Top 3 weekend resorts for a snowboarding holiday

Want to take a ski holiday but unable to get a whole week off work? Check out our top resorts and tips for a weekend trip. You need somewhere that has a quick transfer time from the airport, not much time difference and also a short flight so that you can make the most of your weekend. These days there are plenty of flights on Friday afternoon and evening’s to popular European destinations.

If you are just taking a weekend break then travelling light could save you time in arrivals as you won’t have to hang around baggage reclaim if you only have hand luggage. However if you have your own skis and boots then take them with you as yours are likely to be far better than any you can hire at the resort and you will save time waiting around to sort out your ski equipment, instead once you get to the resort you’ll be ready to hit the slopes.

You don’t need hundreds of kilometres of pistes to ski if you are only going for a couple of days and if you opt for a smaller resort it is less likely to be busy and more likely to offer short-term accommodation.

In terms of airports, Innsbruck is a great place to fly into with a huge number of resorts in a close proximity to the airport, most notably St Anton which is just an hour’s drive away. Mayhorfen and Ischgl are also around an hour from the airport giving you plenty of choice of resorts to head to.

St Anton

Skiing in St Anton is ideally located an hour from Innsbruck airport, 90 minutes from Friedrichshafen airport or 3 ½ hours from Munich airport. There is also a train station inside the resort for those who don’t want to hire a car. St Anton is the largest resort in the Arlberg ski area and one of Europe’s best ski areas. St Anton is also well known for having some of the best snowboarding terrain in Austria, with a vast array of natural obstacles, steep powder fields and drop-offs providing for thrilling free-riding.

Mayrhofen

Just under an hour’s drive from Innsbruck is Mayrhofen, home to the Snowbombing festival which is frequently referred to as ‘the greatest show on snow’, with the 2012 festival will taking place between 9th – 14th April. Located in the beautiful Ziller Valley, Mayrhofen has two ski areas Ahorn and Penken and is one of the world’s top ski and snowboard resort.

Ischgl

Anything great place to go skiing is in Ischgl is about an hour and 10 minutes from Innsbruck airport. It is a great place for freestylers with the park split into beginner, public and pro lines. Each season see’s the addition of new rails and boxes to the park.