I am searching for a destination that I can fly to and back next Sunday, no Visa required for entry, there is snow left, and I have not been there before.
This is surprisingly difficult. First off, I've been to most of the the easy places. Secondly, many of our neighbouring countries have visa requirements. I travel so much that I may never be able to leave my passport in the Russian embassy for six working days, for instance. Does someone know if I can get a second passport in Finland for this purpose?
Secondly, a day trip works best when I can fly direct. A six hour wait in Copenhagen or Frankfurt will not help, as getting to a ski area also takes time... at least a few hours both ways, and I obviously want some time at the area as well. This time I could probably return early Monday as well, but in general, it is not easy to find flights. Particularly when I do not want to pay for that last remaining business class seat.
Here are the European countries that I have not been to yet:
- Iceland: Difficult to find flights that get there early enough on the day.
- Ireland: Is there snow or indoor skiing?
- Lithuania: I'll do this someday, as there is a very interesting indoor ski place. But it seems like a waste to do it during the winter. And there no direct flights on Sundays.
- Belarus: Requires a visa.
- Russia: Requires a visa.
- Greece: No snow, ever.
- Portugal: No snow?
- Hungary: The best ski area closed two days ago.
- Ukraine: No visa required, great! But is there something to ski?
- Romania: Is there snow?
- Croatia: No easy flights, but otherwise this would be very interesting. Could I drive there from Milan?
- Bosnia-Herzegovina: Is there snow?
- Serbia: I know nothing about this place. Snow?
- Moldova: No visa, great! But is there snow?
- Montenegro: Snow?
- Monaco: No snow, ever. (Or is there?)
- Albania: This would be great, is there snow? Are there flights?
- Macedonia: I know nothing about it.
- Kosovo: I know nothing about it.
- Bulgaria: Is there snow?
Photo credits (c) 2013 by Jari Arkko
Some extra info...
ReplyDeleteSerbia: There are great ski resorts in the south of Serbia, might even be snow left.
Romania: Skiing is supposed to be decent in the Transalvianian mountains, might be snow left.
Greece: They actually do have ski resorts, but here the snow if probably gone by now, and they are a ways from Athens.
Croatia: The mountains are pretty far from Milan. Would be better to fly to e.g. Vienna and drive down.
Bulgaria: They surely have snow still, and supposed to be great mountains for skiing.
Sorry for posting in Finnish, but this is not that relevant for non-finns :)
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Lithuania is quite a short drive from Riga (where you can definitely get flights to/from)...
ReplyDeleteThank you both for the replies!
ReplyDeleteI also got some information from my friend Jarmo, like Zach pointing me to ski areas in Greece (http://www.gtp.gr/skicenters.asp) and Cyprus (http://www.cyprusski.com/main/default.aspx?tabid=4). How did I miss Cyprys? Unfortunately, there is no snow left in their ski areas and no money left in their banks :-)
For Greece, Hiutale crew was there few years ago:
ReplyDeletehttp://hiutaletv.blogspot.de/2011/02/greece-and-best-people-in-world.html
Kimvais: Unfortunately, the ski arena in Druskininkai, Lithuania is on the wrong side of the country. 4:58 hours from Riga airport and 4:57 hours from Warsaw airport :-)
ReplyDeleteActually, I'm getting a bit desperate by now. I was keeping Lithuania as the backup option, but I'm not sure I can find anything. Croatia was looking good for a moment, but then it turned out that their open ski areas aren't open on weekends, only on weekday evenings...
No skiing, that I know of, in Ireland, but they did have a horrendous blizzard 2 weeks ago that still left villages cut off this week.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-22016519
Mark: As I was searching for possible destinations, I came across this interesting artificial slope: http://www.skiclub.ie Unfortunately, they closed yesterday. And won't be open when I'm Dublin next month :-(
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