Growing Interest in Short Break Ski Trips
14th December 2023
Last modified on December 18th, 2023
The ski agent Heidi says it is one of the fastest growing sectors of the market. Heidi has also added more resorts to its portfolio as it claims to offer a new approach to booking a ski holiday.
Heidi relaunched from Ski Zoom last year and has seen exponential growth to become one of the UK’s fastest growing ski companies.
Its key difference is allowing people to book a ski trip on any day of the week, for any length of time and will provide flights, transfers and accommodation, then wrap it all up in ATOL protection.
Some other companies only offering week-long options due to bulk purchasing of flights and accommodation.
Heidi’s smart technology allows users to search from thousands of options online and select a diverse range of preferences they’re looking for:
- Beginner to high altitude
- Family to short transfer
- Budget to luxury
It will then pop out with multiple bookable options.
So, travellers have all the flexibility, and none of the hassle.
See here for full details about Heidi.
Short Breaks
Heidi says thousands of people are now looking for short ski breaks.
Breaks of anything from two to six nights are on the rise, with Heidi seeing sales of five night trips up 80% this year.
But not all resorts are equal when it comes to short ski holidays.
Short transfers are key and as you won’t have time to hang around, but high altitude resorts give the best chance of snow and they can be some distance from an airport.
They don’t need to be though.
Chamonix, France. Image © PlanetSKI
We asked Heidi for its top picks for short trips in snow-sure resorts this season, and to explain the choices in its own words.
Top pick for glacier skiing: Neustift Im Stubaital, Austria
Welcome to the Stubai Glacier, aka ‘The Kingdom of Snow’.
Popular for its high-altitude ski area, Stubai is just a 45-minute drive from Innsbruck.
But if you want to stay in the mountains, Neustift im Stubaital is the place to be.
Open from mid-October until late-May, the glacier boasts a large selection of cruisy runs that’ll keep both skiers and boarders grinning from peak to peak.
Feeling peckish?
Stop by the Jochdohle, Austria’s highest mountain restaurant, for a delicious feast of wiener schnitzel and a stein of beer.
If you can squeeze it in, Alexander Blunt, co founder of Heidi suggests another snow activity not to be missed :
“When they’re not on skis, Austrians love to tear down the mountain on their ‘rodelbahns’, or toboggans.
“There are 80 tobogganing runs in the Tyrol. Neustift alone has four courses, ranging from 3.6km to 6.4km some of which are open at night.”
The toboggans are suitable for old and young alike – and tradition dictates a shot of schnapps before you hurtle down on a traditional wooden sledge – which sounds perfectly safe.
Stubai, Tirol. Image © PlanetSKI
Top pick for film buffs: Obergurgl, Austria
A true gem of a ski resort, Obergurgl, aka ‘The Diamond of the Alps,’ is a shining example of an epic high-altitude location.
With oodles of Alpine charm and beautiful uncrowded slopes, most runs descend from over 2,000m, and some climb as high as 3,000m.
This makes it one of Austria’s most snowsure resorts.
Get this on your shortlist for an early or late-season ski trip.
And if you have the kids in tow, they will love the easy-to-access bunny slopes and mini skiers Funpark.
Marcus added: “If you stay for at least three days, you automatically get a lift pass that includes the ski areas in neighbouring Sölden which is within the same Ötz Valley.
“This is where James Bond Spectre was filmed, and if it’s good enough for 007…”
Well, indeed.
Obergurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
Top pick for ski-in, ski-out: Isola, France
What’s that?
You can ski just a snowball’s throw away from the Côte d’Azur?
Yep, that’s right!
Isola 2000 in France is a mere hour and a half’s drive from Nice, AND its terrain boasts epic mountains with decent altitudes up to 2,600m.
Who would have thought it?!
Enjoy super convenient ski-in, ski-out accommodation leading directly onto a great variety of pistes with thrilling runs for everyone in your group, especially beginners and intermediates.
“What you might lack in architectural charm, you gain in super easy ski-in, ski-out access in this purpose built resort,” said the co founder of Heidi, Marcus Blunt.
“And Isola offers the full smorgasbord of snow based activities from cross-country skiing to ski touring, dog-sledding to ice driving and even something they call snake gliss.”
Yeah, we had that thought too, but it involves sliding down in a group of interlinked sledges, one behind the other – and it looks a lot of fun.
Image c/o Heidi
Top pick for, well, everything: Chamonix, France
Just an hour from Geneva, Chamonix is great for intermediate and advanced skiers looking to get as much out of a few days as possible.
It has one of the longest seasons in the French Alps, and one of the liveliest apres scenes too, so you can ski and party hard well into spring.
It’s also home to the epic 23km long Vallée Blanche, one of the most spectacular off-piste descents anywhere in the world.
And if you really want to max your experience there’s everything from dog sledding to paragliding when you aren’t on the slopes.
Alexander advises: “You can really pack it in in Chamonix. But if all this sounds too exhausting, take the Aiguille du Midi cable car to 3,800m and simply admire one of the best views in the Alps.
“Or, do it all. You can always sleep on the way home.”
Chamonix, France. Image © PlanetSKI
New Resorts
Heidi’s new resorts for this season:
Encamp and Grau Roig in Andorra
Achenkirch, Fiss, Haus Im Ennstal, Berwang, Finkenberg, Hochfugen, Werfenweng, Matrei in Osttirol & Hippach in Austria.
Le Corbier, Oz en Oisans, Orcieres, Les Prodains & Manigod in France.
Ponte Di Legno, Racines-Giovo, Santa Caterina Valfurva, San Martino di Castrozza & Marilleva in Italy.
Gaustain in Norway.
Image c/o Heidi
Heidi was launched in 2018, formally known as Ski Zoom.
Founded by the Blunt brothers, Marcus 39 and Alexander, 37, the company was born out of the lack of flexibility in the winter ski market and the desire the duo had to discover new destinations.
Marcus and Alexander Blunt
The company has seen exponential growth from year one sales of £500k to year five sales of £24.5m, up 124% on last year, all with Covid sandwiched in between.
The founders, who are half Norwegian, admit they were lucky to have snow as part of their DNA growing up in a country where enjoying the terrain of a white winter was part and parcel of everyday life.
They then got to appreciate all the summer adventures the mountains offered, prompting their desire to provide package opportunities year-round and change their name from Ski Zoom to Heidi.
The millennials have successfully amalgamated their experience of working in the travel industry, in different guises with a savvy technical prowess to develop a completely new way of searching and booking ski trips, which brings a totally modern and flexible approach to today’s market.
Users of Heidi have thousands of options to choose from to find their perfect break, whether they’re a family looking for a budget friendly option for beginners, or a group of friends after a quick, convenient mid-week getaway, close to the slopes, with tons of après ski.
Customers can now build their perfect break in minutes and everything is planned and covered by Heidi, which is protected under ATOL.
Ski passes and equipment can also be booked online through the business.
Heidi is designed to break down the inflexible restrictions in the winter ski and board market and enable more people to easily enjoy the mountains year-round.
