BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : DECEMBER 18, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESSWEEK LIFESTYLE France and Austria: Where to Schuss From lifts to lodgings, Alpine resorts are a deal When it comes to skiing in the Alps, don't expect stereotypes to hold true. The French, naturellement, ought to have the best food and the most style. And the Austrians--who regularly dominate world ski competitions--must have the best skiing, right? In fact, expect the opposite. After hitting Europe's slopes each winter for most of the past two decades, I've discovered that French resorts offer the finest sporting challenge in all the Alps--and some of the worst lodging and food. Austria's Alpine villages, on the other hand, provide much less for the athlete but boast the best accommodations and apres-ski. The old Swiss resorts, from Zermatt to Saas-Fee, fall in between the two. Most important, the Austrian resorts provide the best value for your money--particularly since the euro is floundering against the dollar. The three-room apartment we rented last year in the quaint village of Serfaus costs only about $1,000 during a school holiday week, and less at other times. A room at a four-star Serfaus hotel, including sauna and swimming pool, runs less than $175 a night--and that includes breakfast and dinner. Equipment rentals? Less than $100 a week for skis, boots, and poles. Lift tickets cost only $25 a day in Austria, and about $35 in France--both bargains compared with, say, $49 a day now at Aspen, Colo., and as high as $65 at the height of the season. For serious skiers, France offers the best bet; its mountains are taller than Austria's, and its trails are more challenging and varied. Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps, rises to 15,700 feet above the village of Chamonix. Such resorts as Meribel and Val d'Isere benefited from massive government-led investment prior to the 1992 Winter Olympics, which were held near Albertville, France. These resorts have some of the world's most up-to-date ski facilities--an elaborate web of chairlifts and cable cars that links numerous resorts together. Set off for a day of skiing at either of these French winter wonderlands and you'll never have to schuss down the same slope twice in a day--maybe not even twice in a week. When I took a lift up the mountain one morning in Meribel, I continued on skis to Courchevel and then on to Les Mernieres and Val-Thorens. The four resorts make up Les Trois Vallees, which claims that its 350 miles of slopes are the most of any ski area in the world. The downside, though, is mediocre ambiance. Almost all the famous French resorts are postwar creations that were built high above the tree line in a barren, lunar landscape. The worst, such as La Plagne, Les Arcs, and Tigne, are brutally modernist, poorly constructed, concrete 1960s skyscrapers on the slopes. Fortunately, builders have recently returned to traditional wood chalet architecture, and Meribel is quite pretty. But space comes at a premium. The two-room apartment my wife and I rented one winter in Meribel cost $800 a week--and was little more than a chicken coop. SPARKLER. Several years later, with two children in tow, I rented an apartment in Serfaus, near Austria's western edge. Like most Austrian resorts, Serfaus didn't start out as a ski center--it was a farming village. Across the street from where we stayed, a barn still housed cows. Last year, avalanches hit some nearby villages, stranding thousands of tourists and causing more than 100 deaths. Serfaus, thankfully, was spared. Because almost every Serfaus hotel or apartment house is family owned, accommodations are often well maintained. The two rooms we rented on the top floor of the Lugger family home slept four comfortably, and the fixtures sparkled. ''We renovate every year,'' Irene Lugger says proudly. The price was $750 a week and goes down to $600 in non-holiday weeks, about 20% less than in France. But Serfaus' skiing infrastructure isn't as snazzy as Meribel's, where you can start skiing from your front door. In Serfaus, you have to walk through the village carrying skis and poles, although the pain is lessened by a subway--yes, a real Manhattan-style underground that speeds skiers to the lifts. Meribel has modern chairlifts and gondolas, while Serfaus still has many ancient, uncomfortable T-bars. Nor does Serfaus--or the rest of Austria--provide as great a variety of slopes. Serfaus' main mountain barely reaches 10,000 ft. Thanks to new links to its neighbors, Fiss and Ladis, Serfaus offers about 80 miles of pistes, mostly for intermediate skiers. Experts, however, will be bored and probably should head to the biggest Austrian resort, St. Anton, about 45 minutes by car from Serfaus. The Austrian resorts are more family-oriented than those in France. At Meribel, for example, the main children's ski area is a small, flat expanse with a rope tow near the village. In Serfaus, by contrast, youngsters go halfway up the main mountain in a gondola and enter a true winter fantasy world. My 6-year-old was soon skiing all over the resort. When it comes to apres-ski, almost all European resorts outclass their U.S. rivals. Growing up, I remember freezing on icy slopes in Vermont, with only a hamburger or hot chocolate to ease the pain. In the Alps, the temperatures are more moderate, and many days you can lunch outdoors. Food and drink, particularly in France, can be top-flight: Three-star chef Marc Veyrat, for instance, recently opened a mouthwatering new restaurant in the resort of Megeve. But France's resorts in general are not blessed with gastronomic shrines. French mountain cooking is based on hearty cheese and potato dishes, such as raclette or fondues. PICK-UP GAME. Austrian cuisine is more interesting and goes well with the outdoors: heartwarming schnitzels and roasts that are easier to digest than the heavier French specialties. Local Austrian wines, though not on a par with bordeaux or burgundies, are fast improving--particularly the whites--and the best are far superior to anything produced in either Switzerland or the French Alps. One to try: Sepp Moser's Chardonnay Trockenbeerenauslese Neusliedlersee. The contrasts don't end there. For instance, Meribel has a huge, impersonal indoor skating arena built for the Olympics. In Serfaus, a quaint outdoor rink is located in the village center. Some evenings my son and I would head out to the Serfaus rink. A group of local children would soon join us for a pick-up hockey game. Their pleasure in this winter paradise demonstrated that the village isn't just a tourist enclave; it has a life of its own. For skiers in search of an authentic Alpine experience, that makes all the difference. By WILLIAM ECHIKSON _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS France and Austria: Where to Schuss TABLE: The Basics INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

Copyright 2000-2008, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Use   Privacy Notice