This European Ski Package
 is Sweet
by Melissa Akers

Why not trade this year’s ski package to Utah for one to Chamonix, France?  Sure, the powder in Utah is nice, but you can also dip real French bread into real Swiss cheese fondue, sip French wines, eat pasta on the Italian slopes and ski the white chocolate slopes of Chamonix (located on the corner of Switzerland, Italy and France.) 

It’s a reasonably priced and multicultural experience on skis.  For about $1,500, Adventure on Skis (booked through the travel agency Daman-Nelson) gets you an entire ski package for the price of a round trip ticket to Geneva with a stop in Paris.  Besides air, your trip includes seven nights in a chalet-style hotel, seven four-course dinners, seven breakfasts and all transportation from the hotel to ski resorts and airports.

If you hire the local ski escorts from Chamonix Ski Fun Tours for the week, they personally arrive at your hotel doorstep to sweep you off to ski a new mountain in France or Italy each day.  Because they’re professional ski instructors, you cut to the front of the lift lines, find the best snow, and improve your technique.  They even speak English. 

This program specializes in taking skiers to a full-spectrum of ski terrain.  Ski Fun Tours instructor Eric Thioliere has been known to pull out an extra pair of goggles on snowy days, for the unprepared.  Safety is Ski Fun Tours biggest concern, whether it’s avoiding avalanches or if you’re trying glacier skiing – don’t worry you’re all roped together, if one of you falls, the rest pull you right up.  It’s not as scary as it seems.  Have you ever watched molasses pour downhill?  The glacier is long and so is the trek down it.  The next day’s ski destination is posted each evening in your hotel, depending on where the good skiing conditions are.  The escorts run approximately $53 a day, and you can ski with these pros all day, grouped with about seven others of the same skiing ability.

A regional Mt. Blanc ski pass includes 15 ski resorts and guarantees you the freedom to travel to three different valleys, including the ski resort Courmayeur, above the Italian valley of Aosta.  The slopes are narrow here, but you’ll want to stop frequently to see the spectacular views of the mountains with little waterfalls of avalanches falling in the distance. 

The Italian day includes great pasta and bottles of tasty vino in a cozy bungalow of a restaurant right on the sunny ski slopes.  This restaurant is such a frequent stop, that the ski instructor’s name, Eric Thioliere, is engraved over the door.  They serve three courses of three pastas and yes, the Italian specialty - Spaghetti Carbonara (spaghetti mixed with raw eggs and cooked ham).  And for dessert – “La Grop”, a traditional dessert drink made of grappa (strong alcohol made from pear seeds) and steaming hot expresso served in a huge wooden bowl with eight spouts around the sides.  Each skier must first make the customary wish to the person beside them before sipping.  The person accepting the drink sends well wishes in return.  This is all said in French and written on a cheat sheet.  After a few sips of grappa, you may be ready to pose for pictures with Lionel Didier, a Chamonix Ski Fun Tours escort, then head for the hills with your favorite ski buddy.

For the lodge skier, you can visit the buzzing town of Chamonix.  Catering to tourists and skiers this town is abundant with snow gear, taverns, and restaurants serving French and Swiss specialties.  You’re likely to run into someone who chose not to ski that day and share a promenade, chaucolat chaud, or café au lait while indulging in intricately designed pastries.

You can find a cute restaurant in the pedestrian zone with outdoor seating and a view of the Mt. Blanc Alps, such as La Potiniere (7400 Chamonix Mt. Blanc.)  It’s either - sit and hibernate, or sit near some interesting people.  You can meet many kindred spirits at these spots and share travel ski stories.  One traveler from Scotland spoke of the stunt men staying for four weeks at her hotel for the four minutes of filming for a James Bond movie. 

As well as sharing travel stories with other diners at La Potiniere, you can partake in the traditional Swiss specialty – Raclette (barbecued cheese.)  The waiter places a half of a cheese wheel on the barbecue and sets it directly onto your table (even for one).  Passers by whiff the melting cheese as you scrape it onto sides of tender boiled potatoes, French bread, pearl onions, and sliced dried beef. 

If you haven’t had your fill of cheese, you may want to take your ski group to L’M for dinner – they specialize in cheese fondue.  They can also set hot stones on your table to cook your own bite-size pieces of turkey and chicken.  For dessert, – try the French vanilla crepes topped with Grand Marnier.  Divine!

The hotel accommodations at the Hotel Prieure (named for the monastery it is built upon) are comfortable and create an atmosphere for socializing.  People mingle in the lounge, meet to plan the next day’s events and on some nights - hear live jazz.  Sore from skiing?  You can get an oil massage from one of the local masseuses in the spa downstairs. 

You don’t have to dine only at your own hotel, either.  The ski package includes a dine-around plan.  For a little extra (depending on each restaurant’s prices), you can pick from a selection of five other Chamonix restaurants.  Don’t miss – the extravagant and elegant Hotel Mt. Blanc Restaurant.  It’s to die for – here you are treated as royalty.  They even wrapped-up the wine to go.

Try one of the optional daily sightseeing excursions (for an extra charge per trip.)  Geneva is only about two hours away, and the bus takes you along the pristine shores of Lake Geneva, the international hub of Switzerland.  Take a promenade on the cobblestone streets of the old center of Geneva.  Annecy, a medieval village on the shores of a French lake of the same name, is considered the “Venice of the Alps” because of its canals.  This town once accommodated the nobility of Geneva with its castles and vaulted alleys.

Melissa Akers is a freelance travel, medical, software, and business writer who loves to ski in Europe.