There are thousands of families, or couples in which some may not want to ski but would like to take in the total ambience of some of the best European ski holiday resorts. Take chalet ski holidays as an example, these usually have comfortable lounge areas where both skiers and non skiers can relax, read, or just chill out. Later of course there is the evening meal, prepared for you by the chalet girls and boys, many of whom are cordon bleu trained cooks, with the wine flowing like water at your tables.
It may surprise many, but non skiers can find lots to do in some resorts whilst their skiing partner or friends are throwing themselves about the mountain! Non skiers can use lift facilities to meet the skiers at a mountain restaurant for lunch before strolling through the shops or visiting tempting coffee shops or cafes for pastries that are tempting, which we cannot refuse. Then, in many resorts, you will find designer shops displaying up to the minute fashions from French, Swiss and Italian design houses.
St Moritz has about as much to do off the slopes as on them! Up market shops for you to wander through, or you could go curling, take a train ride, or see men coming down the famous Cresta Run toboggan run.
Cortina is a fashionable resort where you will experience as many fur coats with dogs on leads being led by the wearer as you are ever likely to see. Experience wonderfully long lunches in this traffic free town followed by a stroll around the Italian designer shops.
Zermatt is really special sitting below the Matterhorn, to which you can take a fabulous cable car ride to the top and have lunch with your friends. This village is really pedestrian friendly and non skiers can get about in gondolas, chair lifts and trains.
Kitzbühel which is rightly famous for the downhill course called the Hahnenkamm as well as Franz Klammer, downhill world champion, is a delightful village of cobbled streets and very elegant hotels. With a casino, swimming and easy accessed day trips by train to Salzburg and Innsbruck, Kitzbühel is an ideal base for the non skiing partner.