Travel Link Co - Ski travel links skiing travel link ski hotels ski accommodation ski transport ski packages Ski switzerland skiing links

Travel links for Switzerland Feature:  Switzerland Winter sports

If you holiday in Switzerland you don't have far to travel to one of the many resorts which also attract foreign tourists to the country in winter. But sport never stands still, and in recent years there has been an explosion in new sports and in new ways to practise traditional ones. While some developments are serious attempts to take sport further, others owe more to their inventors' ability to think up ever more unlikely variations on old themes. Looking for Ski accommodation Click HERE     Even such a traditional winter sport as skiing has evolved thanks to the use of new technology. One popular development is carving, which makes use of new materials and a radical new design - short skis, narrow at the waist and wide at both ends - to enable skiers to imitate the tight turns made by snowboarders. A variant of carving is snowblading, where the skis are curved at each end. More controversial is heliskiing or heliboarding, where visitors are flown to inaccessible high mountain regions from where they can ski down glaciers. But there are moves to ban the sport - already forbidden in several European countries - on the grounds that nature should be left undisturbed. SKI WEAR & Camping equipment         Although skiing is regarded as the prime winter sport, tobogganing and skating have an even longer history in Switzerland and are widely practised, with travel links to all. Snowshoes have become more and more popular in recent years, with many resorts laying on trekking and races. They offer an ideal opportunity to non-skiers to enjoy the winter landscape. Here too the designers have been busy, finding ways to make the shoes equally good for going uphill, downhill or on the flat.         Direct Travel Link SEARCH HERE Holidays to Switzerland 0845 22 50 49 2

There is arguably no cosier place to stash your cash or do business. Easy to access yet free of rush or crush,

set by a limpid lake, Lugano combines serenity with secrecy, ladled with lashings of la dolce vita because this

is not so much Switzerland as Italy with organisation.

Turn south out of Malpensa Airport, and an hour's journey will bring you to Milan. Turn north, and in

fractionally less time you can be in Lugano, strolling along the flowered lakefront or enjoying an aperitif at

an outdoor cafe.

Alternatively, a short air trip across the Alps from Zurich or Bern brings you to Agno airport, a tiny cluster of

buildings less than 15 minutes by shuttle from the city centre.

Little wonder, perhaps, that Switzerland's southernmost city, nestled in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino,

is on the cusp of overtaking populous Geneva as the country's second largest banking centre after Zurich.

The gnomes of Lugano don't go home to lunch as they do elsewhere. They go out to lunch in crystal-clinking

eateries or earthy, rural 'grottoes' serving sublime risotto or game, and are happy for you to join them.

They may even pick up the tab. And, for certain, they will smile and enjoy a drink.

The Ticinese wines are excellent, most consumed locally, with little left for export.

Then there are the nut and lemon liqueurs.

Lugano people have character and flair, tempered by that streak of number-crunching, tax-efficient,

keep-the-rest-of-the-world-at-bay attitude that is forever Swiss.

You pay for the privilege of being here; in exorbitant taxi fares, and higher-than-average rates for a

luxury hotel room that may be some local designer's Greco-Roman idea of heaven. 

But everything works and the service is spot on, in a dozen different languages. Author Herman Hesse is a

local hero, buried along an exclusive mountain road with houses and villages inhabited by the rich and famous.

Tourists cruise the lake by the boatload in the summer months, hike or bike in the surrounding hills and pour

through the pristine medieval villages of Morcote and Gandria, although mostly choosing the neighbouring and

more leisureoriented lakes of Como or Maggiore.

For the remainder of the year, Lugano is left to enjoy a much warmer and sunnier climate than the rest of

Switzerland at a leisurely pace, hosting high-level business meetings at its elegant hotels or at the

multi-purpose congress centre with its adjacent casino.

The city is keen on spas, or ˜wellness centres" but never to the exclusion of year-round food, drink and fun.

Too many notables were caught with their pants down in the Loreta district, so the bordellos here have been

shut down; although a casual enquiry will always point one in an alternative direction.

TLC 0845 22 50 49 2

+ 44 845 22 50 49 2