The Guardian’s new definitive guide helps you plan the perfect trip
Jamie Oliver’s guide to the West Country
From the Somerset farmer whose cider ‘tastes of the orchard’ to the publican who forages for ingredients, Jamie takes us on a tour of the West, as his new TV series, Jamie’s Great Britain, starts tonight
Ranjit DhaliwalPascal Wyse
Categories: Books, Editorial, Food & drink, Food and drink, guardian.co.uk, Jamie Oliver, Life and style, Travel
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Landscape photographer of the year 2011 – in pictures
More than 100 of the best images will go on display in a free exhibition at the National Theatre in London from 5 December
Categories: Art and design, Culture, Editorial, Environment, guardian.co.uk, Photography, UK news
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Going goth in Whitby
On Dracula territory; where to stay with pets; and three theme parks you’ve never heard of
Take me there
Time to dig out your fetish boots, fingerless gloves and fishnet tights for the Whitby Goth Weekend. Ever since Bram Stoker’s Dracula came ashore here on a
Categories: Children, Day trips, Features, Hotels, Pets, Short breaks, The Observer, Travel
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New ski kit
Gallery: from fat skis to faux fur, here’s the kit that is guaranteed to get you spotted on the slopes
Categories: Editorial, Fashion, guardian.co.uk, Skiing, Snowboarding, Travel, Winter sports
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Live ski Q&A!
Need ideas for the new ski season? Then post a question for this Wednesday’s online Q&A with our team of experts
Have you been dreaming of winter all summer? Well, now’s the time to start planning. For expert advice, join our Live Ski Q&A on Wednesday, 26 October on guardian.co.uk/travel. Whether you have a question about which resort is best for you, where to escape the crowds and save money, or even if you simply want to know where to get the best kit, our team, including Felice Hardy, editor of welove2ski.com, Guardian Travel and ski editor Gemma Bowes and Ian Davies, of Crystal Ski, will be online between 1-2pm on Wednesday.
You can post a question from today and the panel will do their best to answer as many queries as possible during the live Q&A.
SkiingSnowboardingWinter sportsguardian.co.uk
Categories: Blogposts, guardian.co.uk, Skiing, Snowboarding, Travel, Winter sports
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Win a £150 hotel voucher
Name the place and win a £150 hotel voucher, letting you stay at thousands of hotels worldwide
Observer
Categories: Editorial, guardian.co.uk, Travel
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Snowy adventures for non-skiers
You don’t have to tussle with boots and bindings to have a fun winter holiday. Try walking or whale watching, or just cosying up somewhere warm but wonderful
Cooking course in the Alps
When it comes to traditional French ski resorts, you can’t get more authentic than Megève, where farmers still march their cows through the streets and local families fill the bars. But if you’re expecting rustic Savoyard fare you’ll be sorely disappointed. Despite its small proportions and picturesque looks, Megève is a major gastronomic destination, with more than 90 restaurants, two of them Michelin-starred. Flocons de Sel, where chef Emmanuel Renaut was awarded his second Michelin star in 2006, also runs cookery classes.
• At Flocons de Sel (+33 4 5021 4999, floconsdesel.com) two-hour courses cost €60 or you can spend a whole day in the kitchen with the team for €120. Easyjet (easyjet.com) flies to Geneva from 12 British airports from £84 return. Trains (tgv-europe.com) run from Geneva to Sallanches, 13km from Megève, with a returns from around €35; a taxi on to Megève costs €5. Au Vieux Moulin (hotel-restaurant-megeve.com) has doubles from €175, room only
Mountaineering in the Highlands
The Highlands of Scotland are a challenging walking environment even in summer, but winter expeditions are mountaineering adventures, with icy steps, mixed terrain and traverses across steep snow. If you fancy embracing such conditions, you need to learn skills such as ropework, using crampons and ice axes, and building emergency shelters. Mountain Magic is a small guiding company run by mountain leader and instructor Paul Boggis. Two- and five-day winter mountaineering courses in Glen Coe and the Cairngorms include accommodation, food and the first of your winter challenges – a 7am start.
• Mountain Magic (07946 331916, mountainmagic.org.uk) courses cost £175 a day, including equipment and guiding. Accommodation extra
Whale watching in Iceland
Sometimes you just don’t know where to look. The small fishing village of Grundarfjördur in west Iceland benefits not only from the minimal light pollution and short daylight hours in winter necessary to maximise your chances of seeing the northern lights but it also sees regular visits from killer whales. In February and March the whales venture into the fjord before heading off into Breidafjördur bay. For 2012 Discover the World has a four-day trip that will have you staring bug-eyed at the sea by day and at the sky by night. There are also trips to the Snaefellsjökull glacier, which sits atop a sleeping volcano and was the inspiration for Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
• A four-night trip with Discover the World (01737 214250, discover-the-world.co.uk) costs from £850pp including flights from Heathrow and full board accommodation
Visit Santa in Finland
Finding a Father Christmas trip that’s fun for all the family and doesn’t invoke images of miserable reindeer in wet car parks can be a challenge. Lapland specialist Transun has a three-night break that may just be the answer. Accommodation is in traditional wooden cabins at Davvi Arctic Lodge in not-very-touristy Karesuanto in Finland, and the trip includes two Santa safaris – one on husky sleds, the other on snowmobiles, with adults given the option of driving their own. Which should be more than enough adrenaline to enable everyone to cope with meeting Santa in his cabin.
• A three-night trip with Transun (01865 265200, transun.co.uk) costs from £859pp, including flights, full board accommodation and activities
Stay in an igloo in Slovenia
Slovenia is quietly becoming something of an extreme sports destination, with adventure racers, rock climbers, skiers and other outdoor enthusiasts discovering its uncrowded mountains. This year sees something rather more relaxing – an igloo village at ski resort Kranjska Gora in the Julian Alps. The village has a bar and restaurant and offers overnight stays in romantic two-person igloos, or bigger ones sleeping six. The package includes cocktails, dinner, a snowshoe trip, breakfast and very warm sleeping bags. Rubbing noses is not obligatory. • One night for two people in a two-person igloo (+386 1 232 2364, eskimska-vas.si) costs €250, or pay €89pp for a stay in a six-person igloo. Easyjet (easyjet.com) has flights from Stansted to Ljubljana from £60
Festive treats in Gothenburg
For a winter city break you want snow, fairy lights and a warm place to snuggle up in. Gothenburg ticks all those boxes. The compact city on Sweden’s west coast has more cosy cafes than should be legal, with locals spending huge amounts of time holed up in corners supping lattes and eating apple cinnamon buns. But the city also has a huge cultural scene with a thriving arts district around Langaatan, not to mention many independent boutiques.
The city has five Michelin-starred establishments as well as hundreds of creative and lively restaurants. Try Swedish Taste on St Eriksgatan (+46 31 132780, swedishtaste.se) for an upmarket meal. Christmas celebrations start on 18 November with the opening of the city’s festive market, and the illuminations are turned on on 9 December.
• Aprikosen B&B (+46 31 414050, aprikosenbab.se) is cute and homely with double rooms from Kr790 (£75) B&B. Easyjet (easyjet.com) flies from Gatwick to Gothenburg from £48 return. See goteborg.com for more information
Winemakers’ week in Haute-Savoie
In January the ski resort of Samoëns celebrates the French love of wine with its annual Semaine Vigneronne. Selected winemakers are invited to share and celebrate their passion through workshops and tasting sessions. The Ferme du Ciel is a five-star 350-year-old barn converted into a hotel by Andy and Su Lyell, who pride themselves on their own rather spectacular wine cellar. Its winemakers’ week package includes accommodation, breakfast, six nights of gourmet meals and taster sessions.
• Seven-night package at Ferme du Ciel (+33 4 5058 4457, fermeduciel.com) costs £950pp. The festival runs from 15-22 January. Easyjet (easyjet.com) flies from Luton to Geneva from £135 return. A SAT (sat-leman.com) bus from Geneva airport to Samoëns costs €43 one way
Take the waters in Lithuania
Since the 19th century people have been visiting Druskininkai, on Lithuania’s border with Belarus, to take the waters, which are rich in minerals and said to help ease asthma, digestive and cardiovascular ailments and more. A number of spa hotels have popped up recently, offering treatments that will keep you occupied as the snow falls. But if you’d rather be active, the newly opened Snoras indoor snowslope (visitlithuania.net), also in Druskininkai, has three pistes and a snowboarding park.
• Ryanair (ryanair.com) flies from Stansted to Vilnius, 120km from Druskininkai, from £99 return. A taxi from Vilnius costs 300 litas (£75). The Europa Royale Druskininkai spa hotel (+370 313 42221, groupeuropa.com) has doubles from £90
Fly into the lights
For some people, seeing the lights isn’t enough. And for them this winter Kiruna Space Station in Swedish Lapland is offering a new excursion, where you can take a trip on a nine-seater plane up above the cloud cover for a unique unrestricted view of the aurora borealis. You pay extra for the two-hour trip, but if you don’t see the lights you get a partial refund. The flight is available as part of a three-night break that includes accommodation at the Icehotel, a moose safari, husky sledging, ice driving and snow mobiling.
• Discover the World (01737 214250, discover-the-world.co.uk) has a three- night trip from £1,260pp including return flights from Heathrow and some meals. Aurora borealis flight £415 extra
Make a film in
Categories: Christmas and New Year, Christmas markets, Features, The Guardian, Travel, Walking holidays, Winter food and drink, Winter sports
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Too old to snowboard?
If you’re 42 and your knees are creaking, is it time to retire your snowboard and embrace the gentler world of cross-country?
“Glide it out, guys! Slide it out!” shouts Oskar. He does a few demonstration strides along the twin cross-country tracks carved into the mountain trail, his poise balletic as he swings from one foot to the other. It really doesn’t look too difficult. I press right ski to snow and attempt the same skating motion up the gentlest of inclines – and find myself sliding backwards down the slope, picking up speed. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. Aren’t cross-country skis supposed to have grips on the base to glue you to the mountain?
I’ve come to Hemsedal, in southern Norway, to learn cross-country skiing. My first love is snowboarding – I started 16 years ago in Val D’Isère, when boarders were regarded as the evil renegades of the Alps. Then I discovered Whistler in Canada, with its endless empty runs and cheery lifties who would high-five me with cries of “Yo, goofy sister!” (I board right-foot first, “goofy” stance.)
But now, at 42, I worry I’m just a low-slung boarder pant away from being a poster lady for midlife crisis. Add a dodgy left knee, which throws a hissy fit after even a gentle run, and I’m considering regretfully consigning my snowboard to the cobwebbiest part of the loft and embracing a more sedate mountain activity. Hemsedal, with its 120km of cross-country trails, seems a good place to do it, and for moral support I’ve brought along a fellow beginner, my sister-in-law Ellie.
Could cross-country possibly match the thrill of boarding? The scenery is hitting the spot – frozen lakes, vast pine-studded mountains. But Oskar is hellbent on distracting us with fearsome technical instructions, and warnings about the icy conditions. He shows us how to snow-plough with one ski in the tracks and the other out to one side to act as a brake. I try, but spend such a lot of time falling over that Oskar suggests I simply trundle along and wait for the track to go uphill again to slow me down. Ellie, a formidable downhill skier, fares better, but even small inclines throw us both into confusion. We catch an unexpected break when one of Ellie’s skis, abandoned after a fall, is blown down the hillside. Oskar gamely hikes down to retrieve it, giving us a five-minute breather to compare bruises.
Later, over strong coffee and warm cinnamon rolls, we agree that cross-country skiing is so far something of an enigma. But we are warming to Hemsedal, with its quiet runs and snow cannon-tended pistes. We have an apartment in the chic Alpin Lodge, right by the lifts, with sauna and gorgeous views of the valley. There’s a restaurant, shop and ski hire centre in the same building, perfect for the lazy winter sporter.
The next day the weather closes in on the mountain trails, dashing our cross-country dreams. I wonder whether I’m being hasty in jettisoning all thought of further snowboarding. Maybe I need to rediscover my love for it by doing something crazy and hardcore? In a rash moment I decide to try a tricks and jumps course in Hemsedal’s impressive board parks.
Tricks and jumps have not been a notable feature of my snowboarding career. For me, it’s all about looping down the mountain at a steady, sensible pace without necessarily, or indeed ever, reaching breakneck speed.
My teacher, tirelessly patient Max, can see the fear in my eyes and starts me off with a basic move – jumping up and landing as I’m riding along. I try, and manage about an inch of actual jumpage, at best, while Max, an ex-gymnast, clearly has springs for legs, and soars effortlessly into the air. But at least I’m getting used to the feel of balancing my weight when I land.
We move on to the smallest of the board parks, where little children on skis are leaping from the two-metre rises. Under Max’s instruction, I negotiate a small rainbow box (like a mini humped-back bridge) without tumbling into broken-wristville, and pick up enough speed to get some air on the first jump, and more on the second. Landing seems to be a matter of keeping low on the board and correcting your balance in the moments after you hit the ground. I go round a few more times, and have to resist whooping with glee each time I’m briefly airborne. Everyone else is managing to complete the course in dignified silence. But I find I can’t not whoop. I am 42. I am doing jumps in a board park. Surely this is what it’s like to be gnarly.
In one of the bigger board parks, Max coaxes me to try riding down a flight of metal stairs. Yes, really. A rail alongside the staircase helps me find my balance for the first few seconds then I’m off – racketing down and making the small jump off the bottom. I even manage to land it. I earn my first high-five from Max.
We loiter on the run-up to two neighbouring jumps. They look big. My dodgy knee starts to feel a bit wibbly. “Keep your board flat and flex your toes as you line up for the jump, to help you balance,” advises Max.
Miracle of miracles, I’m not too bad on the first one, but I’m at the mercy of the gusting winds once I make it into the air and I don’t line up for the second jump properly. Max tells me sternly that I’m putting my weight on my back foot as I land, so the board is shooting away from me. I try again, but I catch my front edge and slam forward on to the hard-packed snow. It hurts. I’m briefly convinced I’ve broken a rib … but as the seconds tick by and I find my breath again, I sheepishly realise I’m just winded.
Max takes pity on me and rides down with me on the next attempt. We look like we’re doing a surreal snowboard tango as we sail towards the jump with Max gripping my shoulders. He keeps me balanced and on target for the second jump, for which we’ve built up enough speed to sail high into the air. I am whooping fit to burst. I fear for Max’s hearing, but happily his helmet is protecting his ears from the worst of the noise.
I have a few more goes by myself, and even try out an indy grab, where as you jump you lean forward to clutch the board between your feet with one arm and stick the other straight up in the air behind you. It’s a lame first attempt, but I feel like a proper boarder. Tripping along the cross-country trails couldn’t be further from my mind.
The wind picks up and we are forced to ride back down, but I am wired with the thrill of it. The après-ski has started early, and Ellie and I join the party crowd for a while before heading down to Hemsedal village for a celebratory kleberstein supper (you cook your own food at your table on hot stones).
On our final day, buzzing from my boarding high, I feel ready to face my cross-country demons. After a fresh snowfall, the trails are more forgiving, our skis more glue-like. It’s idyllic up here in the dry mountain air. As we’re gliding it out in true Oskar-approved fashion, with tracks stretching for miles ahead of us, I can see the appeal. A couple of passing skiers recommend a trailside restaurant for lunch. This could get seriously addictive.
But am I converted? Is my snowboard destined for cobwebby retirement? Er, no. What was I thinking? The cross-country tracks will always be there. But snowboarding makes me shout for joy. You can’t beat it. Ever. Pass me that knee support.
• Neilson (0845 070 3460, neilson.co.uk) has a week at the self-catering Alpin Lodge from £495pp, including flights from Gatwick and transfers. A two-hour lesson for two people costs £75pp. Cross-country ski hire through Neilson £20 a day, snowboard £45 a day
SnowboardingSkiingNorwayEuropeWinter sportsguardian.co.uk
Categories: Europe, Features, Norway, Skiing, Snowboarding, The Guardian, Travel, Winter sports
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Steep learning curve in Canada’s toughest ski resort
Red Mountain in British Columbia has steep tree runs and terrifying cliff drops. But it now also has beginners’ slopes
There’s a popular anecdote you’ll hear in Rossland, a former gold mining town that sits beneath the small ski resort of Red Mountain in British Columbia. It tells of a local who once skied the ultimate steep, powdery line between Red’s tightly packed trees, emerging at the bottom as a gasping, snow plastered, beardy mess (beards are big in Rossland) to exclaim, “That was the best run of my life.” He rushed back up the mountain to repeat his descent – to no avail.
This wasn’t because he was eaten by a bear or swept away by an avalanche – he just couldn’t find the same run again. Red’s heavily wooded off-piste terrain is all but unmapped and unless you know the exact two trees you snuck between to enjoy such a run, the chances of finding the same line again are minimal.
Ski Canada Magazine’s writers, who know a thing or two about gnarly skiing, rate Red Mountain as having the country’s “Best Steeps”, “Best Powder” and “Best Trees”. Canada’s most famous female skier, 1968 Olympic gold medallist Nancy Greene, grew up here and reckons that after having learned to ski at Red “everything else seemed easy and not very steep”.
Her legacy has been carried on by young locals such as Dane Tudor, 2009 Canadian freeski champion, and Leah Evans, one of the country’s top big mountain skiers. Red’s reputation and their talents are built on terrain described by at least one ski guidebook as “dangerous … and positively hazardous”. Runs include Cambodia, with its mandatory cliff drops (small cliffs but cliffs all the same), and 3rd Slide, where you can easily lose your ski partner between the maze of trees. The pick-up-sized bumps of Red Towers are conveniently located underneath the rickety old Red Chair lift, so those gliding serenely uphill can be entertained by watching you slide downhill on your backside.
I’d always seen Red as a challenge that at some point in my ski career I would have to face up to. But my partner Claire is a complete novice: was it really fair to subject her to such a potentially intimidating initiation into Canadian skiing?
Well actually it was – because over the past five years Red has relented, offering something for skiers without a predilection for leaping off cliffs. It has opened a clutch of very user-friendly runs on the lower slopes of Granite Mountain, the resort’s highest peak.
Here there are greens and blues with gentle slopes snaking between glades of tall, aromatic pines. They allowed Claire to grapple with the basics before her instructor Jean-Marie took her to the top of Granite for the 5km green run that loops gently around the mountain and back to the base lodge, providing fantastic views of Rossland a couple of miles below and the Columbia river valley in the far distance.
My introduction to one of the toughest resorts in Canada came in the form of an off-piste black diamond run called Powder Fields. Mountain guide Roly Worsfold led the way between relatively open trees, powder hissing over the top of our boots as we descended through a classic British Columbian landscape where summit after summit of forested mountains marched towards us like a blue-green ocean swell. By heading away from the centre line of the run we were able to find untracked powder stashes.
This search for the fluffy stuff can make skiing at Red a solitary experience, though, as I found the following day when I joined Roly and a couple of his mates to ski the more closely packed trees of Pale Face. We all headed off on our own lines with an enthusiastic whoop or whistle to indicate our location as we snaked in and out of the trees. Eventually I stopped, mainly because a large conifer insisted that one of us should give way, and I slumped back into the snow to listen to the silence.
It was so quiet I could hear the swoosh of the snow slicing off the skis of the other guys as they dropped gracefully away beneath me, an occasional “Woo-hoo!” echoing back off the trunks of a thousand trees. Then suddenly there was no sound at all other than my heavy breathing, and no sign of Roly and the others below me. So I got back on my skis and began threading my way between tree trunks until, like the local dude who skied the “best line ever”, I emerged at the bottom of Pale Face on to an empty cat track, knowing I would never be able to find that exact line again.
More shouts soon brought us back together. We’d all become spread out over about 400m. While all this whooping and a-hollering was taking place in the trees, Jean-Marie had been introducing Claire to the steeper intermediate slopes of Paradise, on the back side of Granite. These are mainly sun-kissed blues, accessed by an old triple chair manned by the kind of agreeable lifties that are rare in Europe. After about five rides I more or less knew each liftie personally and would invariably end up rubbing shoulders with them later in the day while sinking a beer in the base lodge’s newly refurbished Rafters bar.
Red has some new luxury ski-in ski-out condos beside the slopes, but this shouldn’t be seen as an excuse for neglecting the five-minute drive down into Rossland to wine and dine after a day on the hill.
This is the oldest ski town in western Canada, and it still has a backwoods feel. Lumber trucks grunt along the main street past ultra-cool ski emporiums; eclectic coffee houses offer a warm welcome; and we found ourselves regularly drawn to a sushi restaurant, Drift Izakaya on Columbia Avenue, for sashimi or frazzled prawns.
This combination of ski hill and ski town is small by European standards, but good skiers who enjoy challenging terrain and want a taste of “real” British Columbia rather than the overcrowded glitz and razzle of Whistler won’t get bored here, especially as there are also the options of ski touring on neighbouring Grey Mountain, day trips to the equally hardcore ski hill of Whitewater, and local cat- and heli-ski operations if your
Categories: Adventure travel, Canada, Extreme sports holidays, Features, North and Central America, Skiing, The Guardian, Travel
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