Head four the hills

Best for Families

Taking a mixed age group party to the slopes is a bit of a balancing act – in every sense of the word. Your resort should have something for everyone; good schools for the beginners while the more experienced enjoy some more demanding runs; big enough to have a choice of facilities, but not so big as to be overwhelming. Morzine, in the heart of the Portes du Soleil skiing region of France is an ideal candidate.

This traditional market town is around 1 ½ hours transfer from Geneva Airport just across the Swiss border, with excellent bus links making getting in and out as stress free as possible. Although Morzine sits at an altitude of only 1,000m (so not too much shortness of breath!) the area has a reputation for good snowfall, helped along where necessary by hundreds of snow making machines. The town itself retains much of its old-world alpine charm, with narrow streets winding in-between snow-laden peaked chalet style roofs.

The runs immediately surrounding the resort tend to be gentle, making it ideal for the numerous ski schools based here and popular with families. While the immediate area may be gentle, Morzine is ‘plugged in’ to the network of ski lifts and runs that make up the Portes du Soleil - with over 650km of piste to choose from it’s the largest ski network in the world and should satisfy even the most thrill-hungry downhill enthusiast.

As a ‘real’ year-round town rather than just a winter resort, the après ski in Morzine is lower key than in some more fashionable ski spots, but has enough restaurants, bars and clubs to keep you entertained. If the legs are starting to ache after a few days on the slopes, why not take a day off to window-shop the town’s attractive boutiques or watch someone else slide about for a change at one of the frequent ice hockey matches?

Best for Budget

Feeling the pinch in these recessionary times? Don’t worry, you can still enjoy your annual fix of snow sport. The key is to follow the ‘no frills’ principle of the budget airlines right the way through your holiday – spend the money getting yourself to the top of piste, everything else is peripheral. The ‘no frills’ approach is especially accessible if you’re young (or young at heart) thanks to the UCPA – a French organisation that specialises in providing outdoor activity holidays for people up to 39 years old, through a network of 90 hostels across the country, including many in the Alps close to the Swiss border.

As a not-for-profit organisation, the UCPA’s mission is to make outdoor sport accessible to as many people as possible, so while the hostel facilities may be basic there’s a warm welcome and good sense of camaraderie. It’s possible to book almost all of your winter holiday itinerary in one place, with ski packages available for every level of experience, including equipment hire, tuition and full board accommodation (even packed lunches to take with you on the slopes). As well as ample opportunity to flex your ski muscles throughout the daylight hours, the hostels often lay on a packed itinerary of evening entertainment, from the obligatory discothèque, to film nights, as well as licensed bars offering après ski at a fraction of the usual cost.

There are numerous budget flights from Birmingham to Geneva, providing easy access to a number of hostels throughout the most popular ski resorts, including Argentiere, Chamonix, Samoens and Les Contamines.

Best for Beginners

If you’re new to winter sports it’s probably a good idea to try somewhere relatively cheap for your first time out. Combining well-developed resorts, good snowfall and a favourable exchange rate outside the eurozone, Bulgaria is an excellent candidate for first timers; by flying just a little further to the eastern fringes of Europe (around three hours in the air from Birmingham) you can make your holiday budget go a little further too, as the main ski resorts offer better value accommodation, skiing and après.

Two of the most popular resorts are Bansko and Borovets, both within easy reach of the capital, Sofia. Bansko, one of the newer of the resorts in Bulgaria, lies in the shadow of three mountains – Pirin, Rila and Rhodopa, and offers a wide range of pistes. Ski school facilities are excellent – including English-speaking instructors – with nursery slopes almost on the resort doorstep, or a short gondola ride up to higher altitude if the snowfall lower down the mountain isn’t heavy enough. The resort itself is fairly compact, packed with shops, bars and reasonably priced restaurants to help soothe away the aches of newly worked muscles.

Borovets, by contrast, is the oldest and largest mountain resort in Bulgaria, originally established as a royal hunting retreat at the foot of the 3000m Moussala peak, the highest on the Balkan peninsular. The resort offers access to a wide variety of runs served by numerous ski lifts criss-crossing the surrounding hills and, thanks to it long established heritage, has some of the best nursery facilities, including the renowned Borovec school with over 200 instructors ready to help smooth your first wobbly attempts. The luxurious heritage of Borovets shows in its choice of après facilities, with plentiful fine dining and fashionable nightspots, though budget skiers will find sensibly priced entertainment on offer too.

Best for Après

For many, the downhill fun is only one facet of the winter holiday gem – the after dark entertainment being every bit as important as the daylight hours. The Saalbach-Hinterglemm complex in Austria’s Glemmtal valley near Salzburg has a reputation for outstanding après ski – earning itself the title of a ‘skicircus’ – combined with access to miles of excellent slopes.

The resort has grown around the neighbouring alpine villages, which have sprawled together as skiing holidays grew in popularity through the 60s and 70s, resulting in a core of old alpine buildings flanked by ever larger hotels, restaurants bars and clubs imitating the traditional architecture. Not that there’ll be much time to soak up the charm – you’ll be too busy partying into the small hours in any one of the numerous nightspots that cater for the throngs of young revellers, both Austrian and visitors from northern Europe. This is the perfect winter holiday counterpart to summer time Mediterranean club goers.

The surrounding slopes offer some 200km+ of excellent ski runs for every level of expertise, especially for intermediate to advanced downhillers (if you’ve any energy left after the night’s revels) and amply served by over 60 lifts. Wildenkarkogel, the highest station above the resort, provides access to the neighbouring Leogang slopes, including a shaded bowl area holding almost guaranteed snow on challenging intermediate to red runs.