2009-11-11 09:21:19 - With over 2000 ski resorts and ski areas in six continents, it can be a difficult decision choosing a destination for your skiing holidays.

A lot depends on where you live of course. If you’re fortunate enough to have a home in one of God’s own hilly regions, then you’ve already overcome one of the major hurdles of skiing holidays – getting there. For you, the option of a short ski break, and a cheap short ski break at that, is an enviable possibility.

You’ve still got to choose the resort, but that’s a decision that friends living in more vertically-challenged places would be only too glad to have to make.

In the UK for example, there’s the option of skiing in Scotland, which – given the right weather conditions – can be a blast. There’s also a decent artifical slope. But when most people there think of European ski holidays, they think of ski holidays in the Alps, or further north in Scandinavia. And that involves a flight.

Countries such as France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland share amongst them some of the oldest and most famous resorts in the world. While a few of them show their age, many are modern and well equipped, with lift systems to cater for the annual mass onslaught of international visitors.

One of the real benefits of European ski holidays is that many of the ski areas are linked, giving you access to literally hundreds of trails on the same lift ticket. Ok, the price of the ticket might reflect that, and finding a really cracking-priced skiing week, or a really cheap snowboarding weekend can sometimes be a challenge. But at least you won’t get bored.

That’s not to say European ski holidays – or ski holidays in general – can’t be done on a budget. They can. You just need to know where to look for the best deals.

As far as Northern Hemisphere skiing and snowboarding is concerned, the other obvious destination for ski holidays is Canada and North America. There’s a huge range of terrain there, vast ski areas, and arguably some of the best skiing and snowboarding anywhere in the world. As you might expect, resorts are geared up for visitors, and the trails are wide and well-groomed.

Unless you live nearby of course, your options for a cheap snowboarding weekend or short ski break are still going to be limited. But Canada ski deals are easy to come by and can represent surprisingly good value over ski holidays elsewhere.

Another key factor when planning skiing holidays is the standard of your group. Go as a family and you could easily find yourself trying to please experts, beginners and non-skiers alike.

Fortunately, ski holidays with child care are now popular, meaning you no longer have to go without your ski fix just because you’ve got young children in tow. For anybody new to the sport and a little nervous about committing to an entire week on the hill, there’s also the option of a ski weekend for beginners, which will have you back at work on Monday morning wondering why on earth you didn’t stay for the week!

Even if you’ve been on skiing holidays before and loved the resort you were in, the decision to go back to the same place is not always as easy as it might seem. Weather can be unpredictable and there are no guarantees that just because last season was a bumper year for snowfall, this one will be too.

Of course, that’s where we come in. Fresh Peaks is here to help you make sense of all the unknowns and to offer some friendly advice on where the best snowfall is at the moment, where you can find the best Canada ski deals, which resort offers the best value ski weekends for beginners, where to go if you’re looking for ski holidays with child care, or simply which country or resort we’d pick for cheap snowboarding weekends.

There’s a mass of possibilities. So have fun and see you on the hill!

Visit www.freshpeaks.com today to book your next winter adventure.