It’s all downhill from here… and tobogganing and snowboarding and ski-jumping.
The snows were gathering on the peaks in Ehrwald in the Austrian Tirol on the last day of my Topflight www.topflight.ie walking trip last week.
Heralding the changeover when we start planning for the winter.
At the same time Topflight were dropping their winter brochure on my doormat.
Now while the holiday providers obviously go across the board with group ski and family ski as well I’m going to focus for now on first-time skiers.
I’ll zero in on the others in the coming weeks, it’s just that despite first strapping on the skis more than 30 years ago I must confess…
I haven’t come very far from being a first-time skier.
Now the best bit about Topflight is that they’re there to help and cut your costs.
And they don’t want you throwing money at a whole wardrobe of clothes and ski equipment.
Instead they advise you borrow clothes at the start until you know that you’ve got the bug.
I’m with them on that and also on the need for layers, good ski gloves and sunglasses and sunscreen.
Topflight offers a range of resorts for beginners including my old fave Soll where myself and the Scary One fell for each other…
Or was that fell out with each other?
You can read all about it here… Soll Mates.
Knowing that Andorra remains many people’s first ski experience let me look at Arinsal & Pal.
It has 63kms of piste and you’ll be wanting to get a Vallnord_Pal Arinsal pass.
This resort has built a strong reputation for getting newbies on their feet into their bindings and down the slopes.
I’ve picked out the Hotel Sant Gothard with half-board, massage facilities and a lively apres-ski bar and live music.
It’s just 800m from the resort with all its food, drink and entertainment options and 800m from the nearest lift.
The guide price is €729-€1329, based on two sharing and flying from Dublin.
The all-inclusive ski bundles are a good way to go with the first-time skier bundle from €339 for an adult and €160 for a child.
The bundles include six-days standard ski/board and boot hire, five days tuition (three hours a day) and a six-day lift pass.
So get your Topflight Ski & Snowboard brochure.
Try it, you’ll have bundles of fun.
MEET YOU ON THE SLOPES
