Saalbach, Samoens and other animals…

Written by Steve Church.

Here at Alpenglow HQ, a lot of our clients we speak to are looking for chalets in the most popular resorts. Everyone wants to try Val d’Isere, St. Anton and the like, and rightly so! Every now and again we get a phone call with an enquiry that we can really get our teeth into. Someone that wants to try something a bit different.

The resort that has been rolling off our lips for the last year or so when guests are asking for somewhere a bit different is Samoens, ever since the boss went out on his summer hols, he hasn’t stopped nattering on about it, so we made it our focus to get a few properties here. The skiing is fantastic in the Grand Massif. What scares a lot of people off, is that the resort is based at 700m but the skiing actually starts from 1600m with a gondola taking you up to the skiing, and then there is 260km of linked slopes to explore. Not quite the Espace Killy, but you’re not far off with skiing up to 2500m. The village itself is really pretty and has a good selection of shops and bars.

Next up on our recommendations for somewhere new to try is Austria but away from the “mega resorts” that tend to attract UK skiers like moths to the flame. The last few years has seen Ischgl, St Anton and Solden as the most popular destinations in we feature in Austria but we another recommendation for you to try:

Saalbach and Hinterglemm is not a new resort, but because it’s not on the catered chalet market, it’s widely forgotten about, there are a few superb value especially on our favourites: Pension Enzian. The resort has almost 300km of slopes, but what can tend to discourage people is the altitude of 700m, but from January-March we would have
no issues going here again and again, we need that time to sample all the mountain huts!

We don’t want to leave families out of the equation, and sometimes you don’t need to look at a vast ski area to entice the kids into skiing. A lot of parents are now happy to sacrifice their needs for miles and miles of slopes to find somewhere with Chalets or Hotels that suit their needs.

One really suitable option for families would be the Chalet Hotel Club Med in St Moritz. The property itself offers an all inclusive package, thats lift pass, tuition and as much food and drink as you can imbibe over the course of the week. Families (more accurately the parents…) like the fact that once the holiday is paid for, that’s it. There are no in resort expenses. The resort offers something for everyone too, based at 1750m, it has the altitude to be fairly snow-safe
throughout the season. There is also up to 350km of varied slopes and the resort itself gives you plenty to do for non skiers in the group.

Resorts like Val d’Isere, St Anton and Meribel are amazing resorts and home to probably the best overall ski resorts in the world, but…if you are looking to experience something a bit different then there are plenty of other options out there if you know where to look…and we do…!