WTSS has a section in the book (and soon on the website)dedicated to making resort selection easier.
 
Each edition carries 21 or so shortlists, giving the top resort choices (in our opinion) for a wide range of categories.
 
What we want to know is: what other categories would be helpful to readers when choosing a trip?
 
For example - how about resorts with access to thermal spas? or the top ten resorts for fast lifts?
 
Let us know what you think…
 
Wendy

i thnk there are many reasons which may influence a persons choice of resort,from my own pont of view the reasons i decided to buy an apartment in BSM where-snow reliability and height of skiing avialable,altitude difference between top and bottom lift,ease of access via plane,train or automobile,cost of a weeks skiing,authentic local cuisine,minimal lift cues and crowds,expanse of ski area and variety of terrain,proximity to other resorts for daytrips in other ski areas.I have probably only mentioned the usual suspects here,but i think you are right about spa’s,massage facilities etc as not everyone who goes to a ski resort ski’s or boards,a lot of visitors go to resorts just for a break in the fresh air and to be pampered.Also i think childcare facilities and childrens ski classes are under investigated and should be higher on resort catagories and information pages.
jon.

I remember in the early days of WTSS,  I made myself a little cardboard cut-out template that I could lay across the pages of resort verdicts with holes cut out representng the features I was particularly keen on and this enabled me to count how many stars were revealed and thus the resort most likely to meet my requirements.  (I thought about patenting this as an early form of analogue computer but discoverd that Charles Babbage had got there first some 200 years ago.)  In those days, my "computer" came up with Valmorel and that is the resort to which we have remained faithful for nearly 20 years (though we have been to many others).  Is there a program these days into which you could tap your ideal requirements and it would instantly come back with a shortlist?

Have you looked at our shortlist builder on the ‘resort review’ page? Select your top three requirements and you get a list of resorts with scores for compatibility.
 
I wonder though, if we need to add more catergories to the list though - any ideas?

First of all I think WTSS should stick to snow sports. The single ?others? table is sufficient. Leave the guide to winter mountaineering, under ice scuba diving and massage parlours etc to others who perhaps have more experience of these things.
 
The inclusion of these lists is, of course controversial. Every one who reads them will disagree with at least one entry in each category (I would put Pralognan la Vanoise amongst the list of the most beautiful resorts). They are there to provoke discussion and interest in that that part of the ski holiday. They are things to talk about during the autumn.
 
Anyway my categories to include are:
 
Busiest pistes
Worst lift queues; much more interesting than the largest percentage of fast lifts
Best resort for a weekend trip (some obvious ones such as Flaine may not make it due to the large influx at weekends from nearby large cities)
Best resorts to visit at Feb. half term. (I suspect there will be a huge demand for this one which will defeat the objective)
Worst resorts for claustrophobics (I have a friend who has panic attacks in funicular and little telecabins!)
Resorts with the most drag lifts.
Resorts with the easiest access from the UK
Resorts with the cheapest access from the UK
 
And some really interesting ones:
 
The 10 toughest black pistes (after all you wouldn?t think of Avoriaz from the list of 10 toughest resorts, yet it has one of the toughest pistes in the world)
The 10 longest red runs (vertical and length)
The 10 longest runs possible without stopping (marked pistes only)
 

Since it was me who put Wendy up to starting this discussion, I am somewhat embarrassed to find that we had a similar one last year in the Book feedback topic. I think what I should delicately ask Wendy to do now is scour that discussion for ideas, and post here a full list of current ideas for people to add to.
 
I should say, though, that the idea of shortlists is as an aid to choosing a resort. Some of the top tens John has suggested are very interesting in themselves, and we should perhaps be thinking of publishing them, but they don’t really help anyone decide where to spend their hols. So Wendy: focus on the Best for a weekend type of idea, not 10 longest red runs ...
 
Chris

OOO. Yes, I do remember that one now you mention it.
 
Funny, but I just suggested a ‘best for weekends’ idea in an email to you… having thought that Schladming should certainly make the top ten.
 
Will set to the list as soon as I get back from the Austrian powder.

Suggestions we have so far then are:
 
Resorts good for weekend/short breaks
Resorts offering the shortest transfers
Resorts uncrowded even in peak season
Biggest verticals
Best resorts for cross-country skiers
Best spa resorts
Resorts where you’ll spend most of your time on the piste, not the lifts
 

further suggestions…?
 

I know this isn’t exactly what you’re asking for but would be a good feature to have with all resorts - have a footnote about the average snowfall throughout the season for say the past 3 years. I have seen these on other websites and give you a really good indication of when the most snow falls.
 
Another couple to possibly add - most disorganised airports (Turin and Lyon spring to mind). Or how about most customer friendly resorts?

I largely agree with Wendy’s selection, but with the comments below:
 
Resorts good for weekend/short breaks ? yes, could be useful
 
Resorts offering the shortest transfers ? apart Les Arcs (advertised as a 7 minutes transfer), most of the other resorts are about the same until you move into the over 4 hour category
 
Resorts uncrowded even in peak season ? specifically mention school half term
 
Biggest verticals ? yes
 
Best resorts for cross-country skiers ? yes, but the really good ones may not have much of a mention in the rest of the book, for example ski touring in Norway
 
Best spa resorts ? Anyone really interested?
 
Resorts where you’ll spend most of your time on the piste, not the lifts - actually I would rephrase that as ?not in lift queues?. I hate standing in the queues (sticking poles between the legs of pushy kids etc.) but do not mind sitting on a lift watching the world go by.
 
Though worst airports for the journey would have some interest, my opinion is that most of the problems lie at the UK side. I flew from Luton to Geneva during the summer with EasyJet and it was 20 minute checkin and 45 minutes to get through security at Luton (let us leave aside problems with the roads getting to the airport). Lyon airport on the other hand is a dream ? you are usually walking out the airport door 20 minutes after touchdown and there is rarely a problem if you arrive for the flight 45 minutes before takeoff (2 years ago I misread by departure time and arrived for the flight 30 minutes before takeoff. It was no problem at all).
 
IMHO the book really could do with a list of contacts for airport transfers, as this is rapidly appearing to be the most difficult part of orgainsing a ski holiday.
 
John

Interesting suggestions John. Thanks.
 
Most of the list was compiled from reader suggestions in a previous forum thread - so, the spa resorts one was a reader request (and we have since had another). Probably won’t make a shortlist, but would be useful to compile some information for those interested.
 
Nothing concrete yet - just gathering ideas.
 
Agree on the airport transfers - we will certainly be improving this aspect in the near future.
 
As for "worst airports" etc - I think that it might be better to look at the positives, such as Chambery and Grenoble; regional airports that are quieter alternatives to nearby larger ones. My experience of Lyon was of long walks, crowds and the like - we hated it, but then it was transfer day (Saturday)! Chambery was a delight.

hi,i agree with the smaller regional airports bit,although i do use geneva on a regular bases my airport of choice is grenoble,from the plane to the car hire check in desk is only a straightline distance of about 150 yards,and takes about 15-20 minutes to dis-embark ,go through passport check and collect the luggage and out the main door to the car hire kiosk.If only the airports in the uk were like this(mind you i always travel midweek to midweek and take the early 6am or 6.30am flight from luton).
jon.

I have never used Grenoble airport - apart from picking up a friend there once - and Chambery was so forgetable I cannot recall a single thing about it (this must be very good).
 
I have used Lyon a lot and do not recall any long walks, or crowds, but then again I usually go on a Friday and return on a Sunday night or Monday morning. However, they always appear to be doing some work to the car parks and approach roads so getting to the 30 minutes free parking space to drop someone off can be slow. The car hire is a bus ride from the terminal, which can be a bit of a hassle.
 
Like Jon says above,it is only about 20 minutes from the flight touching down to walking out the door. Perhaps this is the way things should be.
 
(Tip for car hire: find out the companies that are a/ linked to an airlines web page, and b/ the company offering the very lowest rates, then cloose another. This way you can easily save an hour or more in picking up your car for the cost of only a few euros. I tend to use Sixt).
 
From my observations Lyon caters mainly for the business market and as such has a rush first thing in the morning and again in the early evening. The rest of the time it is very quiet.
 
The other reason, and probably the real reason, that I use Lyon is that it is relatively cheep and convenient to get to. Now that Air France have taken over the route previously operated by BA from Birmingham, (before they transfered their european operation to FlyBe)I can get a flight late on a Friday and return early on a monday morning.
 
For the record my list of least favoured airports are:
 
Gatwick - miles from anywhere, so near the channel you might as well just keep driving!
Heathrow - old, crowded, inconvenient if you have to change terminals
Stanstead - Getting there is very unrelaiable so you have to allow hours for the journey, car parks miles from the airport.
Luton - Well it may be better when they finish the road works - and EasyJet introduce self checkin and security gets sorted.
Manchester - big, slow security and checkin, extremely slow baggage reclaim
 
(Do I get a feeling these airports all have the same overseas owner?)
 
Almost all of the resort airports are much better than this list.
 
The good ones that I have used in the UK are:
 
Ronaldsway (is the IoM in the UK?)
Birmingham
Coventry (though car parking is a bit of a problem)
Glasgow.
 
I do somtimes wonder why we get so excited about the resort airports when the convenience and quality of where we depart from is probably a larger factor.
 
John
 
Any other views and observations

hi john,with car hire i have always used Autoeurope-0800 169 9797,this is a company that has offices in Manchester but are actually based in Maine ,New England,the car hire company they deal with at geneva,grenoble,lyon etc is Europcar but are actually much cheaper than going direct to Europcar themselves.As you rightly say do not use a car hire firm linked to an airline (easyjet and easycar for example,the deal i got on a car through Autoeurope for £134 would have been £198 if booked through easyjet/car),with a little hunting poeple going abroad and sorting out thier own arrangements can make considerable savings.
jon.

Hi guys
 
I reckon we should start a new thread with this info and keep this one for the shortlist suggestions…
 
But before we do: Lots of interesting stuff here though. Had an interesting one with Hertz the other week. Turned out to be cheaper to book the car direct with them for a pick up in Salzburg, than through Ryanair (who are partnered with Hertz and claim to give the best deal!)
 
Signing off to start the new thread on useful airport info and car hire…
 

Happy Christmas everyone.

Just a thought and cf.  my contribution to do-it-yourself of a couple of years ago,  another useful bit of info would be:  nearest filling station to airport when dropping off the hire car. At Grenoble,  it is (or was a year ago)  a tiny SuperU in the nearby village of St.  Geoirs.  Lyon has an on-airport PFS and at Geneva we use the one under the World Trade Centre right next to the airport for Swiss side or the one on the road in from Ferney Voltaire for French side.  On car hire,  any of the guides such as Travelsupermarket.com will give you a good choice of deals from the various hire companies.
Rose