Weekend ski breaks are the new ski travel package. Gone are the days when skiers had no choice but to book a holiday months before they wanted to go, plump for the Saturday to Saturday snarl up at Geneva Airport, and find there was no snow in their resort. Now it's freedom from Thursday to Monday, plenty of elbow room at the airport, and three days of power skiing, or maybe even powder skiing, in some of the world's best ski areas.

France especially has had a great start and is all set for a bumper season. Not only are the snow conditions superb but the airfares out of the UK are holding steady on last year in spite of rumoured oil price hikes. And skiers are not just coming out by air on short ski breaks. IgluSki are offering a three day weekend ski break by sleeper bus, leaving London's Victoria Station on a Thursday evening, three full days piste bashing in Meribel, and back on Sunday night for a mere