Umfana

Hello there.

My brother and I are planning a last minute trip to Europe during the first 2 weeks of December.

We do not really have a plan, and are throwing caution to the wind.

We would like to Snowboard, in either Austria or Switzerland, and check out Amsterdam.
Germany also sounds brilliant, and London sounds like the cheapest place to fly to...

Being from Africa, we are quite naive about the places we want to explore, and would appreciate any advice or suggestions from fellow travellers.

Our main concerns are:

Is it worth snowboarding in at the beginning of December?
Is this very expensive?
Is Austria or Switzerland cheaper and more accessible?

Is it cheaper to travel by train or plane between the different countries?

Current plan is to land in London and then make our way to either Germany, Austria or Switzerland, and end in Amsterdam.

Any info would be amazeballs.

All the best from South Africa.
On that note, any one who wants advice on travelling in SA, just message me, plenty of advice and info!

Umfana

annhig

hi umfana,

somehow I just knew that you were going to be wanting to see half of Europe in 2 weeks - which is really far too ambitious, even if you didn't want to fit in some skiing/snowboarding as well.

have you ever skied/snowboarded before? i'm suspecting not. if you are hoping to do it at the beginning of December, you'd need to be looking a a high-altitude resort - there are some in the french alps, like Avoriaz - where you might find reliable snow that time of year. Many of the austrian resorts are quite low lying [not all] and Switzerland is too expensive. and you would need to stay a week to get the hang of it, take lessons, hire equipment...it's not a cheap sport.

if you wanted to combine pretty alpine villages with skiing, then Austria is probably the place to be. here's a link to a website with lots of info:

http://www.skiingaustria.co.uk/high-...n-austria.html

here's another one.

your best bet, IMO, would be to fly into London, spend a few days, then fly out to your chosen resort, spend a week there, then fly back to amsterdam where you could finish your trip.

Even if you found there was no snow,you could have a lovely time in the Austrian alps!

PAplumber

It is not cheaper to fly into London if you want to visit the mainland. Try an open jaw into Germany out of Amsterdam. Have fun with whatever you do.

PAplumber

You will be traveling during the Christmas market season.

annhig

The OP has disappeared.

tailsock

yup. another Fodor's "one and done"