Fly to ski

Hi Peter, I can recommend the ski area Quatre Vallees in Switzerland.
The resort Verbier is a bit posh and you’ll find a lot of English tourists there. You might check out the smaller villages, like Veysonnaz or Thyon.

It’s not that far from Lausanne. With a rental car you can easily get there.

With skiing you need to get lessons because the technique behind it is not trivial.
It’s a great sport. Be careful, it’s very addictive ;)

I would be willing to get one-on-one tuition (€60/hr) and he reckons that after a day, even an old dog who can’t learn new tricks will have picked up something

LOL ! Yeah – a lot of snow on yer bum!!!!

PS – Do it! You’ll love it!

I fly to Annemasse LFLI frequently and drive one hour to Morzine in the Portes du Soleil ski area. There’s a EuropCar rental agency 5 minutes’ walk from the airport and they might pre-position the car at the Aero Club for you.

We ski every weekend if the weather is good (one gets spoilt here…) and hence I know the area quite arund here. Morzine may be a good option taking airport etc into considertion but I have never skied in that part of the Portes du Soleil. We go up from Swiss side through Champery. Good area but since will be on the beginners slopes the destination should be accordingly.

I believe 4 vallees with Verbier/Nendaz/Veysonnaz/Thyon is also a bit over the top as it is fairly large, but spread out and more far from Lusanne. Ok, if youo just want to hang in Verbier village on sun bathing terraces that’s a different thing…

Taking also distance into account from Lausanne, I would on balance recommend Villars. A nice place that has a nice village with restaurants, terraces, shops, hotels but also a skiing area with a lot of beginners slopes. Either right down in the village ( ok, more for kids maybe) or up there. Either you take a gondola up or actually a train from village that leaves every 10 min in high season and takes 10 min up winding through the forest and slopes with nice views. You then get up to a bit of a hub in the skiing area with some restaurants and easy slopes around and ski schools located right there. Villars overall is not as big as other of the multi area linked systems ( portes du soleil, 4 vallees etc) but given what you’re looking for is a good compromise. 1h drive from Lausanne. Some brits there ( as everywhere in Swiss alps…) and David Coulthard (F1) is rumoured to live / vacation there…

You could also go closer to Lausanne to some really small places but they don’t really have a village but have a few drag lifts and are good for beginners such as Les Paccots. That’s more if your approac is to visit Lausanne and try skiing for a few hours and then back to Lausanne.

On the other extreme, if you want to stay longer (a few nights) and want much more than just ‘trying skiing’ the best for experience is Zermatt. Very nice village with tons of restaurants and bars, great restaurants on slopes, magic views over Matterhorn etc etc

Hope this helps, let me know if you need more advice.

Without knowing the details about the various ski options, but from a practical point of view, Chris made the best suggestion, Annemasse.

Cheap fees, well-priced fuel, customs, no PPR / parking restrictions, rental cars available and a good location strategically.

Fair enough. With car rental close Annemasse may be better overall. You can easily drive to an area called Grand Massif wich includes several stations such as Samoens, Flaine etc that are easier and should be good for you.

If you want upmarket village with all the related accessories go to Megeve close by. If you want stunning scenery and strong alpine history with real history go to Chamonix…

You can’t go to Samedan unless you do a check flight and some theory questions on a web page first, and even then parking will burn a huge hole in your wallet.

I wonder why noone has suggested Sion? Pretty good airport including immigration, close to public transport to all sorts of valleys, there should also be rental cars. No IFR though (or if so then not practical for a NA airplane due to high required climb gradients up to FL200), but then again there usually aren’t many IMC days in a year in the Wallis/Valais.

I agree with Grassfield, except he forgot to mention that you can get a train from Lausanne to Bex and from there a very nice tram ride up to Villars or Barboluese. I can’t imagine a more relaxed way of going skiing by air!
The reason I couldn’t make the Lausanne gathering was because I was skiing in Villars!
As others have said, do it! You wont regret it. I took a friend skiing for the first time when he was in his late forties and he loved it.

1h34 train + cogwheel tram, 1h10 train+bus.