Posts Tagged ‘Switzerland’
Ski + City Breaks in Europe
Make the most of your holiday time with our definitive guide to the best European cities for a short break – before or after a stay in the mountains.
Whether you want to take advantage of cheaper weekday flights, or you just fancy a bit of culture and shopping to enhance your ski holiday, Ski Independence can easily add on a night or two in a city destination.
Here are 7 great cities that work well combined with a ski holiday – with some recommendations of where to stay and what to see while you’re there.
1. Verona – The City of Love
Why You Should Visit Zermatt This Winter
The Swiss ski resort of Zermatt has always been on my bucket list and my recent trip there was a long time coming. Originally scheduled for late March 2020, two years later I finally boarded the plane to Geneva…
Zermatt is a place I’d heard amazing things about before visiting, but could it really be as good as people make it out to be? The answer to that is a resounding yes! Stunning views of the Matterhorn, a huge ski area with endless runs, amazing hospitality and a warm welcome awaits.
Here are 6 reasons why Zermatt is well worth a visit this winter.
Read the rest of this entry »Switzerland Comes to Edinburgh
On Wednesday 18th April, Ski Independence and Osprey Holidays had the pleasure of welcoming many of our Travel Agency partners to Edinburgh Castle for an evening of education, wine and nibbles, hosted by Switzerland Tourism.
The evening began with a traditional Scottish welcome as guests walked over the drawbridge and up the steps to the castle, accompanied by the skirl of pipes, with the Edinburgh skyline shimmering in the rare evening sunshine – stunning! Our Swiss friends, old and new, came to Edinburgh to promote their regions and transportation, and the theme for the evening was water – something Switzerland has in abundance with its lakes, waterfalls, fountains and glaciers.
Roddy from Reel Time Events welcomes guests to Edinburgh Castle
It was fantastic to see so many travel agents – we talk on the phone so often, but rarely meet face to face, so it’s great to put a few faces to names. Every stand was buzzing with conversation as the agents sought to solve the puzzle and find ‘Bella the Cow’ to be in with a chance of winning a Fam trip to Switzerland. Bella travels all over Switzerland, and has been seen in many resorts including Villars, Saas Fee and Zermatt.
Swiss paradise – brought to you by…The English?
Don’t get me wrong, I love living north of the border, but along with whisky drinking, caber tossing and ceilidh dancing, England-bashing is somewhat of a national pastime. So imagine my glee at arriving in St Moritz, where the locals have a real soft spot for anyone English. After all, it is the English (and local hotel owner and wily businessman, Johannes Badrutt) that are credited with bringing winter tourism to the area. The story goes that Mr. Badrutt invited a small party of English people to stay at his hotel (now Hotel Kulm) during the winter – the deal was that if they liked it, they could stay as long as they wanted. If not he’d pay for all their travel expenses. They arrived in December, greeted by Mr. Badrutt on a glorious sunny day and stayed til Easter! Read the rest of this entry »
Snow, snow and even more snow!
I woke up on Sunday morning and it was snowing!! How can someone in their late 20’s (come on allow me some poetic license) get so excited every time it snows? If you know the answer please let me know! So I thought to myself, if it’s snowing here in Edinburgh then it MUST be snowing in our favourite ski resorts across the world – right? RIGHT!
It started to snow across France on Friday, across Switzerland on Saturday and it’s not stopped since. In fact my email inbox is full of like minded people getting really excited about the snowfall. Have a look at this picture that has just been sent to my colleague Eve (one of her friends is in Val d’Isere and like a kid at Christmas, that’s his car!)
Dude, Where’s my car?
Snow, sun and fun in the Swiss Alps
I’ve blogged about the delights of rail travel in Switzerland here before… so the opportunity for Cathy and I to take a 4 day trip to the Swiss Alps, travelling entirely by public transport sounded like a great way to test exactly how easy it is. Now let me begin by saying that I’m not a train geek, but it’s such an easy way to travel and what could be better than sitting in comfort watching the Swiss Alps roll past your window.
Our journey began early. Turns out it was the beginning of the school half term holidays and Edinburgh Airport was busier than I’ve ever seen it.. a queue is bad any time, but at 6am it seems so much worse so it was a relief to arrive into Geneva Airport. By 10.45 we were on our train, just 20 minutes after landing! Read the rest of this entry »
It’s Snowing!
As resorts across the southern hemisphere close their doors to skiers and boarders it’s now the turn of Europe, the USA and Canada to get in on the action. After a week of newsletters bombarding my inbox with “It’s Snowing” in the subject line I’m in no doubt we’ve now seen the first significant snowfall of the 2011/12 season on both sides of the Atlantic.
In Europe, the Swiss Alps were the winners with up to 80cm of fresh snow falling. In France, Les Menuires in the Three Valleys also fared well with up to 40cm and Chamonix, Courchevel and Meribel awoke to a moderate covering of snow on Sunday morning. After a month of no resorts being open in France, Tignes re-opened the Grande Motte Glacier which will now remain open all the way through until May 2012.
Monday morning in Chamonix under the Autannes chairlift. Photo: Compagnie du Mont-Blanc
Swiss & Austrian Ski Resort iPhone Apps
The Swiss and Austrian resorts are not to be out done by the French on the technology front, here are the latest apps for their resorts. Read the rest of this entry »
Short break to Villars?
Last week Claire, our European Assistant Product Manager, took a quick trip to Villars in Switzerland to see what’s new for the season ahead and to see why it is such a popular choice for Ski Independence clients.
Upon arrival at Geneva Airport, we headed to the train station, which is just a short walk from arrivals, to catch our Swiss rail transfer to Villars. This is becoming an increasingly popular method of transfer to resort and it’s easy to see why. It must have been one of the most enjoyable and easiest ski transfers I have experienced. Displayed throughout the station, all the timetables give you the correct platform you need to be on and when the next departure is. As it is to be expected, all of the trains run with Swiss efficiently and depart on time. Read the rest of this entry »
A rail-ly good way to travel
Taking the train to the slopes just might be easier than you think…
Now, I don’t want to put down rail travel in Britain… but let’s face it, travelling by train has kind of lost its romance here. Booking all but the simplest journey requires an enormous amount of time, knowledge and money… and then when you come to take your journey it’s no surprise to find that ‘due to the late arrival of the incoming service…’ there has been a problem with the seat reservations, so you find yourself jostling for space, nose-to-armpit with your fellow travellers, juggling suitcases that won’t fit into the oversubscribed luggage racks… No wonder we can be a bit sceptical. Read the rest of this entry »
