- snowboarding
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Got a few hours off and don't want to sit in the sun? Then go to the snow. You know that huge silver bit you see jetting off of the Mall Of The Emirates when you zoom past in a cab, well that my friends, is a ski slope, with real snow and everything. A great way to kill time, and get your practice in for your next visit to the slopes, is to go to Ski Dubai and spend an hour or two zipping your way down their real snow slopes. There are two runs, a fairly mild blue/red and a black (which is more red than anything else!) and plenty of space for beginners to learn on the nursery slope area. They provide all the kit except hats and socks… so bring some with you, even though it's weird putting them in the suitcase to visit the desert, or you can buy them there. Go get completely weirded out and go from 40 degrees to minus 2 in the space of a few footsteps.
Mall Of The Emerites
www.skidxb.com
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.
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
If you're looking to book a snowboarding holiday don't fail to look this company up. The company has two chalets in the resort of Morzine, both in fantastic locations.
What I particularly liked were the little touches you don't always get with a bigger company: heated boot warmers, iPod docks and guiding by their sponsored riders to name but a few.
Top food, top location, top people -look them up!
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/
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
A small and friendly snowboard clothing and equipment shop with a really well-chosen selection of clothes (both fashion and snowboard - Analog, Anon, Nixon, WESC, Dragon, Element etc) and a particularly good womenswear section. They also had a good selection of boards for sale and to rent.
Castel des Neiges
Route du Linga
Chatel,
Portes de Solieil
74390
tel +33 (0)450 81 61 79
www.switch5.fr/
Rudechalets are a chalet company based in Morzine. I stayed last year with them. Their staff, food and chalets are awesome.
The only place I have stayed with PS2s in all bedrooms, a hot tub, a 42" plasma screen and a ride snowboard test centre!
www.rudechalets.com rudechalets, Morzine, France
Star Ski Chalets have a couple of stunning brand new luxury chalets - all with the obligatory hot tub, bar, wifi, and delicious food and fine wine. I've always found their staff to be well chosen. Can definitely recommend a great ski or snowboard holiday with them.
Complete information guide to La Plagne online, with up-to-date news, snow reports, weather, and full listings of where to stay, what to do and loads more.
Complete information guide to Avoriaz and the Portes du Soleil online, with up-to-date news, snow reports, weather, and full listings of where to stay, what to do and loads more.
Small private ski/cycle chalet owned by an english couple, Bryan and Michelle. Amazing views, nice and secluded from the main (overdeveloped) deux alpes resort in Venosc (small village down the valley). Good but not gourmet food - hearty and healthy mountain stuff.
Bryan is an amazing skier and knows the place like the back of his hand. Also handy with a ski pole for on-slope enforcement.
We paid £100 a night for two people, fully catered (with wine!).
www.chalet-michelle.com/
Venosc, near Bourg d'Oisans
I'm a snowboard and ski instructor and I've been lucky enough to go to many mountains and resorts in the world.
People always ask about a good place to take the family to ski or learn to ski. I think Vancouver is perfect. People always think of Whistler but don't know that there are three great mountains in Vancouver itself - Cypress Mountain, Grouse Mountain and Seymour Mountain.
For beginner skiers or families of skiers this has a lot of great advantages. By staying in the city there is a much wider range of accomodation (cheaper than Whistler to extravagant). There is also a lot of other activities on your doorstep so maybe when mum, dad or one of the kids gets tired or bored of every day skiing they can venture into the city easily and cheaply and take their minds off the sore muscles. Shopping, aquarium, Stanly Park, golf, sailing, nightclubs means there is always something to do.
All the mountains offer a great range of snowsports from beginner to advanced terrain and terrain parks. Whistler is little over an hour away for an extra day out. All the mountains have stunning views of the city and as a bonus Cypress Mountain will be holding some events in the 2010 Winter Olympics. The mountains are easily accessible by highways so there are no tricky mountain roads and the instruction at Cypress Mountain in particular is excellent for the whole family. They have also had a record winter of snowfall.
Plus, as the exchange rate is currently nearly two Canadian dollars to the pound it's not as expensive a destination as you may think.
All in all, a great place for everyone to go and enjoy on many different levels.
I worked for Vail for a few seasons and had a wicked time! I'm still here! Because Colorado snow and mountains and parties are sweet!
They provided my visa, accommodation and free ski pass for 5+ mountains and it was so easy! The only thing is that they require you to work all season-long, from mid-Nov to mid-April, but spring skiing rocks anyway!
I came on an H2B visa and all I had to pay for was travel and an appointment at the consulate. Do it! You won't regret it!
The resorts are developed enough for European and North American skiers and snowboarders, however there are no or very few lift lines! Excellent powder and both very small (one lift) and very large resorts.
Don't forget that Alta is a skier's-only mountain, while Brighton sports a totally sick terrain park for the youthful boarders in your life. Consider purchasing a day ski-demo package instead of a straight equipment rental, as with the former you can try any number of different all-mountain fatty skis, which offer a much better ride in the deep powder than the narrower glacier carving skis familiar to European skiers.
An off-piste ski/snowboard run (guided). The icing on the cake of my favourite resort for snowboarding - Les Arcs. Great views, great powder snow. My first proper off-piste run, and has inspired me to come back for more!
Stay in Peisey Vallandry, and get some ESF lessons and guiding. Don't do the run without a guide and make sure you are given avalanche 'beacons' to wear.
In between Les Arcs and La Plagne.
A pension I stumbled upon earlier this year in Niseko, Japan.
Niseko is widely regarded inside Japan as having some of the best powder you'll find, and is quickly becoming Japan's worst kept secret abroad.
Hence my surprise when my friend and I rock up in April, bump into a friendly little guy with a whispy goatee who insists on us calling him Tohsan and his wife Kaasan (Dad and Mum) who gives us a beautiful huge log cabin meant to hold 30 people for £15 a night each with meals. He then kitted me out fully for another £15, gave us a lift to the slopes where we got a nice big discount for coming during the spring season.
We had the run of the place, the powder was still coming down in bucketloads and we ended the day with a home cooked meal from Mum listening to jazz, followed by a soak in the hot spring bath down the road. Job's a good 'un.
Turns out Dad built the log cabin with his bare hands. He's got the pictures on the wall inside to prove it!
http://y.gnavi.co.jp/101988/
With the current exchange rate, the US is the best place to ski this year. Summit County in Colorado is the best area overall for terrain, weather, nightlife and variety (imo). The resorts of Copper, Breckenridge, Keystone and A-Basin are close by, with Vail just over the pass.
For beginners and families, Copper is pure gold - quiet and uncrowded with a terrific ski school and a wide variety of terrain including lots of smooth, rolling, confidence-boosting runs. Somehow it's all arranged so you don't feel like you're in a huge crowd all skiing straight downhill, but as if you're in your own private resort, surrounded by hills and trees. Lovely.
Stay at Copper for convenience, or in Frisco or Breckinridge for more nightlife. You can take the ski bus to whichever resort has fresh powder that day.
Ski area webcams at www.summitchamber.org/
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
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