ski in the Hanover area

Hey there,

Does anyone know if there's any ski area, small or large, within a reasonable driving distance from Hanover (2-3 hours)?

thanks!

mich

The closest skiing area to Hannover is in the Harz, it is Hahnenklee-Bockswiese near Goslar.

http://www.hahnenklee.de/englisch/index.htm

http://www.bocksberg-seilbahn.de/pics/karte_winter.jpg

Driving time is approx. 1 hour, but check whether they got snow before you go. It is Germany's most northern ski area, some years they do not get any snow at all. Right now they should have some, but this also means that all accomodation is booked solid over the weekend.

Another skiing area in the Harz that is a bit further away is Braunlage. Both Braunlage and Hahnenklee got HI Youth Hostels, this will be cheapest if you travel alone.

If you go to the Harz region I can strongly recommend that you visit Quedlinburg too. It is another hour of driving time from Hahnenklee, but only 1 hr 40 min from Hannover. The old city of Quedlinburg is really nice, it is on the list of UNESCO world heritage sites.

[ Edit: Edited on 29-Jan-2009, at 09:53 by t_maia ]

T_maia's recommendation is definitely the best option for outdoors and Quedlinburg is indeed very pretty.
If you want to make sure though, there's snow you could always go to the Snow Dome in Bispingen, an hour north of Hannover.
Probably not as good as the real thing, but for a day trip it might be fun.

Another good skiing town is Winterberg which is about 2.5 hours from Hannover. It's very crowded on the weekends but there is usually pretty good snow as they use canons and the slopes are alright, too, if you're standards aren't too high (it's obviously not the same as in the Alps).

http://www.winterberg.de or http://www.skiliftkarussell.de (in German and Dutch)

I can also recommend Willingen as it isn't quite as crowded, you don't need to wait at the lifts for as long as in Winterberg and the slopes are actually better in my opinion. Plus there's a bear in an enclosure right next to the slope
It's about 3 hours from Hannover.

http://www.willingen.de or http://www.skigebiet-willingen.de/

Hope this helps,

butafly