Croatia

Three golds and a silver at the Winter Olympic Games is a some achievement by any standard. That they were won in 2002 by a Croatian athlete is even more heroic when you consider that Croatia has very little in the way of skiing pedigree.

Ok, so Janica Kostelic trained in Austria. But there are ski resorts in Croatia and they're worth a visit, especially if you're staying in Zagreb and you've got a day or two in hand.

The closest resort to Zagreb is Sljeme. Based on the northern side of the Medvednica Mountain, it has a handful of runs of varying difficulty and a couple of lifts to get you back up top. It's not going to blow your mind, but for the sheer convenience of being able to get there by tram from the city, you could do a lot worse than waste a couple of hours at Sljeme over the weekend.

For ski or snowboard lessons, your only real option is the Croatian Olympic Center at Bjeloasica. Again, easily accessible from Zagreb, Bjelolasica is the ideal weekend location for brushing up on rusty skills before heading up to the Alps - or elsewhere. The resort is larger than Sljeme, but more reliant on its snow cannons.

The ski season for both resorts runs for three months from late December. If you're looking to go skiing or snowboarding in Croatia later in the season, you should find snow on the slopes of Platak (about 180 kms away near Rijeka) till May. There are six lifts there and some great runs through the trees.

Cost

Croatia is still a great option for skiing or snowboarding on a budget in Europe. A six day adult lift pass can be less than €60 ($95), which is hard to beat.

Getting here

There are regular flights from most major European airports to Zagreb. Aside from Sljeme, which you can get on a tram from the city centre, the other ski resorts in Croatia are best accessed by shuttle bus transfer. Zagreb to Platak takes about 90 minutes.