Carlos Bermudez

Our honeymoon will be in Europe and I want to add a 4-5 day ski trip to it. Ill be traveling to Italy, France, and Spain. I was thinking about going to Switzerland but having so many choices I have no idea which to pick. I'm an intermediate skier but the future wife has never seen snow!!!. I need recomendations for a ski resort area that is more romantic/honeymoon type than trail/slope oriented. Was looking at St Moritz, kinda pricey, but since I figure I'll spend more time in the hotel than on the slopes, I need some help.

Jan

Try www.ski-europe.com. They have a resort matching quiz that can weed out some of the things you are not interested in. Some of the areas I would recommend are:<BR>Chamonix-lots of other things to do, spectacular scenery and you don't necessarily have to do Switzerland.<BR>Cortina-for the same reasons above.<BR>Zermatt--one of the most famous, but not particularly good for beginners.<BR><BR>Both Chamonix and Cortina are as nice as St. Mortiz and a bit less spendy. Romantic sleigh rides, good skiing, spa facilities etc. All sounds great for a honeymoon!<BR>Best wishes!<BR>Jan

Andre

Carlos,<BR><BR>My 3 favourites would be Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy, Gstaad in Switzerland and Megeve (much nicer town than Chamonix IMO) in France. All the above have luxurious intimate chalet-style hotels and a nice &quot;village&quot; atmosphere. Snow conditions are variable as these towns are at lower elevations than the &quot;hardcore skier&quot; resorts like Zermatt, Courchevel and the like. St. Moritz has lots of (large) luxury hotels and is high up, but it doesn't have the &quot;mountain village&quot; atmosphere of the other towns I recommend.<BR><BR>Here are my hotel recommendations for each town:<BR>- Cortina: Park Hotel Faloria <BR><BR>- Gstaad: Hotel le Grand Chalet or Hostellerie Alpenrose in nearby Sch&ouml;nried<BR><BR>- Megeve: Les fermes de Marie<BR><BR>Hope this helps,<BR>Andre

Andre

Carlos,<BR><BR>Thought of another place you might like: the Riffelalp Resort above Zermatt.<BR><BR>All the places I mentioned have web sites BTW.<BR><BR>Andre

xxxx

&quot;the future wife&quot; lol

pettums

Try Grindelwald. There is plenty to do there for the none skier and it's a bit less posh and more folksy than other swiss resorts. To reach the ski slopes you take a cute little train - so your wife will be able to accompany you up the mountain and have a fun trip. <BR><BR>If you can afford it the Hotel Regina, is an amazing and romantic 5* old world hotel. The food is the best I have ever had. <BR>http://www.grandregina.ch/eframehome.htm<BR>http://www.grandregina.ch/eframehome.htm<BR><BR><BR>Amazing Race?

Ingo

I agree that St. Moritz (the town) is not a very romantic place. But there are many quaint villages in the neighbourhood: Sils, Celerina, Pontresina. The advantage of St. Moritz is that it is very snow reliable (they already have snow in the villages and tons of snow on the mountains), it offers the biggest variety of activities for non-skiiers, perfect skiing, accommodation and food at its best.<BR><BR>If it is not too pricey for you, have a look at the 5star hotel Waldhaus in Sils www.waldhaus-sils.ch Not to beat in everything.<BR><BR>For a four star check Hotel Rosatsch in Celerina www.celerina.ch (cosy, rural style) or Hotel Walther in Pontresina (pricey) www.hotelwalther.ch (Grand Hotel style)<BR><BR>For a three star I recommend Hotel Villa Mira Margna in Sils www.villamiramargna.ch (very quiet surrounded by woods, small and beautiful, but no restaurant) or Hotel Albris in Pontresina www.albris.ch (cosy, excellent food, familiar atmosphere)<BR><BR>To be honest, you almost cannot fail with hotels in the St. Moritz area.<BR><BR>Regarding the other recommendations, I would say it depends on when you go. You probably will not find snow anymore in the other villages if you go in March (low altitude).<BR><BR>Ingo<BR>

OO

The today's Times (UK) has a good Ski Special 2003.<BR><BR>www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,4643,00.html

Carlos Bermudez

It has to be between January 20-24. I was checking some of you guys recomendations and some resorts are closed(Grindelwald, Meribel, Megeve), as per skiclub snow report. So far im looking between Cortina or St Moritz. Cortina been a lot cheaper, but that Hotel Walther in St. Moritz looks very convincing. Was lookin at Cortina's snow report and it has a lot of lifts closed, maybe not that much snow compared to St. Moritz.<BR><BR>Gonna start hunting for a good hotel in Cortina to compare Hotel Walther. Will post my fidings. Thanks a lot to those who replied.

chris

Carlos, most ski resorts in Europe do not fully open until Christmas-even if there is lots of snow.