3travellers

I am taking a Christmas Markets tour this year with my two adult sons which starts in Prague on 18 December and concludes in Budapest. I was hoping to spend a few days prior to the tour at a ski resort somewhere near Prague. I don't want to get my hopes up for a white Christmas on tour, but would like to see some snow somewhere, so wanted some suggestions as to where we could stay for a few nights which would not entail too much extra travelling. We are not skiers so just wanted to stay somewhere where there is some nice scenery, few nice walks, few nice shops, etc. Any suggestions?

nytraveler

It would help to know where you are coming from and how the itinerary would work.

Are you looking to do a ski resort from dec 14 through 17? This is kind of early for many places - and not sure when real snow can be expected where - although obviously it differs year by year.

And if you have no interest in skiing - but just want to see snow and do other activities (skating, sledding, sleigh rides, etc) the options may be different.

There are a couple of ski resorts in Czech republic which may open as early as mid Dec and naturally Austria has a lot of places in the upper mountains around Innsbruck and south of salzburg (but Vienna, like Prague, is on the central european plain).

You would need to balance just a place with snow with an actual ski resort which can be very expensive but will probably need to head part way up the mountains.

Christina

There aren't any good ski resorts right near Prague. Most of them do open around 12/15, however, but may have had only a couple inches of snow in December. the closest ski "resort" is Moninec but it only has about a 700 ft vertical drop and one chair lift. It's not a destination resort. It's about an hour from Prague by car.

The best skiing is in the mountain on the Polish border to the NE or the mountains bordering Germany to the north. If you don't even ski, I wouldn't pursue it. I'm not clear on how you intend to get to these places. Cerna hora resort did get about 2 ft of snow last December, though. It's one of the closest good ones (about 150 km away). If you are interested, here is the info, it's bordering Poland, it opened 11/30 last year.
http://www.czechtourism.com/s/cerna-hora-ski-resort/

Ingo

The top ski resort in the Czech Republic is Spindleruv Mlyn in Krkonose Mountains (at the Polish border, as mentioned by Christina.) Cerna hora is the skiing area above Janske Lazne, shares a ski pass with Pec pod Snezkou. Spindleruv Mlyn has more to do for non-skiers, though.

I'd like to steer you to the Ore mountains at the border to Germany, the State Saxony, to be exact. They have some pretty good ski resorts as well (Bozi Dar/Klinovec in the Czech Republic and Oberwiesenthal/Fichtelberg vis-a-vis in Saxony have one ski pass together e.g.), another, recently modernized ski resort is Abertamy/Plesivec near Bozi Dar. But the main reason to go there is that the German side of the Ore mountains (Erzgebirge in German) has the most romantic Christmas markets and nicest local customs/traditions related to Advent/Christmas. This is were the famous wooden Christmas items are made, you can visit manufactures, artisans, workshops, museums, markets, churches ... check out Annaberg-Buchholz, Seiffen, Schwarzenberg and Schneeberg e.g.

zhihow88

Need similar help too. Would have to plan for skiing trip in europe. somewhere relatively cheap. 19th dec 2017 onwards, for me and gf which have not skied before. planing to take classes and ski for 1 week.

Any suggestion and help would be MOST welcomed.

janisj

welcome to Fodors zhihow88. This is a very old thread -- you would do better to start a new thread of your own. Click the 'Post New Topic' link up top . . .