December ski trip

Would be grateful for any advice on combining a European city break with a day or two skiing in early December.
I would envisage flying to a city and staying a day or two and either doing day trips by coach or hire car to a beginner-friendly resort or, if it's too far away, staying in the resort for a night or two. Maybe 5 days in total.
Any suggestions appreciated.

How early in December? many resorts don't open until mid-December and even then may not have much snow. So your first port of call may be to investigate the likelyhood of resorts being open.

If they are open, you can easily drive to a range of resorts in the Alps from cities like Geneva or Lyon or the Pyrennes from Toulouse.

Other options include austria (salzburg & munich are close towns).

Nice is another good option, direct flights from Dublin, ski resorts 1.5 hrs away (Isola, up to about 2000m). Used to live near there & would usually get some skiing in before Christmas. That time of year on the coast the weather is in the mid to low teens usually, so it's a nice spot even if you can't go skiing. Go sailing instead

[Edit]
just checked the website [broken link removed]
Last winter they opened for the season 11 Dec.

Basel or Zurich or Geneva all have access to good ski resorts within 1-1.5 hours drive/train.
Turin (hosting Winter olympics next Feb). Resorts: 1 - 1.5 hrs
Milan (not the most attractive city, but big on shopping). Resorts: 1.5 - 2 hrs
Innsbruck and Salzburg, not as much to see or do in non skiing time but plenty of access to nearby resorts.
Munich and Zurich would be my bets.
You want to head to larger resorts with access to high altitude (2500) resorts where possible. A bigger city will have more to do and see as well.

This link should be helpful
http://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Airports/index.html

AndyH
[broken link removed]

Hi Marine 8,

I was in Krakow last Christmas for two weeks. Went skiing to a town called Zacopane in southern Poland. It is about an hour and a half drive. Lovely place. Lots of snow but was told that January is a better time to go there, much more snow. Great time skiing none the less. Food also was delicious.

Krakow is great around this time lots to do and see. Would recommend a visit
Also by December there will be direct flights from Dublin (Aer Lingus, Sky Europe).


Regards,

Thank you all for your replies.
It seems I am a bit early for the skiing season in Europe as I am confined to the first few days in December and from your links it looks like nothing really gets going until the middle of the month. Will just have to opt for a city with the chance of snow and a Christmasy atmosphere!
Regards.

To be honest you sound like a ski beginner and 2 or 3 days would not be enough for you as you do spend this time just learning the very basics. I would recommend spending full week ski-ing using ski school as a seperate holiday. You could go to Barcelona (air lingus) for a weekend and then spend a week in Andorra which is about 2.5 hours drive (bus about 3.5 hours) north with plenty of resorts in a smal area.

Just a thought here, but if it is Christmassy atmosphere you are after then there are cities and towns all over Europe which have fantastic christmas markets from late November.

From Brussels to Vienna and Munich (and countless others) you can find great environments featuring live music, gluewein to keep off the chill and handmade decorations etc which will only make the return to the wall-to-wall commericalism of Ireland that much harder to return to!

A search for 'christmas markets europe' on google will get the ball rolling.

muz.