06 March 2015

Mid week ski break

Looking to go skiing in March ... heading off on Sunday ... coming back Thursday ...

For a change, considered going to Åre in Sweden ... but the access isn't great for a short break from London ... there aren't direct flights to Ostersund or Trondheim on the Sunday (or Monday) - so would spend best part of a day getting there ...

The other option of flying to Stockholm would require about 7 hours on the train to Åre so again ... best part of a day travelling (the bus connection is only on very limited days).


Thinking about other destinations, the most popular short break destination is Chamonix ... but since one of the party has already been there ... I thought I would looking into other options ...

One place that I've looked into before is Saas-Fee in Switzerland.  It's supposed to be a nice car free village with a new wellness centre, and lots of intermediate skiing, but not enough for a week (so a short break would be ideal) as well as altitude (village is at 1,800m with skiing up to 3,500m) so late March should be fine (current conditions are good).

It's less than a 3 hour drive from Malpensa airport ... the outbound flight would be 104 gbp (without baggage fee), and the return flight would be about 35 gbp (again without baggage fee).

The car hire would be approximately 60 gbp through auto europe (who I have used before) ... and viamichelin estimate 85 euro for the petrol and the swiss motorway vignette (return journey).

Whilst there are fast trains to Brig or Visp, car hire would give more flexibility with flight times (the last train would require arriving into Malpensa around 5pm).

Through the Saas-Fee website, they have a 3 star hotel near the main gondola station for 150 gbp per person sharing a twin room.