I can’t remember the first time I ever saw snow. But I’ll never forget the day last January when snowflakes the size of £2 coins fell on Leyton Flats, where I was walking with my family near our home in northeast London. They were the kind that link arms when they fall — creating loose, feathery platelets the French sometimes call “pizzas” — and suddenly it was cold enough for them to settle. In 15 minutes the whole world seemed to turn white.
We all went nuts, catching flakes on our tongues, blowing them from our gloves, scraping them off the grass to make tiny snowballs. Everyone on the Flats that afternoon was at it, and the air was filled with something none of us had heard for weeks: the sound of people laughing all at the same time. In the middle of that long, dark month, we all felt suddenly — fleetingly — blessed. Between the flying mini-snowballs we Newsoms also wished, as one, that we could be somewhere properly snowy.
In a week when the white stuff fell widely across the UK we probably weren’t the only ones; and if you shared that moment of joy and longing, well, now’s the time to lay your plans. Winter’s coming. Last week the first big snowstorm engulfed the central Alps, and Lapland has been wearing its winter coat for longer than that. This is the chance for the double and triple-jabbed to get back out into the world and give the season a great big bear hug. And I’m not talking about downhill skiing. I am a complete ski junkie, with more than 150 downhill resorts under my belt, but even so I say it is a crying shame the way the ski industry has appropriated winter and blinded half the world to the wonders of a holiday in the snow. So complete is its domination that anything else can seem second best: an admission that you’re either too wimpy or too unimaginative to understand winter’s appeal.
Ask me what has been my most extraordinary snow experience in nearly 30 years of travel writing and I’ll tell you it wasn’t on skis. It was a winter-mountaineering course in Glencoe, Scotland. I’d only ever worn crampons once before and only scaled sun-drenched crags and indoor climbing walls. And then, for nearly a week, I was ripped from the easy familiarity of London and thrown into a world that boiled with beauty and menace.
Despite the cold, the mountains really did seem to be steaming. When the wind’s strong — as it often is at 3,000ft — the snow blows off their crags in great curling clouds known as spindrift. “How hard is it going to blow when we get there?” you wonder as you pick your way uphill. One memory in particular is as fresh and cold as a scoop of ice cream. It’s of a tricky little section of ice-climbing, in a gully that swirled with wind-blown snow — and the way my body quivered as I waited my turn. Yes, I was scared. But what astonished me was that I was also shaking with excitement.
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Of course winter holidays can be full of gentler pleasures too. Take dog-sledding. Straight after a fall of snow is the time to try it. Then it’s not just the willingness and work ethic of your huskies that will fill you with wonder, it’s the landscape too. With snow-frosted trees floating past like a ghostly guard of honour, it feels as though you’ve burst through the back of a wardrobe and discovered your own personal Narnia. I’d recommend Bavarian curling too. That’s the lightweight version of the Olympic sport, and I learnt to play it in Seefeld, Austria, on a rink beside the onion-domed Seekirchl chapel. With ice skaters twirling near by, and the village dressed in a fresh duvet of December snow, our hotly contested match generated much the same sense of warmth and good cheer you’d get from a steaming cup of glühwein.
I’d say the same for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Even rolling in the snow after a sauna is a giggle, as I discovered in the middle of the night beneath the north face of the Eiger in Switzerland. In fact, the only winter holiday activity I wouldn’t recommend is ski-jumping with Eddie the Eagle, which I tried in 2016. But maybe that was just because of my age. The teenagers who were training on the same 60m ramp in Courchevel, France, clearly loved it.
The trick is to pick an activity that matches your sense of adventure, and your fitness level, and get stuck in. Take the right clothing. Go with someone who really knows what they’re doing. And be sure to work up an appetite. Because there’s only one way to follow a proper day out in the snow, and that’s with a cup of tea and giant slice of cake.
1. Winter mountaineering in Scotland
Few British landscapes can match the drama of Glencoe’s winter scene. The wind tears at your clothing, billowing clouds of spindrift curl from the crags. And if you have even one drop of daring in your blood, your heart will race with excitement. For newbies the only way up is with a guide, learning the ropes, familiarising yourself with crampon and ice-axe techniques and — if the snow gods favour you — climbing Buachaille Etive Mòr. With West Coast Mountain Guides, five-day courses cost £600pp and run from January to the end of March (westcoast-mountainguides.co.uk). Fort William is the place to stay.
Details B&B doubles from £145 (cruachanhotel.co.uk)
2. Snow, spas and city in Seefeld
Seefeld in Austria serves up winter in many ways. It’s not just the Olympic-standard cross-country skiing, or the curling rinks, or the sparkling forest walks. It’s the fact that Innsbruck is only 40 minutes away by train. Here, daredevils can book a bobsleigh ride (£89pp; knauseder-event.at), while art lovers will lap up works by Klimt, Egger-Lienz, Kokoschka and co at the Ferdinandeum museum (£10; tiroler-landesmuseen.at). Then take advantage of a sauna or spa treatment once you’re back at base — especially if you’ve booked into the four-star superior Krumers Post hotel.
Details Seven nights’ half-board from £1,119pp, including flights and transfers (skisolutions.com)
3. Train through the Swiss Alps
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Don’t bring a book, you’ll be much too busy staring out the window to have time to read. This five-day, no-fly trip from London departs on February 11 or March 4 and includes three full days of spectacular rail travel through the Swiss Alps. Throughout, Interlaken is your base, and the trip’s highlight comes on day three, on board the Glacier Express. Here, travelling between Chur and Brig, you will wind up to the 6,670ft Oberalp Pass and on to the Rhône through snow-blanketed valleys.
Details Four nights’ B&B from £1,195pp, including return trains from London (arenatravel.com)
4. Ice-climbing lessons in Saas-Fee
Ice climbing is the ultimate winter adventure. With an axe in each hand and climbing crampons on your feet, every ascent is a guilt-free smash-and-grab experience. And no, your life will not be in danger. Thanks to the rope attached to your harness, your instructor will take your weight whenever you slip. High, pedestrianised Saas-Fee in Switzerland is a reliably cold and dramatic place to start (in January, at least), with the Allalin Hotel a comfortable central base. Half-day group ice-climbing lessons start at £90pp (saasfeeguides.com).
Details Seven nights’ half-board from £1,043pp, including flights and transfers (crystalski.co.uk)
5. Wildlife photography in the Cairngorms
Included on your tick list: red deer, red grouse, snow buntings and mountain hares. But it’s not just the quarry that makes this guided photography tour brilliant. It’s the chance to explore Britain’s wildest national park, and to let the silence of its snowy moors and valleys envelop you. Aviemore is your base for much of the trip, and some of your time will be in forests and along the coast. But on other days you will be hoofing through something close to an Arctic landscape as you seek out white-feathered ptarmigan across the Cairngorm plateau.
Details Six nights’ full board from £1,795pp, departing on February 19 (naturetrek.co.uk)
6. Cruising along the Norwegian coast
This 13-day Norwegian cruise — from London to Bergen via Alta — may officially be called In Search of the Northern Lights, but it has wisely packed its itinerary with all manner of other wintry sights and activities in case the weather doesn’t play ball. Never mind the six town and city tours included in the price, it’s the other excursions that really sparkle, whether you’re joining a sea eagle safari, touring the world’s most northerly wildlife park or spending a night in a tepee surrounded by sleeping huskies.
Details Twelve nights’ full board from £3,690pp, including flights (vikingcruises.co.uk)
7. A winter adventure in Quebec
They take winter in their stride in the Canadian province of Quebec, as you’ll discover on this eight-day self-drive Winter Wonderland itinerary. It leads from the buzz of Montreal to the snow-drenched quiet of a wilderness lodge on the edge of the Laurentian Mountains. En route you’ll stay in North America’s only ice hotel and get the chance to try a host of activities, from ice climbing in Quebec City to dogsledding, wine tasting, snowshoeing and ice skating on a private, frozen lake.
Details Seven nights’ room only from £1,323pp, including flights and car hire (canadianaffair.com)
8. St Moritz: home of winter sports
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In 1864 the St Moritz hotelier Johannes Badrutt persuaded four well-heeled guests to try his high, remote homeland in winter as well as summer. Ever since then, the Engadin valley has buzzed with visitors all year round. Beyond the downhill pistes, it’s the valley’s 150 miles of cross-country ski trails that are the main draw. But don’t let that blind you to the sheer variety of what’s on offer: there’s curling, snow-kiting and guided full-moon snowshoe walks (take a look at engadin.ch for the full range of activities). You could even book the five-star Hotel Kulm for the full aristocratic experience.
Details Seven nights’ B&B at Hotel Carlton from £2,740pp, including flights and transfers (skisolutions.com)
9. In search of the humpback whale
Every year from December to February shoals of herring swim south from the Barents Sea to spawn near the Norwegian island of Senja. For the orca, sea eagles and humpback whales that follow them, it’s a time of plenty, as you’ll discover on this eight-day North Norway Whale Safari. A historic schooner will be your home, allowing you to explore narrow fjords, moor in remote villages and generally get much closer to the action than you would on a bigger ship. Expect breaching humpbacks, efficient orca teamwork and an ocean that at times seems to boil with fish.
Details Seven nights’ full board from £1,812pp (ganeandmarshall.com). Fly to Tromso
10. Designer luxury in the Swedish wilderness
The Arctic Bath hotel near Harads looks like a giant bird’s nest — or at least its spa does. A doughnut-shaped building, it floats on the Lule River about 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle and is the centrepiece of this small and exclusive design hotel that has carved out a stellar reputation for its food. Come for a mix of yoga, saunas, treatments and — if you feel daring enough — a dip in the river. Access is through a hole in the ice in the middle of the doughnut.
Details Three nights’ half-board from £1,846pp, including flights and transfers (sunvil.co.uk)
11. Ice skating on Lake Weissensee
How about skating on a seven-mile-long Austrian lake, set in the Carinthian Alps, that claims to be Europe’s largest prepared natural ice surface? The freezing starts in late November and is usually complete by mid-December, after which a team of ice experts lays out 15 miles of circular trails, as well as curling rinks, ice-hockey rinks and a speed-skating track (skates cost £8 a day to rent at alpensport.at). Guests at the lakeside Hotel Regitnig enjoy free access to the ice tracks.
Details Half-board doubles from £170 (regitnig.com). Fly to Salzburg
12. A dogsled safari in Norway
Most dogsledding on packaged winter holidays is offered as a half-day sampler, so just as you’re falling in love with your huskies, it’s time to say goodbye. Not at the de luxe Engholm Husky Design Lodge near the Finnish border. Owned by the mushing legend Sven Engholm, the winner of Europe’s longest dogsled race, it offers proper hut-to-hut expeditions across the snow. Its six-night safari includes a couple of days’ acclimatisation and three nights in mountain cabins, and it climaxes with your arrival at the Sorrisniva Igloo hotel at Alta.
Details Six nights’ full board from £3,795pp, including flights and transfers (redsavannah.com)
13. Affordable Finland
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Want to keep a lid on prices? Then target one of Finland’s ski-and-Santa resorts such as Yllas. Here charter flights and the economies of scale keep holidays affordable, without denting the sense of wonder you get nearly 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Here a vast network of cross-country ski trails loops through the forest, with the self-catering Villa Armas cabins scattered alongside and a host of other adventures on tap, from sleigh rides to snowmobile safaris. Meanwhile, the Akas Hotel is just 200 yards away if you can’t be bothered to cook.
Details Seven nights’ self-catering for two from £1,038, including flights (inghams.co.uk)
14. Northern lights and wildlife in Iceland
On this guided tour you’ll pursue the perfect image of the Arctic fox — Iceland’s only native mammal — with help from the award-winning wildlife photographer Bret Charman. You’ll fly north from Reykjavik to the Hornstrandir National Park: 200 square miles of uninhabited snow, sea cliffs and jagged rock where the local fox population thrives on a diet of sea birds. Dusk and dawn offer the best light in which to photograph them, and at night you’ll have your cameras fixed on the sky, hoping to catch the aurora borealis.
Details Three nights’ B&B and three nights’ full board from £3,195pp, including flights and transfers, departing on March 23 and 27 (wildlifeworldwide.com)
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