Tag: Ski Resorts

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Skiing in Scotland

Although I am a huge fan of skiing in Switzerland, I actually learnt to ski in Scotland, on the Cairngorm. And, although I have managed to visit every significant Swiss ski resort, I can claim to have skied ALL of the Scottish resorts. Well, all five of them – Switzerland has over two hundred.

The shortcomings of Scottish skiing are several. The weather is unpredictable, the verticals are relatively small and the public transport access is poor. However, I have had some fabulous days skiing in Scotland. Cairngorm is the best known, Nevis (with a top station around 1200m) is the highest and Glenshee the most extensive; all three, on a good day, are glorious resorts to ski and well worth the visit – as good as some of my favourite medium-sized Alpine resorts. Glencoe and the Lecht are more limited, but the Lecht is convenient for where my family live and is good to get a few turns in.

One of these days I may well put together a microsite on Scottish skiing, but in the meantime I can commend an excellent infogram on Scottish skiing, provided by Sainsbury’s Bank. They also have some basic information on each of the resorts.

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Where is the Cheapest Place to Ski?

The Crystal Ski Industry Report 2014, produced together with Post Office Holidays in the UK, has assessed a number of ski resorts popular with UK package tour travelers. They have worked out average costs in resort for a package consisting of lift pass, rental and ski school and also for an average lunch. As a result they have come up with their idea of where the cheapest place to ski is. I don’t claim to be surprised with the outcome. I have applied an index to the figures based on an average of 100 to come up with relative prices. Essentially you can read it this way: you can get almost three days in Bansko for the price of one in Zermatt. Since Zermatt is much more likely to give you good snow conditions, has better scenery, apres ski and food, is easier to get to and has five times as much piste you could actually argue Baski is over-priced, but I have had some great ski holidays in Bulgaria and I wouldn’t knock it. However I think the independent traveller, with or without a family, doesn’t need to go to Eastern Europe to find value for money.

The top American resorts seem over-priced compared to the best European resorts, and add to that the cost, time and ecological impact of getting there from Europe, it seems wise to leave them to the natives. Again, I have had some great skiing in North America, but I lived there at the time and it was on my doorstep.
Matterhorn in Zermatt
So the eternal debate is, where is the best value resort to ski or snowboard in the Alps? Italy does well, and can only be faulted on the longer transit times required to get there. For a great ski experience on a tight budget, it is probably the best value. My personal favourite in Italy – if you are watching the pennies but want a great experience – is Madesimo. The best of Austria and France seem comparably priced, with a small price premium associated with Switzerland down to the strong Swiss Franc.

The report actually showed Switzerland gaining market share in 2013/4 over 2012/3, with 6.5% of the market – largely at the expense of France. The report claims prices are going down, but that is surely down to the strong pound since all prices are converted to sterling. Overall the report doesn’t change my perspective, which is that you get what you pay for. The ski and snowboard market is very competitive and the biggest mistake you can make is not about how much you pay, but that what you pay delivers what you want. I would never recommend Zermatt to a family of beginners, but for a competent skier I would recommend you put it on the list of places you visit before you die.

Anyway, on that sobering note, here are the indicies:

 

Resort Country Index
Bansko Bulgaria 54
Kranjska Gora Slovenia 62
Ellmau Austria 64
Livigno Italy 66
Soldeu Andorra 68
Sestriere Italy 73
Morzine France 75
Ruka Finland 78
Val Gardena Italy 84
Les Deux Alpes France 87
Mayrhofen Austria 87
Serre Chevalier France 87
la Thuile Italy 89
Kaprun Austria 89
Courchevel France 104
Val d’Isere France 104
Kitzbühel Austria 111
St Anton Austria 116
Tremblant Canada 117
Saas-Fee Switzerland 118
Wengen Switzerland 122
Winter Park USA 125
Banff Canada 136
Breckenridge USA 141
Zermatt Switzerland 142
Whistler Canada 146
Vail USA 155
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Where is the best place to ski?

The perennial question and subject of many an apres-ski discussion is “Where is the best place to ski?”.

Well Mountain Management Consulting and the University of Innsbruck asked 47,935 skiers and snowboarders exactly that question and the answer was…

Zermatt

3d View of Zermatt, the best ski resort in the world

Also in the top 10 were Adelboden, Laax, Arosa and Saas-Fee, with
Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis (Austria), Solda (Italy), Alta Badia (Italy), Val Gardena (Italy) and Kronplatz (Italy) the more unlikely names filling out the top 10 places. Interestingly nowhere from France or the USA features, but they do seem rather dismissive of French resorts and they do a separate survey on North American sites (Whistler, Deer Valley and Vail are their top 3).

So the question is still open. Which really is the best ski resort in the world? Personally I am content with Zermatt, but my personal top ten ski resorts in the world looks a little different.

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Alpine Property Market

Saville’s, the London-based property services group, published its annual survey of the Alpine property market. It is an interesting read, and in tribute to the Economist’s Big Mac index publishes a Kakao index – how much is a hot chocolate.
Gstaad slopes
On this index Gstaad, St Moritz and Saas-Fee rate amongst the ten most expensive resorts in the Alps, but perhaps more surprisingly is that Switzerland isn’t consistently the most expensive. Indeed, on a number of criteria, Switzerland is not so expensive, although it languishes a distant fourth in terms of number of ski visits amongst the Alpine nations. However, it also boasts the best resorts in terms of season duration and snow conditions.

The report focuses on premium ski resorts and the prices are truly eye-watering. However, what interests me as a potential investor in the Swiss property market, is the spread of prices. A small village, with good transport links to a major ski area, provides properties at a tenth of the price of property in a resort like Verbier. The discerning Swiss property buyer can still find bargains. For those who have money to burn, however, a chalet in Verbier recently came on the market for a mere 45 million euros!

The full report from Saville’s is here.