Traditionally Christmas is nothing like as popular a skiing week as February half-term, New Year or an early Easter. This means that prices can be better value and the pistes significantly less busy – for at least part of the time.
We have tried it a few times and in 2016 we had a wonderful week’s skiing in Cervinia (with an extra day to explore Milan courtesy of fog problems in London).
We had chosen the resort firstly because it was pretty much as snow sure as you can get at Christmas and also because we fancied skiing again in Italy after a gap of a number of years.
The snow was brilliant with the pistes fairly empty over Christmas and filling up gradually as we moved towards New Year – we had clear blue skies and sunshine most days without it being too cold. Ski conditions in the linked resort of Zermatt were not as good so we only went over to Switzerland once although this added a different dimension and allowed us to get up to 3883m at the top of Klein Matterhorn Glacier. Cervinia itself had an impressive list system and really broad range of intermediate runs including a superb run all the way down from Plateau Rosa at 3480m to Valtouneche at 1524m
The wide-range of mountain-side restaurants on the Italian side surpassed all expectations with great value home-made food and lovely views. Being fairly quiet it was also possible to get wonderful seats on the spacious terraces with magnificent views. Equally coming off the mountain as the sun went down we were able to drink our mulled-wine right next to the woodburning stoves in the charming bars on the slopes.
The town itself was very festive and attractive with a lively Christmas feeling – it was standing room only in the Church for Christmas Eve service. With a good range of restaurants, bars and shops the resort offered more than enough choice to suit all tastes and budgets.
It was our favourite skiing holiday in years. The main pluses were the snow, food, range of skiing and excellent lift system. The minuses – we all ate too much.
Would we do it again? Yes, already booked for Austria in 2017 with extended family.
Going away at Christmas may not be for everyone but don’t think you will miss out as you are likely to get plenty of Christmas spirit in resort! Also there is no last minute angst about having forgotten to buy the parsnips or brandy cream. There’s something pretty special about skiing on Christmas Day and then heading home for what becomes après ski Christmas style.
Now’s the time to book your Christmas skiing for 2017 so get in touch.
by TMS