We are thinking of meeting our daughter, who will be in London, for a quick long weekend. It should be an easy get away from NYC. we are only able to stay 4, maybe 5 nights. We don't want to spend our time traveling. She and I will probably ski until 1ish or so, then would like to shop and experience the town. My husband will ski hard every day. Also,the altitude can't be very high. He had problems with altitude sickness at Copper, CO. Although I forget what that altitude was. Thanks as always. Money is not too much of a concern...4 star, not 5

ttt

Hi alawes,

ok, I'm sorry, but I'm not getting this. You want to find someplace that's close to an airport and with a low altitude -- that's a ski resort?

My only thoughts are Gstaad or Verbier, both about 2h30 from Geneva by train.

Maybe fly into Munich and ski at Garmisch (1h30 by train).

Maybe someone will see this and help.

s

Alawes - How about Val Gardena in the Italian Dolomites? Hard to beat.

www.valgardena.it

Steve

Megeve; an hour from Geneva, not too high altitude. There's ususally snow there in March, and it's a nice small town. www.megeve.com.

The Alps is about the only place you can guarantee the snow at that time of year.

According to my Google search, Cooper Mountain's elevation is 12,000 feet (at the top), and base elevation is 9,000 feet. I don’t know whether your husband had problems at the bottom or the top, so to be safe, I will name Swiss resorts with maximum top elevations of less than 10,000 feet. You should be OK with still finding snow in most Alp areas in mid-March unless there is a really warm winter.

Gstaad – as mentioned above, a very good choice, good skiing esp for intermediates, and the town is very charming. There is some good cross country in the wide valley as well. With a car, you could do a day trip to the Jungfrau valley. Just under 3 hours by train from Geneva airport, or about 2.5 hours by car.

Verbier – very good for intermediates. The town is NOT at all charming however. There are many good restaurants, but do not expect a town of little wooden chalets, it is more low-rise concrete apartment buildings. About 2.5 hours by train and then a bus from Geneva airport.

Davos/Klosters – wide range of trails for all levels, has some great very long runs, like the 12 kilometres Kublis. Klosters is the favorite of Prince Charles and has a bit more charm than Davos, but neither is full of Swiss charm, alhtough the Davos valley is very beautiful, IMO. About 2 -2.5 hours by train from Zurich airport. Both Davos/Klosters and St Mortiz would be close to the wonderful 12 kilometer sledge run (runner sled) at Bernun, which makes a great half day or full days outing, and a nice alternative to a days' skiing.

Saas Fee: In the next valley over from Zermatt. Excellent skiing esp for Intermediates, very charming small car-free town, very few if any tourists like Zermatt gets. Easy to do a day trip to Zermatt from here, good skiers can ski over to Zermatt with a guide (but watch elevation here). Good cross country skiing in the valley below. About 3.5 hours by train and then bus from Geneva airport. I can recco a very good 4 star with excellent food (is in Patricia Schultz's book), there are several others in town.

St Moritz/Celerina – Wide range of trails for all abilities, the town of St Moritz is quite substantial with lots of very high-end retail and is charming in its own way, where the beautiful people come to see and be seen. Many very good hotels. About 3 hours by train from Zurich airport, parts of this ride is one of the most beautiful train rides in Switzerland, IMO. Celerina is next door to St Mortiz, is much smaller and more manageable and you can go into St Motiz for the day if you want. Celerina is where the famous Cresta Run bobsled run is located, and you can pay to take it if you are brave enough (aobut $125 if my memory is correct). There are a number of very good hotels in both, esp St Mortiz.

Alternatively, you could ski almost anywhere else and your husband could avoid the higher runs. For example, the base elevation of Zermatt is about 5,500 feet and the highest elevations are just over 11,000, so if he avoided the highest elevations he would be OK but could ski get in plenty of good skiing. My youngest sister has altitude problems and was fine in Zermatt as long as she avoided the top of the Gornegrat and the Rothhorn stations. Zermatt has some great skiing and lots of other activities for non-skiers as well, and of course you have the Matterhorn looming over you from everywhere. Same with Chaminoix in the French Alps, where the base is only about 3,500 feet and the top elevations are just over 11, 000.

In my experience, there is not a whole lot of shopping in Swiss ski resorts beyond watches, jewellery, ski clothes and some handicrafts like lace and some woodcraft items, and none of them are bargains, so bring plenty of money. However, there are lots of other activities like cross-country, skating, sleigh rides, sledding/tobogganing, winter walks, etc to keep you busy if you can't find any shopping of interest.

If you decide to ski in Switzerland, you would want to fly into Zurich or Geneva. All of the above towns are accessible by train or bus from the airports. A car is not necessary (is a nice luxury), and some resorts are car-free so you would be paying for a car to sit there unused. If you rent a car, confirm that your thoel offers parking as parking is hard to find in many resorts and is expensive.

I think the suggestion for Megeve in the French Alps would be nice as well, although I have not skied there myself. Another good ski area nearby would be Courcheval/Courmeyer, I can recco some hotels in Courmeyer. For either, you would fly into Geneva. For Courmeyer, you are better off driving though, because for reasons that pass all understanding, trains from Geneva take hours. You can drive in less than 2.

The Dolomites are another good idea, not sure about elevations there, you should run a search. You would need to fly into Milan.

St Anton Austria is another thought, good elevation, lots of good skiing. Your dauthger may like the après-ski which is supposedly the best in Europe, ltos of young people and pretty lively. You would fly into Munich or Vienna.

Other than two trips to Courmeyer, and one trip to St Anton in Austria and the Dolomites, I do not know non-Swiss ski areas at all, hopefully others will post.

I would suggest you do some reading and choose a destination, then we can recco hotels.

One more thought is Arosa, nearby to Klosters and Davos. I have onlyskied once as part of a ski over the mountain from Davos, but there was a recent post on the skking there as being good; my one run there was fine but I was pretty exhausted from the trip over the mountaint top so really can't comment. Elevation is good. I have been in the summer for hiking and the town is very cute. About 3 hours by train from Zurich. You could do a day trip on the Bernina Express (this trip would also be doable from Davos/Klosters and St Moritz) or go into Chur which has a small but interesting old town.

For train/bus times from Geneva and Zurich airports to the Swiss resorts mentioned, go to rail.ch. For info on the Bernina Express, go to rhb.ch.

We think Courmayeur's the handiest place for a London-based skiing weekend

It's also a popular place for Milanese to weekend, so it has a few designer-cred shops. Can't personally see how they can take up more than an hour, but the non-skiing matrons of Milan seem to find quite a bit to occupy them. It's virtually all motorway from Geneva airport, with no horrid chains-required last few thousand feet of narrow mountain road.

You can drive back to GVA in 90 mins most of the time, but allow nearer to 150 if you're trying to catch an early morning weekday flight back, since you hit the frontaliers' rush hour around 0800. To all intents and purposes, it's a million miles from Courchevel during the skiing season, though it's a nice drive when the passes are open in the summer.

There's an infinity of skiing in the 3 Vallees area though. But the practicalities of getting to most interesting French resorts, given your particular constraints, may defeat you, unless you're happy to lash out on a taxi from and to GVA - and the best French skiing places are as charm-free as the Bucharest housing projects they're modelled on.

Otherwise, resorts close to a Swiss railhead (we've liked Engelberg) are probably your best bet if you're meeting your daughter on the Continent. Zurich and Geneva are, unusually, both intercontinental hubs AND well-served by low-costs from the London area. Your daughter should use lastminute.com and ebookers as well as whichbudget, as we've often found the best ski weekend prices from the legacy carriers.