The Best Skiing Holidays This Season
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As a child and young adult, I’ve experienced skiing in most of the French ones (and you’ll find a couple of my favorites here). But I’ve been daydreaming about the world’s other amazing slopes, especially when my friends at my favorite ski shop (La HaThe Best Skiing Holidays This Season
As a child and young adult, I’ve experienced skiing in most of the French ones (and you’ll find a couple of my favorites here). But I’ve been daydreaming about the world’s other amazing slopes, especially when my friends at my favorite ski shop (La Haute Route in Paris) told me tantalizing tales about them, as I was researching the best options for this guide. Here you’ll find 10 of the most appealing landscapes and ski villages in the world.FLAINE, FRANCE Nestled at the summit of the “Grand Massif,” one of the largest linked ski areas in France, Flaine village is a magnificent open-air modernist museum. Buildings listed as historical monuments, designed by Marcel Breuer — the Whitney Museum architect and Bauhaus Master — stand alongside works of art by Picasso, Vasarely and Dubuffet. Cars are not allowed in the center, and no electric cables are visible outside. With its spa and its restaurant, Le Terminal Neige Hotel offers a memorable experience of the genius loci.MEGEVE, FRANCE Founded in 1916 by Baroness Noemie de Rothschild, located in the Haute Savoie region in France, Megeve is built around a traffic-free medieval center. The village combines glamour, with its multitude of luxury shops, and extreme skiing, with the Mont Blanc Unlimited lift pass to access higher slopes at nearby Chamonix. The annual Swarovski Christmas tree is twinkling every year in the center of the resort. Ice skating, tennis, climbing, swimming and bowling provide lots of fun and the sports center — Le Palais — offers separate indoor pools for adults and children, saunas, a steam room, indoor hot tubs, an Olympic standard indoor ice rink. The resort is full of great hotels, ideal for a short break.COURCHEVEL, FRANCE With two hotels that the French describe as “palaces” and 18 five-star hotels, Courchevel is an expensive resort, where the French pop star Patrick Bruel and the LVMH boss, Bernard Arnaud, go to ski every year. The village hosts a Women’s Alpine World Cup giant slalom in December. Visitors from more than 50 countries, especially billionaires from Russia, are advised by more than 1,000 bilingual monitors posted alongside the runs. The sculptures of the French star artists Xavier Veilhan and Bruno Peinado, and the Jeff Koons’ Dom Perignon bottle at the LVMH-owned resort Le Cheval Blanc, offer an impressive Contemporary culture experience at the bottom of “Les Trois Vallees,” the world’s largest ski domain, suitable to all skill levels.ZINAL/ GRIMENTZ, SWITZERLANDZinal is a wonderful Swiss resort to visit in winter with its 225 kilometers of pistes, often devoid of other skiers, near Verbier, Zermatt and Crans-Montana. Snow gardens for family skiing or virgin off-piste routes with a few scattered trees and drift by powder snow offer spectacular views, for instance on the top of the 3,796-meter mountain of Pigne d’Arolla with a pristine 1,800-vertical-meter descent. Ideal for those who like untouched nature and silence, this village hosts a beautiful catered chalet, where to relax after skiing, le Chalet Edelweiss, to be booked early this winter for an authentic alpine experience.LECH, AUSTRIA Princess Diana, the Jordanian royal family, the Dutch royal family and Monaco’s Princess Caroline are among Lech’s famous patrons during the past decades in Austria. An authentic Voralberg village at a modest altitude of 1,450 meters, its Christmas markets throughout December are sweet to discover, and the resort is famous for its paragliding activities. Best suited to intermediates, it also offers red run and itinerary routes at the nearby 2,377-meter Zuger Hochlicht. Visitors must be aware that some ungroomed runs are neither patrolled nor avalanche controlled. Hotel Austria is popular for its indoor swimming pool and homey atmosphere.SELVA VAL GARDENA, SOUTH TYROL, ITALYIn a spectacular setting in Val Gardena — 500 km of interconnected slopes around the Sella massif — Selva village is located in the heart of Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Italy. From gentle boulevards to extreme skiing (naturally during World Cup Ski races), the resort offers a unique landscape and skiing experience at the largest skiing carousel of the world: Dolomiti Superski. The Gardena Museum displays traditional woodcarving, archaeological finds and pieces of local culture. There is more: The San Giacomo church or the chapel on Monte Pana, two medieval castle ruins. Built as a traditional Tirolean-style architecture chalet, most businesses accommodations are family-run and warm.VESTERALEN, LOFOTEN, NORWAYWith a location deep in the Arctic Circle, the quaint fishing village Vesteralen is at the foot of the mountains in Lofoten. Skiing journeys are operated by professional guides to the best available runs, adapted to the local weather conditions. With the incredible beauty of the Northern Lights in winter, wave surfing at the Unstad Surf Camp to spot eagle and whale safaris are worth a visit for a heady adventure. Among little colored wood houses, the modern style hotel Andrikken offers a beautiful view of the sea and a warm welcome from the local tenants.ASPEN, COLORADO, U.S.Originally a Rocky Mountain mining town, Aspen, aka Ajax among locals, offers expert skiing slopes, especially up the Silver Queen Gondola, with a vertical rise of 996 meters. Ideal for snowboarders, the longest run is 4.8 kilometers with no beginner pistes. Aspen is these days even more renowned for being home to some of the most expensive shopping, dining and hotels in the United States. Local historical culture is exceptional with its early foundation as a Utopian social experiment, created by Walter Paepcke in the 1940s. Skeletons of big animals, such as a mammoth discovered in the valley, are displayed at the Ice Age discovery center. The only 5-star Aspen hotel, the Little Nell is the best for a winter break — if you can afford it.REVELSTOKE, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA Great skiing terrain best suited to strong intermediates and experts set around a well-preserved small Victorian town, Revelstoke is located on Mount MacKenzie in Canada, which has the longest lift-served continuous vertical drop in North America. A very famous heli-ski operation in the area is called Selkirk Tangiers. As regards the scale, the average visitor manages only 1.5 gondola rides a day. The four-story Bighorn resort has cinema and game rooms with a spa area providing a swimming pool, gym, sauna, treatment rooms — and an outdoor hot tub.NISEKO, HOKKAIDO, JAPANNiseko means “a cliff jutting over a riverbank deep in the mountains.” Nearby the 1,898-meter Mount Yotei, its copious supply of finequality powder snow coming from Siberia, attracts a large number of Australian and Japanese tourists. Of its more than 48 kilometers of pistes, the longest is a 5.6-kilometer run. Horse rides in the snow is also something usual in this magnificent setting. Hilton Niseko Village hotel was the winner of “Japan's Best Ski Hotel” at the World Ski Awards for four consecutive years until 2016. Don’t miss the traditional Japanese hot spring bath!https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more