Raise your hand if you decided to shed a couple of extra pounds before summer this year? Most people tend to be fairly gung-ho about taking off the weight at the beginning of the year, but as the days starting passing interest in breaking a hard and nasty sweat tend to fizzle or the body just gets plain-out burned-out. Don’t let either happen to you! Stick to your goal by doing whatever you need to the healthy way. The answer could be something as easy as a change of scenery, so why not take a fitness vacation? Lifetimetv.com has a fantastic list of 10 activities including locations where interested parties can join a yoga retreat, cycle through vineyards, hike up hills, and paddle in Belize. Working out in the gym is good, but wouldn’t it be great to escape and lose weight? Perhaps I am the only one who thinks so.
Skiing Three Countries in One Day
Should you ever feel the need to impress your friends with the number of places you have skied in your life (and not go bankrupt as a result of it) head over to Slovenia. If you settle in the town of Bovec, home of Kanin, the highest ski center in the Slovenian Alps, you can venture out to nearby ski resorts in the neighboring countries: Sella Nevea and Tarvisio in Italy, and at the Arnoldstein in Austria. If you get the 7-day pass, you get two free coupons for skiing in Italy and Austria. The altitude stretches above 2000 meters (6000 feet) and a day pass will set you back less than $20.
Of course, you can ski three countries in one day in Chamonix if you are lucky, too, but it is a lot more expensive (closer to $50/day) and a lot more pretentious.
Is It Skiing Time Yet?
Perhaps the only good thing about the summer ending is that one can start planning a ski vacation. My favorite place to ski is still the Alps. Granted, I have only skied in a handful of places in the US and Canada, but I still prefer Europe.
It’s not that the quality of snow is an order of magnitude better, but it has got two “C’s” going for it: cost and character. Especially in Austria, you can find pleasant chalet accommodations for as little as $30/person, including breakfast. I took this picture in Dachstein, a ski resort in Austria, just a hour away from Salzburg, last December. Sun and powder heaven. The beautiful thing is they still charge only 32euros (about $40) for a day pass. In the US, you can’t even ski the Poconos for that kind of money, sadly enough. If you have ever tried skiing the Poconos, you will understand exactly how sad that is.
Which brings me to my next point: character. Villages in the Alps are just so damn cute. I don’t care how accurately they try to replicate this quaintness in Whistler, it just doesn’t work.
Ski Bulgaria
There are many many places I can think of that I’d like to be heading right now to do some skiing. But I confess that
Bulgaria is not near the top of that list .In fact, I’m not sure it’s even ON the list. Wait, let me check…nope, Bulgaria is not a ski destination with which I am familiar.
And so I was surprised…in a good way…with this piece in the outdoorsy Stellar Magazine on skiiing Bulgaria. But Leslie Anthony heads there and
discovers, between gulps of rakia, a grappa-like liquor, that Bulgaria has a few surprises in store. Actually, I love
to see new places discovered…places like Bulgaria that could probably use an infusion of tourism. Is Bulgaria a new
Jackson Hole? Well, probably not. As the writer describes, it’s doubtful that as Jackson someone would try to sell you
an AK-47. Maybe a six-shooter, but not an assault rifle. But my curiosity is piqued and I just scribbled a word on my
list of place I want to ski: Bulgaria.