Skiing holidays traditionally take place in prestigious Alpine ski resorts like Verbier and Chamonix. France, Austria and Switzerland are the undisputed ski capitals of Europe, with American and Canadian ski resorts having established excellent reputations on the other side of the pond. But the glamour is fading. To borrow from the French, Alpine ski holidays are just so…well, passé.

For those after something a little more interesting, a little more off-the-beaten-track and a little more unusual, here are three ski holiday destinations you’ve probably never thought of.

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With a new year comes a new selection of travel deals. And a difficult choice: take to the snow of the mountains or escape to the warm waters of a tropical beach? Fortunately, we’ve found discount deals for both options.

To stay updated on our travel bargain finds you can . . .

• go directly to our travel hot deals page;

• or, get a Kindle subscription to our travel blog;

• or, perhaps best of all, subscribe to our RSS feed and get all of our travel posts delivered directly to your email inbox or to your RSS aggregator;

or—why not?—act on all three of those options.

Please note that all of the offers below are for a limited time. Happy high-value travel!

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Visit the site of the Whitepod ski resort in the Swiss Alps between April and November and what you’ll see of it is . . . nothing.

You’ll see no roads. No electrical wires. No place to stay. Just a 19th century farmhouse and a pristine alpine meadow that’s just begging for some von Trapp kids to twirl around in it Sound Of Music style. The views of the snow peaks from this place 1,700 meters (5,600 feet) above the oceans might be the grandest untouched mountain vista in Europe. “Untouched” being the key word.

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