Nigel Williamson flew just before the latest fares cut with TWA via St Louis for pounds 346 return he stayed at the Californian

Nigel Williamson flew just before the latest fares cut, with TWA via St Louis for pounds 346 return; he stayed at the Californian Hotel (001 415 885 2500) in the city centre for $89 (pounds 53) per night. Now, you can fly non-stop from London Heathrow to San Francisco on British Airways (0345 222111), United (0181-990 9900) or Virgin Atlantic (01293 747747). The latter has a “MegaSaver” fare of pounds 307 return, including tax, if you book before 25 January.. Belgium isn’t most people’s first choice as a skiing destination. It wasn’t mine, either, when I decided to see off the old year on skis: I wanted to go to Scotland. But December’s cold fronts had taken a wrong turning somewhere over Poland, and Scotland’s snow was delivered to England by mistake.

The bad news on the Scottish ski “Hotline” forced me to look elsewhere. The specialist ski travel agencies I telephoned were bemused by my next plan They had never organised a one-day ski package to the Alps. And, politely enough, they made it clear that they were not going to start now.
A little detective work solved the problem. I knew the cold weather was coming from the east – but by which route? Ignoring Michael Fish and studying the bottom right-hand corner of the television screen, I discovered that it was travelling via the Low Countries.

One phone call to Belgium, and I had the good news: the snow was excellent and the forecast poor.My new plan formed. The dirt-cheap (pounds 49) overnight London-Brussels route by train, ferry and train would get me into a hire-car (not so cheap, at pounds 69 for the day) soon after 8am, and I’d be in the Ardennes for a late breakfast; coming back I would have time for dinner in Brussels before catching the 11pm to London. The day-trip Eurostar offer to Brussels (pounds 49 return, and bookable only until Monday) was no good to me because the earliest train gets in only at 11.26am. But the overnight schedule was perfect: leaving London at l0pm I could spend the whole next day skiing and be back home at 7.15am the morning after.Ski in the Low Countries? The majority of you (I stand almost alone in my affection for Belgium) will have spotted an obvious error here.

As you know it, Belgium is heavily into chips, light on famous people, and as flat as a bored Briton driving through it to get somewhere more interesting. But the Ardennes forest, in the south-eastern, French-speaking corner of the country between Liege and the German border, is a vast, rolling ocean of pine trees; and though they hardly exceed 700m in altitude, the hills have nine “alpine” ski areas, and a further 49 offering other winter sports, mainly cross-country skiing.I headed first to Thier des Rexhons, just outside the town of Spa – where the water comes from. At 540m, it offers little more than one long nursery slope, plus one of everything else: lift, restaurant, ski-hire shop. The coincidence of snowfalls within the New Year’s holiday had left the piste in poor shape, with a fair amount of vegetable and mineral matter poking through; but the ambience on the slope was terrific.