooms, kitchen, etc.
-Bonus points for being on Epic (though no sense spending an extra $1000 on lodging to save $400 on lift tickets if all else is equal)
-Also bonus points for French speaking (I know everywhere will be able to deal with anyone in English but there's some comfort speaking your native tongue in a foreign land)

Given the above, I've landed on a fairly boring choice, Les 3 Vallees in the second week of March. Seems like arriving in London/Paris/Frankfurt on a red-eye, connecting flight to Geneva, train to Moutiers, bus to the resort is fairly easy (if perhaps a few more connections than ideal). French speaking, on Epic, cheese for days, more groomed terrain than we can explore in 6 days of skiing, not too pricey (compared to Zermatt), and has a classic ultra posh ski town we can visit once to see what it's like (Courcheval) while not having to pay to stay there.

Even if it's not the perfect choice, am I way off base or missing a different obvious option? I'd love to get one family Euro ski trip under my belt just to have a baseline I can compare it to for future trips. I really want to make Zermatt work but I think I'd be stressed out the whole time paying $20 for every beer, no matter how much convince myself I can afford it.

Zermatt is better for your criteria IMO and I doubt it’s significantly more expensive than 3V - a beer is probably cheaper!

[NBABUCKS1]

Just got back from Zermatt. Good selection of on mountain huts with wonderful food. I really enjoyed my pop over to cervinia the most though. Beers at huts were 8 chf (.5 L) in zermatt and maybe 6 euros in cirvinia. We stayed down in tasche (15 min train ride, every 20 mins? - 4.50 chf w/ half price fare card one way). Saved a ton staying in Tasche but there isn't SHIT to do.

All depends on your budget?

Unless there is a big change in weather this year, March is going to be dicey in some places in Europe w/r/t snow.

[AmmergauerTele]

Just got back from Switzerland and Austria. Been ten years since I've been there. Try maybe two places if staying a week. There is too much to see/ski there to just hit one place. Look for a nice town to walk around in, eat, drink post skiing. Maybe a place that has some trees and tree skiing cause skiing above treeline when snowing or heavy clouds is tough with flat light.
Did a couple days at Sedrun/Andermatt - Epic pass free skiing is sweet. Great time there - lots of exploring, plenty of huts, very quiet near Sedrun. By no means busy at Andermatt, just more people.
Flims/Laax - great day there. Could easily do a couple days there.
Lenzerheide/Arose - Again, huge. I think 45 lifts. These three resort are within about 60 minutes of each other from Sedrun to Lenzerheide. Tickets ranged from $110 at Laax to about $80 at Lenzerhheide.
Then down to St. Moritz - pretty expensive lodging and food here. Tickets were $125. Amazing skiing, not too busy. View = amazing.
Hit Ischgl, Austria - tickets were around $80, pretty busy, off-piste was bullet-proof so kept everyone on the trails. Finally a couple days at St. Anton/Lech/Zurs/Warth - much busier than I remembered it, no real lift lines but lots of people on the trails. The infrastructure at St. Anton and Ischgl is amazing. Resorts in the US are bragging about a heated bubble six-seater.....Ischgl has maybe 10-15 of these, I couldn't keep track, they were everywhere. Tickets were about $83 for a total of something like 90 lifts. Regardless, wherever you go I'm sure you are going to have a blast. For costs....I thought Austria was about 60% of the cost of Switzerland. Food is a bit pricey in CHE but it is a beautiful country.

[Kenzie in Yorkshire]

Avoid the school half-term holiday (especially the French - 8 Feb to 8 Mar 2025) as the slopes will be rammed.

[BFD]

I am on my first ski trip to Austria. In Mayrhofen now. Would not recomemd. Huge busy area. Was in silveretta montafon previously. Quieter, also huge infrastructure. Also got pretty busy. The most interesting thing so far on this trip was the tunnel bus to lake silveretta. Instead of ski touring to the hut you can take this bus out of a James Bond movie to the hotel. Stay there and tour lots of north facing options. But this is my first trip so I really do not know anything.