My husband and I really want to hit the slopes this winter but he is a lot more advanced on the skiing front than I am, so I'm trying to find a resort with friendly slopes for both of us... any suggestions? oh, btw we are totally reliant on public transport!
Cheers
Second Flumserberg - absolutely lovely - you take the post bus from the train station. As I recall there aren't that many buses (probably 2 an hour) so worth checking the times and making sure you get a "connecting" train.
Laax is another favourite area of mine for mixed groups.
I also love Arosa because it's car free - so you can only get there by train. Not a daytrip from most places since it's a slow train up there but worth it for a long weekend or something.
Meiringen.
Leukerbad.
Flims.
Davos.
Grindelwald.
Many many others! Honestly most places do cater to all abilities.
I would pick a few places you can get to in a day, see which ones you like and go back there, then schedule a week somewhere further afield.
And pretty much everywhere in Switzerland you can get to by train and bus. Most Swiss people take their ski holidays by train (because the train can always get there - cars tend to have trouble in snowy places!)
Have fun, and always rent your ski gear before you go (assuming you don't have your own).
How about trying to find another couple in the same situation- as it can be very boring to learn on your own outside lessons- and can be frustrating all round (your man might be the exception to the rule, but I've seen some 'disasters' on the slopes with a proficient man screaming at his partner (same for driving, windsurfing, etc..) Hope you enjoy it - and don't forget to tell us how you get on.
Flumserberg is good too, but as it's so close to Zurich, It gets very crowded. Davos (Parsenn) works for mixed abilities too. I suggest you avoid Jakobshorn (another of the Davos areas), as it's not great for beginners, and has lots of people who think they're expert racers...
Arosa is not bad for beginer/intermediate. Hoch-ybrig is good (but gets quite crowded too) Davos has some areas that are quite flat for beginners and plenty to keep others interested too. Pretty much everywhere in CH is really good for mixed levels. The two things I would say is that Amden (Arvenbuehl) is really good for total beginners and Engelberg is pretty bad for beginners.
Check out this site for more info.
Ther are a couple of ski socials in Zurich soon, get along to one of those and you'll get plenty of tips.
Buy yourself some comfortable boots, don't look at the price get comfortable ones: probably those with the most buckles are best as they can be adjusted better. Buy ski socks when buying the boots (All women get cold feet, it's a biological fact) You must be able to wriggle your toes inside all this insulation!
I really recommend you take lessons in the morning. Meet for a sandwich and then go skiing with husband on the blue slopes during the afternoons. Don't ask husband for lessons, just to be there and give you confidence.
The trick with skiing is to look at the slope and decide which way you can get down it by doing long sweeping zig zags. As a beginner avoid narrow connecting slopes where there is little room to turn. If you are going slowly to medium fast you won't hurt yourself (much) when you fall over.
Oh, and if you can't be bothered waiting for one of the free buses, you can walk from the train station to the ski lift on the main slope ...
Think outside the box. The best resorts in Switzerland are actually the ones that are not that famous. The famous resorts or the easiest accessible ones charge too more for the privilege of going there. Flumserbeg is actually quite a small resort and charges similar prices to some of the very large resorts. If you travel a little on to Pizol (about 10mins) you get less people and something like a 10CHF (if I remember rightly) reduction in ticket prices!
There are hundreds of hidden gems if you can be bothered to not going to the well known places.
Pig headed you need to be and stick at it- and you will crack it.
I'd advise any newbie snowboarders to stick to resorts with bubble lifts or modern slow/pick up/drop off chairs so you can master turns etc before having to cope with pomas or t-bars. Great beginners area from Super Nendaz- wide, gentle, bar at bottom for hot chocolate (or ?? but booze does NOT help).
Riding the t-bar with my son worked okay since we went to the slope with t-bars on the third day (& with our group & instructor!). Also, I'm natural, he's goofy-footed, so we could be balanced. Poma ... is that the one with the knob? Slightly less comfortable, but more stable - less trouble for me, but too high for my son to reach alone. The pony one, where you had to hold onto the bar sticking out from the moving belt, slaughtered my shoulders - but was easiest on which to keep the board under me.
I think my ease of learning was helped by the fact I'm a primary school teacher - I'm used to kids laughing at me, so falling flat on my face or butt in front of effortlessly-mobile kids didn't phase me. Just kept trying until I got it right! There weren't too many bruises left after a week ...
Easy with public transport: direct train to Sierre and then post bus.
Thank to to everyone for the suggestions, I think I'll try Flumseberg during the week just for a day trip, maybe do a couple lessons to improve my skiing without the hubby and look into the other resorts suggested for a long weekend! In Feb we did a long weekend to Saas Fee and that was great but I found the skiing for novices a little limited but still a beautiful village