Let's Take A Ski Trip From Stresa

Mottarone has already been covered, you can read about it here, and then link to it’s own homepage. But if you’d now like to explore some other areas there are many choices available to you. Let’s separate the choices into two categories, ski resorts in the Italian Alps, and ski resorts in the Swiss Alps. In addition, for the purposes of this post, let’s limit the discussion to resorts to the north of Stresa, not those to the west, towards France. That will be another topic for another day.

Andiamo a sciare! Let's go skiing! First let’s talk about resorts in the Italian Alps. All of these locations can be reached taking the motorway for Domodossala. I suggest these particular resorts for their excellent conditions, full services, and because they offer a high quality at a reasonable price. Overall in fact, I find skiing in Italy and Switzerland to be far more economical than in the United States. For example, a one-day adult lift ticket at Vail this season is going for near $100; this makes skiing prohibitive for most families. By comparison, a full-day adult lift ticket at San Domenico this season is 21 euro/27 on the weekends, and parking is free. You’ll find all services, including rentals and food, to be also proportionately lower. But the snow, and the views, on the other hand, well, there’s nothing lesser at all about them.

Here are three places I like in the Italian Alps near Domodossola, all about 45 minutes from Stresa:

San Domenico: A full-service resort easily reached from Milan and Lago Maggiore, in the Italian Lepontine Alps. Here's their English Web site: www.sandomenico-ciamporino.it

Domobianca: Only 10 km from Domodossola, offering 17 km of ski trails for all levels from green to double-black. English Web site: www.domobianca.it

Macugnaga: Skiing in sight of magnificent Monte Rosa, in a beautiful Italian mountain village filled with Walser atmosphere. English site with information and links: www.j2ski.com

This is an excellent link to these Italian ski resorts, as well as others. http://www.sullaneve.it/comprensorio-sciistico-valli-dell-ossola.htm Near the bottom of this linked page you’ll find links to San Domenico, Domobianca, Macugnaga and other local resorts. While the site does not have an English version, I found that the Google translator does a pretty decent job. Click on a resort, then copy and paste the URL into Google, search, and then click the Google translate feature on the search results page.

Now, further afield to Switzerland. To reach these resorts in the Swiss Alps we’ll continue on this road past Domodossola, crossing into Switzerland over the famous Simplon Pass. Without traveling too much further, there are resorts I think worthy of a visit. Here are two in particular that are approximately two hours from Stresa:

Leukerbad: A true year-round vacation resort, with natural thermal hot-springs and every type of winter activity. http://www.leukerbad.ch/en/welcome.cfm

Fiesch-Eggishorn: A large resort with 99 kilometres of piste, ski runs, best suited to the intermediate skier or snowboarder. http://www.eggishorn.ch/jwa/en/news.jsp

These Swiss resorts are doable as a long day trip from Stresa, but should you want to make a longer skiing vacation Domodossola is a good central location in which to stay to visit a variety of these resorts. Another plus... you'll be close to the wonderful PremiaTerme Hyperthermal Spa, when you need to soothe those muscles.