The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
The land of the £1.50 lift pass and no queues
Turkey might not be the most obvious ski destination, but it ticks all the boxes for a budget break, says Alf Alderson
Ihad just glided to a halt at the bottom of the prosaically named Piste 1 in Turkey’s largest ski resort, Erciyes, and was grinning like a fool and puffing like a steam train. The latter wasn’t too surprising, since Piste 1, a black run, links up with Piste 1b, a red run, to give a thigh-burning 6km (3¾-mile) descent of 3,280 vertical feet on perfectly groomed snow. We’d skied it non-stop.
As for the Cheshire Cat grin, well, given that it was February half-term and we had only encountered two other skiers on our descent, what’s not to smile about?
Erciyes’s other pistes, mainly blue and red runs, were busier, but after three days of skiing, I had yet to experience a lift queue and had been able to hoon around without ever having to worry about overcrowded slopes.
It was all a far cry from my home in Les Arcs, in France, where it’s not unusual to stand in line for 20 minutes during peak weeks and where the slopes are so busy you need wing mirrors on your helmet.
I wasn’t just in Turkey to escape the crowds of home, though – I was there to test its budget-friendly credentials out of the summer months. Skiing in Erciyes is stupendously cheap in comparison with the Alps – a one-day lift pass costs £1.50, and a full week a mere £7.40. Things get marginally more pricey on the slopes, where you can expect to pay about £7 for a doner kebab, £2 for a coffee and £1.30 for a coke – hardly breaking the bank.
While still remarkably cheap, it costs considerably more to ski at Turkey’s other ski resorts – surprising, maybe, as they’re a lot smaller than Erciyes. Uludag, some 120 miles south of Istanbul, in Bursa Province, charges £18 to £21 for a day pass, while Palandoken, in the north east of the country, close to Armenia, charges £13 per day (neither sells weekly passes).
Erciyes is home to 19 modern lifts, accessing 70 miles of pistes, and its position on the shoulder of the 12,850ft dormant volcano Mount Erciyes means it has ample altitude to ensure fairly reliable snow. The resort’s top lift station reaches 11,000ft (higher than Val Thorens, the loftiest ski resort in the Alps) and from here I enjoyed spectacular – if somewhat breathless – views across much of Anatolia, including the popular summer destination of Cappadocia and the nearby city of Kayseri.
Add to that 3,900 feet of vertical, and in terms of available skiing, Erciyes compares well with many modestlysized European resorts, such as Les Carroz in France, the Swiss resort of St Moritz and Austria’s Obergurgl. I certainly found there was enough skiing to keep me happy on a four-day visit.
Similar to its Alpine counterparts, the slopes in Erciyes are ideal for beginners and intermediates – an enticing mix of wide, open and gently angled reds and blues, along with some very good beginner facilities, including four magic-carpet lifts.
I found myself skiing on slopes that were much quieter than the Alps, surrounded by very different scenery, varying from the craggy summit of Mount Erciyes to the vast, empty plains of Cappadocia below.
More experienced skiers have just four black runs to go at. I was particularly fond of the Ottoman chairlift, which provided access to steep high-level off-piste terrain at a lung-busting 11,000ft. If you visit after a good snowfall, you’ll likely have the powder to yourself – few locals venture into the untracked terrain. But, be warned. If off-piste is your preference, bring your own skis – freeride models are impossible to rent in the resort.
During my visit, I experienced the high winds that are a feature of the local mountain climate, and while they don’t spoil the well-maintained pistes, gales can seriously disturb the off-piste. The high altitude also means that there is no tree cover, and on the one afternoon of bad visibility, it was tricky negotiating my way down the featureless slopes. Such bad-weather days are the ideal opportunity to seek out the local cultural hotspots.
In a change of attitude from the Alps, I discovered that most skiers buy lift passes by the day rather than the week in Erciyes. This isn’t a technique to save (even more) money, or for fear of lack of snow, but to provide an opportunity to spend a day away from the slopes visiting one of the nearby sights.
Goreme National Park and the Unesco World Heritage-listed rockhewn villages and underground towns of Cappadocia are about an hour’s drive away from the resort on good, modern roads, and excursions can easily be organised.
I chose to visit the ancient city of Kayseri, a 40-minute drive away; its 15th-century grand bazaar is the second biggest in Turkey, and the city has several historic monuments, including a number of mosques dating back to the Seljuk period.
Turkish cuisine is rightly famous, and it made for a nice change from the cheese-based dishes of the Alps. It was also great value; I enjoyed lunch at the busy H2650 restaurant, above Hacilar Gate, one of four mountain villages that make up Erciyes, where prices varied from about £2.50 for a salad or a traditional lentil soup, to £5.50 for pide (flatbread), £6.20 for kofte (meatballs) and £6.90 for a doner kebab. All were wonderfully tasty – and the restaurant’s marvellous views over Kayseri came for free.