Archive for ‘Austria’
Top Tips for a Successful New Year Ski Holiday
Celebrations in Morzine
Along with the partying, eating copious amounts of food and celebrating in the streets, one of the most integral elements of a New Year ski holiday is snow. The start of the year is generally a great time to ski in Europe, however snow cover in late December and early January can vary from resort to resort, so why not pick our brains for information on the most snow-sure destinations?
Our knowledgeable reservations team will be more than happy to talk through your requirements and point you in the right direction. So whether you’re looking for wild après, the ultimate in-resort dining or high altitude slopes, we’ll do our best to make sure you bring in 2019 in style.
La Folie Douce on the slopes of Val Thorens
Here are just a few of our picks for high-altitude early-season skiing in Europe:
Verbier, Switzerland
The highest slopes sit at 3,300m, ensuring snowy mountains throughout the season.
Tignes, France
Great piste-grooming and high altitude make Tignes a dependable New Year resort!
Val Thorens, France
The village sits at 2,300m, making it the highest resort in the Alps and a snow-sure destination.
Our Top Tips
1. Once you’ve decided where to go, make the most of the mountain by letting us organise your instructor. Whether its group or private lessons, we can help!
2. Book your lift pass before you travel. With the majority of our French resorts, we can send your hands-free cards out with your travel documentation to ensure you’re not waiting to get on the slopes. Read the rest of this entry »
20 Years of Ski Independence
Tailor-Made Ski Specialists for Over 20 Years
Ski Independence have sent over 100,000 clients on holiday over the past 2 decades and we’re extremely proud to be celebrating our 20 year anniversary for the 2014/2015 winter season.
We produced our first ever brochure in 1994 and our website went live many years later with the world moving at lightning pace to the digital era of today. So much has changed over this time, but our commitment to offering the very best tailor-made service has stayed the same throughout.
Take a trip down memory lane and take a take a look at a selection of brochure covers from the past 20 years – which is your favourite?
20 Years of Ski Independence Brochure Covers
6 days, 3 resorts and One Very Warm Austrian Welcome
It’s that time of the year where we look towards planning our programme for next season. Austria is a popular choice for many of our clients – and it’s easy to see why; with unrivalled après-ski, a fantastic snow record and excellent Austrian service. So, keen to check out some possible new additions to our programme, I headed to the Tyrol (and managed to squeeze in a couple of days on the slopes too!) Read the rest of this entry »
New Year, New Snow
Having witnessed one of the snowiest Decembers on record across the Alps; picture perfect conditions over the Christmas week, and a short lived spell of mild weather for New Year, the Alps are now getting ready for the first dump of 2012…and it’s another big one! With some European resorts already reporting more snow to date this winter than the whole of last season, the Alps are now enjoying some of the best snow conditions in the world. Below is a quick round up on where to find the best snow conditions. Read the rest of this entry »
Traditional doesn’t mean old fashioned in the Austrian Ski Circus
I’m just back from a week in Austria after a long time away and wondering why I left it so long! Nowhere else in the world offers quite the same experience – on or off the slopes. Maybe it’s because skiing is Austria’s national sport, maybe it’s because après ski is their unofficial national sport (!) or it could be the luxury of heated chairlifts, modern gondolas and nifty gadgets…
A good few years back I spent some time working in a small Austrian resort in the Ski Circus – where the linking lifts to Saalbach were mainly slow T-Bars operated by the farmers who owned the land. Many a time I had to make a call to the local taxi driver to get me home after finding that farmer Joe had packed up early!! But even then there were signs of innovation – it was one of the first areas to introduce the hands free keycard system for lift tickets, and most mountain restaurants provided hairdryers and glove and boot warmers. Something that’s yet to catch on in the rest of the world – why?!!
Head to the "Ski Circus" for a bit of fun!
Ischgl Takes To The Screen
We’re used to seeing TV adverts for theme parks, tropical islands and city breaks but not for ski resorts. The Austrian resort of Ischgl has become one of the first ski resorts to have a fully storyboarded and directed TV ad screened in Britain.
When many ski resorts are looking to use more cost effective marketing methods such as Facebook and Twitter to get the word out, Ischgl have invested a six figure sum into their TV campaign. The ad will be aired on channels including Sky News, Sky Sports News, MTV, Discovery Travel and Living, E4 and Eurosport during a three-week campaign.
Snowbombing 2011, Mayrhofen
Now that Easyjet have released their Easter flights for next year, I am starting to get pretty excited about my trip to the Snowbombing festival in Mayrhofen, Austria next April.
When it comes to my winter trips abroad, I have to admit that I am a sucker for ski/snowboarding in Austria. You will find that most skiers/snowboarders will agree that it is not only the huge ski areas, amazing snow conditions or great après ski that makes a memorable skiing/boarding trip, but it is the people that you are with, and the people you meet that makes it a fab one. Having snowboarded in most of the countries in the European Alps, and a few North American ones too; I have to admit, that the genuine welcome and general friendliness from the Austrian’s, for me, just can’t be beaten!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Snowbombing, it’s a week long music festival similar to the festivals you get in the UK, but plonked into a lovely traditional Austrian town with some of the best skiing/boarding in the Alps. The festival is generally at the beginning of April so the weather is usually pretty good, with regular spring snowfalls to keep your days interesting. The locals absolutely love it! For local businesses it is a great end of season boost when over 2000 fun lovin’ Brits descend on the town- and they think we are great! They tell me that us Brits are respectful and are always generally polite during our stay. Honest, that’s what they tell me!
The Vikings are coming!
The Vikings are coming! It’s no joke as the ski slopes of Ischgl in Austria’s Tirol are invaded by giant snow sculptures of Euro-favourite Vickie the Viking and her friends and enemies.
Vickie the Viking in Ischgl
Storms across Austria & Switzerland
In just one week the Alps have changed from green pastures to fields of snow. Storms are currently sitting over Austria and Switzerland and are bringing freezing temperatures and snow at higher altitudes, although temperatures as low as -8C are predicted in the village at Lech for later in the week.
Here are some of the latest webcam pictures:
Fresh Snow in the Alps – winter 09/10 is on its way
SkiInfo reports that there has been up to 10cm of fresh snow in the past 72 hours on mountain tops across the Alps including the glaciers that are already open or about to open for the start of the 2009-10 ski season. Read the rest of this entry »
