France Ski resort with something for non-skiers

AFTER A TRIP TO DUBLIN AT CHRISTMAS WITH OUR THREE ADULT CHILDREN, WE WOULD LIKE TO ADD ANOTHER COUNTRY EN ROUTE BACK TO SYDNEY. WE HAVE CONSIDERED SKIING BUT WE ARE NOT ALL SKIERS. ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR SKI RESORTS THAT MIGHT APPEAL TO THE NON-SKIERS?

L. WALDON, COOGEE

Chamonix in France could be a good fit. It's a gorgeous mountain resort and the scenery around Mont Blanc is fabulous. Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics so the skiing is high grade and access is easy. Chamonix is 88 kilometres from Geneva Airport, about 1 hour 45 minutes on the SAT Mont Blanc buses (sat-autocars.com) and you can fly non-stop from Dublin to Geneva with Aer Lingus or Swiss International in about two hours. One caution – the skiing is more suited to experienced skiers looking for challenging runs and off-piste powder.

Another option is Innsbruck in Austria. This requires a one-stop flight from Dublin via one of the London airports, and preferably Gatwick from where easyjet has cheap non-stop flights to Innsbruck – other airlines are vastly overpriced.

Set on the floor of the Inn Valley on the banks of the Wipptal River and ringed by the snow-covered peaks of the Nordkette mountain range, Innsbruck feels like a time-travel shift into a Hansel-and-Gretel fairytale. There's superb skiing just a few kilometres south on the slopes of the Patscherkofel ski area, venue for the Olympic Winter Games in 1964 and 1976. As well as world-class downhill skiing, you have a broad choice of other snow sports, including cross-country skiing, ice-skating, tobogganing and snowshoeing. Using Innsbruck as a base, the skiers could explore some of the other ski areas in the vicinity, such as Seefeld, Mayrhofen, St Anton, but there's plenty in and around Innsbruck for the non-skiers to enjoy.

Innsbruck to Zurich, the closest city with one-stop flights to Sydney, is 3½ hours by train.