Skiing in the Dolomites, (Val di Fassa area), staying in a small town called Campitello di Fassa, it is amazing how many Australians are here skiing.

There are 2 main reasons:

1. There are about 1,000km of groomed runs to ski, and 
2. It is so much cheaper to ski here than in Australia, for example:

• Two weeks' accommodation in a lovely 3 star hotel "Hotel Alpi" (www.hotelalpi.it) costs 1,700 Euro (that is under $2,300) for 2 of us. This included breakfast and dinner each night. Dinner is fabulous - starts with a salad bar, then entres, dinner and dessert - I look forward to dinner everynight and after eating here for 12 nights I'm still not sick of the food as it is different every night and you get to choose from a selection. The staff are also very friendly and helpful!!!
• A Ski Pass here is between 35 Euro and 40 Euro per day ($46 - $52), cheaper if you buy more than 1 day). In Australia SkiPass for Perisher is currently $109 per day.
• Free shuttle buses take you to the nearby towns where you can move between ski areas
• If you come after 7th January you are in the lower season, it goes up again after 4th Feb and then down again after 4th March.

Diversity

It is really interesting to see the diversity of people and ages that come here to ski. My husband's new ski buddy is 80 years old, and he says there are many 80 year olds skiing here (Blew my paradigm of what is possible). Of course there are lots of young people and families so it makes for a good lively energy.

English Speaking

If you don't speak Italian, you won't have too many problems as English is quite widely spoken here as well.

Remember!

• You will need to bring your own ski clothes as they do not seem to hire clothing here. You can rent ski boots, poles/stocks & skiis 

To get here:

• You can drive from Venice, about 2-3 hours
• Fly/train to Bolzano, then a bus (SAD Company from Bolzano station - about 1 hour trip) to Vigo di Fassa and then a Trentino bus to Campitello Di Fassa (about 15min trip)
• There is a bus that leaves from Milan Terminal (which I think is the train station as well). After 8th January it leaves once a week on Saturdays. The website is www.busitalia.it and the route you want is Milan to Canazei, which is the next town 5 minutes after Campitello di Fassa - though it does stop at Campitello.

We learnt all of this through my husband's painstaking research before we left home and then spending the 2 weeks here. I hope this information makes it easier for you to enjoy yourself skiing whether you're an experienced skiier like my husband or a novice like me.