Ski and save at three unspoilt resorts
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As the credit crunch takes hold and fears grow of a British recession, the newspapers are full of ways to cut your spending for 2008.
Against this increasingly puritanical background, ski fans might feel the tiniest bit uneasy about heading off to the slopes – but they needn’t. You can cut costs sharply by avoiding traditional areas such as France and Switzerland and heading for a more obscure, up-and-coming European resort – and you needn’t sacrifice comfort and luxury to do so.
Take Poprad in eastern Slovakia, for example. In the High Tatras mountains, on the border with Poland, you’ll find one of the “most overlooked ski regions in Europe”, says Peter Hardy in The Daily Telegraph – and one of the cheapest. At about £10, the daily lift pass is well below anything you’d pay in the typical Alpine retreat, while for another £10 you can grab a traditional Slovak slap-up meal with as much beer, goulash, fried potatoes and roast pig as you can handle. If it’s just the skiing you’re interested in, doubles at the Hotel Grand, Stary Smokovec (+52 47 80 000) start from e105.
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But for something a bit more special, just a 15-minute drive away, you’ll find Aquacity, one of Europe’s greenest travel destinations. Everything in this spa resort, from its Olympic swimming pool to its three- and four-star hotels, is powered by hot water from a geothermal lake 2,000 metres below ground. So your conscience can rest easy about the price (a 45-minute massage costs just £10, and cryotherapy, a freezer-based therapy used by athletes around the world, costs £35 for five treatments) and you don’t have to worry about your carbon footprint either. Flights and accommodation cost from £299 per head via Czech Travel. Sky Europe flies direct to Poprad from Stansted and Luton.
Other low-price European skiing destinations include Poiana Brasov in Romania. Hardy describes it as “relatively primitive”, but recommends it for beginners as the quality of the tuition is good. Another option is Slovenia, where one of the six main ski resorts, Krvavec, is just 15 minutes away from Ljubljana airport, says Mat Smith in The Guardian. It’s “a good value destination that can hold its own when compared to the best resorts of Italy, France, Andorra and Austria”.
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