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Pieria mountains are roughly in the middle of the Greek mainland and just beside Mount Olympus - the well known mount of gods from mythology. They are beautiful and green.
A hotel which has a great view of Mount Olympus is the Semeli Resort. It's small but cosy and is beside the forests. Great walking opportunities, birdwatching, mountain biking, skiing - when there's snow.
In 20 minutes' drive you can visit Dion, Vergina in one-hour drive, Thessaloniki with a vast collection of Byzantine churches and ruins, museums and the beach is 20 minutes' drive. I love this area - beautiful mountains, small villages with simple but genuine life. It is worth visiting.
My HUGE tip - stay in Nice Old Town soak up the sunshine and then hop on a train to go and whizz down the pistes in the alps! It's way closer than you think, and great value - a skiing holiday on the med? Yes!
This is a great little hotel in a superb location for both (snow-sure) skiing in winter and outdoor activities the rest of the year. Amazing views in all directions. Good home-cooked food and very reasonable prices. They've got a lovely big garden and sunny terrace where you can relax/read/gaze at the stunning mountains across the valley. It's easy to reach from Salzburg, Linz or Graz airports.
We've been there in winter and also on walking holidays in summer and can't decide which we liked better. The village (Bad Mitterndorf) is really unspoilt by tourism - no package tours go there and the atmosphere is really Austrian. It's on the edge of the Austrian Lake District - great for swimming in the hot summers! We just keep on going back for more. Oh, and they've got mountain bikes that guests can use free of charge, too.
www.austria-skiing.com
www.austria-walking.com
Tel : +43 (0) 3623 2638
email : pensionbinder@aon.at
Winter skiing options in Myoko's powder snow are almost endless. Founded in the 1930s, Myoko is one of the oldest established ski areas in the world, yet prices are reasonable by western standards. The Myoko Ski Area is made up of nine mountains: Myoko Akakura, Ikenotaira Onsen, Myoko Suginohara (which boasts the longest ski run in Japan), Seki Onsen, Kyukamura, Myoko Ski Park, APA resort Myoko Pine Valley, Madarao Kogen and Tangram Ski Circus. Great powder, great scenery and lots of hot springs to relax in afterwards.
Superb spa hotel in Saalbach Hinterglem valley. Offers great accommodation, wonderful food, great value and only 30m from the pistes.
www.hotel-sonnleiten.at/saalbach/Article/ID/85/Session/1-ftDBnyHM-1-IP/Hotel_Sonnleiten_Austria.htm
Chalet Tissières is set in a spectacular location at the foot of the Les Bossons Glacier and close to Chamonix town centre and ski lifts. It has amazing views of Mont Blanc and Aiguille du Midi from the balcony and hot tub. Check out the photos on their website - the sunset is beautiful, hence the name Ice & Orange.
It's family-run with amazing service, modern luxuries/facilities and excellent cuisine and wine - I cannot recommend this place enough. Simply the best week's skiing my friends and I have ever had. Will definitely go back again.
Chalet Tissières
159 Route des Tissières
Les Bossons, 74400
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc
France
www.iceandorange.com
Courchevel may be for the rich and famous but it has excellent snowboarding tracks for novices and is more catered for beginners than nearby La Tania.
Get your ski/skiboarding gear from La Tania (where it's cheaper) and take the free bus to Courchevel 1500 or 1850 from La Tania.
Courchevel is 20km west of La Tania and can be reached by coach from Geneva or Chambery airports in around an hour and a half.
It is a town/ski area about a 10 minute drive from Mayrhofen or a five minute train ride direct. This ski area is not really known to many tourist skiers but it is a huge vast ski area that is absolutely perfect for all competency of skiers/snowboarders. It is less busy than neighbouring Mayrhofen, but equally as good. Plenty of mountains to keep even the best skiers entertained for a week and plenty of bars and restaurants to whet the appetite. This ski area will be included within your lift pass for the Zillertal valley so no extra cost is incurred and a must for a different experience.
10 minute car journey or 5 minute train journey (towards Innsbruck) from Mayrhofen
Great place to stay and great place to ski. First time in Austria after years in France. What a difference! Quiet slopes, great snow, and polite locals!
There are two things that are really special about Chamonix: the jaw-dropping scenery and the off-piste skiing. Why stay on the tame groomed runs with the crowd the whole time when you can spice things up with a real mountain adventure?
Use the lifts to get your elevation, then work out of ski area boundaries for fresh snow, long descents, beautiful views, challenging skiing/boarding and solitude.
Or better yet, use skins to climb up where there are no lifts. Or hire a helicopter or a ski-plane to drop you on a nearby peak.
Avalanches, crevasses and other high-mountain hazards mean you definitely want a guide to help you with this. Try www.markseaton.com/ for a great British guide who lives in Cham and knows the area ski options well.
Big Sky offers the best, least crowded skiing in North America. On December 26th, the longest we waited for a high-speed quad chair was three chairs.
This resort is built like Breckenridge years ago, there are runs and lifts across the face of three mountains and on the backside of one, without any of the crowds.
Base lifts are a five-minute shuttle ride from the condo, a private hot tub with views of the ski area is super great! Which you'll need because you skied so much and waited so little.
It's very cold but if you love to ski and hate crowds this is the place. $369 a night, over the holidays.
lodging4vacations.com/bigskycondos/
Cedar Creek Condos
13 Moose Ridge Road
Building #8
Big Sky, Montana 59716
1-800-SKI-9668
The Ski resorts of Sassotetto, Maddalena and Bolognola are small scale but a great place to learn or get a long weekend fix and give visitors the opportunity to combine skiing or boarding with a bit of culture and touring the beautiful area of Le Marche.
Prices are also very reasonable; passes and ski/boot hire are both about £12 a day. The resorts have just invested in four new lifts, artificial snow canons and a new trattoria.
The town of Sarnano is a top base for a white week in the Sibillini mountains, it has over 20 restaurants, a late music bar and even has a funky nightclub.
There's plenty to see and do locally, the area is full of wonderful medieval villages and fantastic for walking below the snowline.
There are many hotels locally or maybe you would prefer a cosy apartment with woodburning stove and free wood, in the old Sarnano Farm Villa San Raffaello.
The resort is easily reached on cheap flights into Ancona, Pescara, Perugia and even Rome and Bologna.
Ski resort piste map: www.scuolasci-montisibillini.it/pagine/cartina.htm
www.villasanraffaello.com/
Not only are you doing your bit for climate change (which scientists will tell you is the reason for the ever more unreliable snow fall), but you also get to unwind as you journey through the beautiful countryside of France. Plus, you won't get stung by the airlines for taking your equipment with you!
The Campaign for Better Transport are actually running a competition to win coach tickets down to various skiing destinations (including Val D'Isere).
Take a look at: www.bettertransport.co.uk.
Carcassonne is a beautiful medieval citadel surrounded by vines but it's also an airport in the foothills of the Pyrenees well served by Ryanair from a number of UK and Irish cities.
So it's cheap to get to and onward travel to the ski resorts of the east Pyrenees - Font Romeu, Ax, Les Angles and Andorra - is relatively simple - a 90 minute drive. Rather than fight with the crowds in the big ski airports of Geneva, Lyon or Grenoble here is a charming and cheap alternative.
We've been doing this for three years now and wouldn't go back to the Alps.
Carcassonne is in the Languedoc region of S France. Daily flights from Stansted, Dublin, Liverpool and E Midlands from www.ryanair.com and ski packages srating from Carcassonne airport from www.francealacarte.com
The Pyrenees have had some early snow this year and some of the higher resorts are opening earlier than usual. Peyragudes is a resort above Luchon, the spa town just south of Toulouse, which only French (and a few Spanish insider) skiers know about. One of the James Bond movies was shot here (it resembles the Khyber Pass!) and the skiing is great.
Peyragudes is 90 minutes south of Toulouse which is easily reachable from all major UK cities. Local ski specialists A LA CARTE SKI have packages including accommodation, ski pass and hire car from airport. www.alacarteski.com
Helicopter company Airlift offer a number of flight itineraries from their base in Kinsarvik. It’s a thrilling way to survey the fjord, swooping low through canyons, over the water and soaring above the mountains to where the Hardangervidda begins.
During the winter this sizeable mountain plateau is a cross-country skier’s heaven. In summer, when the snow melts, the land takes on a slightly barren and desolate appearance but a network of marked trails and rest huts open it up as a hiking destination. A popular jaunt is the six-hour round trip to the Trolltunga (Troll’s tongue), a dizzying outcrop of rock where those with a strong stomach can stand and enjoy an impressive panorama.
Not far from Kufstein (about 16m) Kitzbuhel is not only famous as a ski resort of Austria, but also for the après-ski activities. Bars, clubs, discos, pubs. For good Austrian wine try Jimmy's bar in Vorderstadt street 31.
Take the train from Paris to Bourg St Maurice when skiing in some of the major French resorts such as Trois Valleys, La Plagne, Les Arcs or Tignes Val d'Isere.
As an alternative to the snowtrain why not take the scheduled London to Paris Eurostar and change stations on to the TGV from Paris to Bourg St Maurice. There is the disadvantage of changing stations in Paris, but this can be eased by taking a taxi between the stations. The advantage is that you have more flexibility with traveling times and the fares can be cheaper if you book early.
If you end up at Bourg St Maurice you can take time to enjoy the French town life with many interesting bars and restaurants. The Bazoom Bar is a favourite of ours, directly opposite the station. You can enjoy several hours having a good meal and watching the world go by whilst waiting for your transfer taxi/bus or before you board the return train.
The transfer times are very short in comparison to the airports, often in the region of 30 mins for Les Arcs, La Rosiere and Tignes / Val d'Isere. There is a funicluar railway directly up to Les Arcs. For La Plagne and Les Trois Valleys you have to use stations before Bourg St Maurice or the transfer is longer.
Our group had an excellent week in Chatel with Absolute Alps earlier this year and have booked again for next.
The beginners all conquered the blue runs and the experts found great thrills on the 'The Wall'.
Beautiful chalet, helpful and friendly hosts and what bliss to be cooked for so scrumptiously!
www.absolutealps.com
Tel: +33 (0)671856171
Had a fantastic holiday in Chatel staying with Inside Edge. Their chalets are beautiful, and they know how to ensure your holiday runs smoothly from start to finish.
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