Jurassic perks of a Dolomites road trip
Thought about combining your next ski holiday with a nostalgic overnight ferry voyage and a road trip across some of Europe’s most stunning landscapes?
Why, you ask? Well, not only will you be enjoying a once-in-a-lifetime overseas adventure, but you’ll also find incredible value and multiresort ski options in both France and Austria.
Alternatively, you could head for the slopes of Italy’s Dolomites for perfect pistes – and a local museum’s Early Jurassic dinosaurs.
Austria’s handsome Ramada Saalfelden apartment complex has an indoor pool and the balconies look out on the Leogang and Salzburg Slate Alps. From here, it’s easy to explore an enviable choice of nearby resorts if you took the ferry. Even if you fly over, you can still hire a car.
Five to 20 minutes away by road there are the gentle slopes of Maria Alm and lakeside Zell am See, Kaprun’s snow-sure Kitzsteinhorn glacier and the varied terrain of Saalbach and Hinterglemm. The Ski Amade region is just an hour away.
Two sharing a one-bedroom apartment from January 8, 2023, costs €595pp for a week’s B&B (ramadaresidencessaalfelden.com).
Or head for the purpose-built slopes of Tignes Le Lac at 6,900ft, with even more terrain above on the Grande Motte glacier, one of
France’s most snow-sure resorts. There are lift and piste links to Val d’Isere.The piste-side, three-star Village Montana residence has access to an outdoor heated pool and a hot tub, steam room and covered parking. It’s still a trek – about eight hours’ drive from Cherbourg – but a two-bedroom apartment, for seven nights’ selfcatering, starting December 17, costs €628pp, based on five sharing. Budding palaeontologists heading to the Dolomites can examine ichthyosaurus, a dinosaur skeleton reconstruction from a fossil found there in 1968. The marine history, fossil and coral collections, plus local Ladin art and other treasures, are at the Gherdeina museum in Ortisei.
From January 2023, Irish Ferries is offering return voyages from Dublin to Cherbourg for two people (and their car) starting at €752 – which includes a two-star cabin.