Where to Ski and Snowboard turns 21
The skier’s bible continues to set the resort guide standard
Remember 1994? John Major was prime minister and Tony Blair was elected leader of the Labour party; Sunday trading was legalised in England and Wales. If you wanted authoritative information about ski resorts, you probably bought a book called The Good Skiing Guide. But you did have alternatives, among them a brand new and strikingly colourful book called Where to Ski and Snowboard.
The new book set new standards of comprehensive coverage, detailed information and clear design, while more than matching The Good Skiing Guide’s famous warts-and-all honesty. Slowly but surely it came to dominate the ski resort guidebook market. Now, Where to Ski and Snowboard celebrates 21 years in print with no competitors.
The high standards remain, though. The book gives uncompromising appraisals of all the resorts you are likely to want to consider, supported as ever by carefully chosen photos, specially prepared piste maps, scale village plans and all the crucial details you could wish for – key mountain facts, lift pass details, recommended hotels, bars and restaurant.
A vital part of the book these days is its annually updated Resort Price Index figures, which show at a glance how each resort compares with the average Eurozone resort for the cost of food and drink, lift pass, equipment and ski lessons.
Because of dramatic exchange rate changes, resorts in the eurozone (which includes France, Austria, Italy and Andorra) have become around 20% cheaper in terms of pounds than they were two years ago. The same cannot be said of US and Swiss resorts where exchange rates have not moved as favourably. According to the guide’s RPI figures, your on-the-spot costs in Swiss resorts are likely to be around 50% more than in the eurozone, and in US resorts about double the eurozone costs.
This year’s edition has news of major developments that create the biggest ski areas in Austria and the USA, plus eight completely new chapters covering 24 extra resorts, from Alpbach in Austria and Arosa in Switzerland to Steamboat in the USA and Valmorel in France.
Where to Ski and Snowboard 2016 is published by NortonWood and available from all good bookshops or online at a discount price at www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com
