Romania

Had there been night skiing back in the late 1800s, Count Dracula would surely have faced quite a conundrum: go lurking in churchyards for some borscht-flavoured ready-meal or skip dinner, strap the lid of his coffin to his feet and hit the powder.

Because as well as being the supposed home of the aforementioned neck nibbler, Romania has some pretty awesome snowfall. Its mountains may not be as extensive as the Alps, but with snow often sticking around well into May, there are more than enough reasons to justify skipping not just one, but all three of your main meals.

The key ski resorts in Romania are Poiana Brasov and Sinaia. Both are situated a similar distance from Bucharest (Sinaia's fractionally closer at 125 kms) and can be reached by car or coach - making them ideal weekend destinations.

Sinaia is the bigger of the two resorts, with more pisted terrain, higher runs and plenty of après ski. Two cable cars take riders to the highest point of the mountain - just over 2,000 metres (6,651 feet), making the longest run home about 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) in descent and around 6 kms (9.6 miles) long.

Poiana Brasov has about 800 metres (2,624 feet) of vertical, 12 pistes in all (including Olympic and slalom runs) and a couple of jumps. But you shouldn't get too bogged down in stats, because Poiana has some of the best off-piste in Romania. Better still, if you've been rewarded with a dump of snow, chances are there'll be a lot of it - which means plenty of first tracks.

There's also good intermediate-to-advanced skiing and riding at the resorts of Busteni and Predeal.

Cost

Prices here don't exactly break the bank. An adult lift pass in Romania starts from around US$10, while US$50 will put an ample choice of hotels within reach - all of which makes a refreshing change from the Amex-maxing prices of some Western European ski resorts.

Getting here

Bucharest is the main access point for ski resorts in Romania. There are plenty of direct flights from major European cities, several on budget carriers like Ryanair.