Milan to Switzerland for skiing
 

My husband and I are planning a trip to Milan for the end of March. We plan on taking a train to Switzerland to do some skiing and I was hoping someone could recommend a good ski resort close to Milan. We are both intermediate skiers. Thank you!!!!

You do not need to go to Switzerland as the Italian Alps have snow too but Switzerland may be the closest - the Zermatt/St Niklaas area would be tops - abut 4 hours from Switzerland by train.

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In Italy the Aosta area would have what you want at a cheaper price probably than expensive Switzerland.

This is an older "report" but you might be interested in the distances from Milan in terms of "the closest."

https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Ai..._Malpensa.html

Notice that "closest" "easiest to get to" and "best overall" are not necessarily identical.

Zermatt offers skiing plus the famous Matterhorn!

The Interlaken area is also a very popular tourist area about 4 hours from Milan by train.

Saas-Fe, a nice resort close to Zermatt- take a neat postal bus ride up there from St-Niklaas train station, is a very pretty area.

Good info from Dukey - always check snow conditions in March before planning.

I suppose you plan to start at Milan city center (the itineraries from Milan malpensa airport would be completely different).

Go by metro to Lampugnano bus terminal and board a Aosta Valley bound bus. Best ski resorts: Breuil-Cervinia (linked to Zermatt), Gressoney.

If it must be Switzerland:
Basel or Geneva bound train up to Brig, plus local transport to Riederalp or Belalp (both small) or Saas Grund (much larger). There are also trains from Brig to Zermatt, but the solution via Breuil is about 4times cheaper.

Do all those resorts offer the same type levels of skiing - or require a ton of experience? Curious.

Let's face it: there are many ways in which to define what is "best" about a resort. If there weren't then everybody would probably go to the same one.

Of course if one just wants to ski all are the same providing they provide your level of skiing slopes. But for a foreign tourist looking for more than skiing it could make a difference but dukey1 makes a good point.

Again Italian ones will probably be a lot cheaper across the snowboard.

The trouble with Zermatt is that - on a map - it looks reasonably close to Milan, but you "can't get there from here", only through the Simplon tunnel and then up from "the other side". That's why it takes so long.

Skiing near Aosta, in places like Courmayeur at the foot of the Mont Blanc, is much more accessible - Milan to Aosta by train only takes between 1:08 and 1:23, then you may need a local bus to the specific destination you choose.

Check with the Tourist Information Center, call +39-0165-842-060
Viale Monte Bianco, 15, 11100 Courmayeur AO, Italy

A fabulous skiing area is in the other direction, near Bolzano where the winter olympics were held at Cortina d'Ampezzo. Should take about the same length of time to get there as to Zermatt.

stayce - first of all the ONLY recommendation for the end of March is to decide at the last minute as everything depends upon snow conditions.

From Milan your best options include:
1. Valle d'Aosta - Cervinia (the other side of Zermatt) and Courmayeur
2. Andermatt - the other side of San Gotthard
3. Saint Moritz

All have good connections from Milan either by bus or train or a combination of the two.