Go leisure skating in Switzerland on your hols…

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Lots of people enjoy walking and bicycling holidays. Why not go leisure skating on holiday?

We did our research and found the perfect place to go leisure skating. Its in Switzerland and its referred to as a skaters paradise. There are almost as many skaters there as cyclists.

Here’s the plan….

Rhone – Lake Bodensee Skating Holiday
August 8th-16th
August 16th-23rd
August 23rd-30th

Guided by qualified skate instructors we will roll between 20-40 km per day along smooth paths. Pittstops will help to break up the routes giving you the opportunity stop a take your skates off if you feel like it.

Opportunities will present themselves for bathing in lakes or lakeside swimming pools and to stop for refreshments by the waterside. You may need it. Average temperatures will likely rise to 30c at this time of year.

Switzerland’s lush climate makes it very green all year round. Some follow railways, canals or the perimeter of the lake passing through lush green meadows, woods and farmland to every now and then reappear near to bathing venues or lakeside cafes.

We will also travel along the banks of the Rhine in the Rhine valley where the magnificent Swiss Alps will be visible on either side.
We will stay in a beautiful and typical hotel in a natural surrounding environment in the lakeside town of Rorschach. Rorschach is on Lake Bodensee – or Constance.

We will visit typically European towns and villages in the area for shopping or sightseeing trips – or just more skating if you prefer?

Interested? Find out more at Skate Escape

Skate-Escape holiday. A review from a very happy customer.

Flew into the lovely Zurich airport and delivered myself into the hands of the lovely Linda and Debbie, once Tessa, Larry, Adam and Joshua arrived we set off back to the hotel in Staad. Arrival went smoothly and we were soon unpacked and ensconced in our lakeside hotel.

Debbie took us on our first skate around the area, a nice meander that introduced us to the area. This was the first time most of us were out together, some of us were on recreational skates and some on speed skates, but everyone was enjoying themselves. We all stayed together easily, after all this was a holiday not a race, and I think the happy smiling faces at the end proved this.

The evening meal was a nice relaxed affair, the food was great and we were well looked after by Mike and Madeleine who seemed to be our waiters for the week. Alexandra, the hotel proprietor was always available as well, so all in all we were rather pampered.

Next day we had a lovely skate along the Rhine from Trubbach to Schaan covering around 18km before ending in Liechtenstein for lunch. After the roads around London, the skate along the Rhine was an amazing car-free pleasure, smooth and flat with other users happily coexisting with us.

Monday was rather wet, but we had decided to skate with Dierk and his group of 30 skaters from Germany who were over to do the 111, even though it was raining that did not diminish the enthusiasm of everyone involved. But I have to admit keeping up with them was interesting at times, until I found out the back of my jeans was rubbing the back wheels of my skates, once removed all became a lot easier, so slaphead of the day award for me. The skate ended at Konstanz where we were witness to some spectacular skating off the end of the pier into the lake by Linda and Dierk with others just jumping in, while others availed themselves of the local baths.

Tuesday, we skated from Rorschach with Debbie leading, a nice touristy skate ending at Romanshorn where there were some skate ramps, where upon Debbie gave us a demo, though the rest of us were rather reluctant to try, so cheered her and Linda on from the sideline. We then decided to skate back but the rain caught us, so we stopped for ice cream and called for the van to pick us up.

The group split up for Wednesday, some decided to go into St Gallens while the rest of us skated to a lovely little restaurant with a fantastic mountain view before joining up with the others and heading back to the hotel. Joshua and Linda even did a steep hill climb that tested their skating.

Thursday was picked up from the little restaurant we ate at yesterday, whereupon we skated along the Rheine via Werdenberg castle finally ending up at a great swimming pool to round out the skate.
Linda then took us to a fantastic oval skate track near the hotel where we got to watch some professional skaters making it look so easy, then, with the enthusiasm of Linda behind us we also had a go. Now skating on an oval even one as smooth as this didn’t look difficult, boy was I wrong. We got the track to ourselves for a little while, maybe we scared the professionals off. But Linda was talking to Aaron Arndt who had been there since March training. Now this guy could skate and he offered to let us skate around the track with him. Now I know he was really taking it easy and slow but he was absolutely amazing to watch and to skate with him was an amazing experience. After I guess 25 laps Linda and Aaron were the only ones still going, then he turned up the pace and was literally poetry in motion, still not seeming to be racing but easily gliding past everyone. After some big thank yous we headed back for the evening meal.

Friday we moved hotels to the centre of Zurich, sad to leave Staad but we had a lovely skate around lake Griefensee before lunch and heading into Zurich. Local skater, Alonzo and some friends put together a great skate around the centre of Zurich so a big thank you to Alonzo for organizing it as well as Tony, Carston, Mark and Stefan for looking out for us. Zurich is a great place to skate smooth wide streets and the traffic seems happy to coexist with us.
Saturday was the leaving day, some left early others like me later in the day, so we had a little wander around the area on skates, leisurely lunch before leaving for the airport. It was a great wind down day in glorious sunshine and by that time I think we were all happy to leisurely skate around.
I did get to race back to the hotel to collect my bags with Linda, needless to say she won, but was really good fun to be able to let loose without having to watch for taxis aiming for you.

On average we covered between 15 and 20 miles a day, in safety, with beautiful views and glorious weather.

The big question is would I do it again? Yes, it was an absolutely amazing experience.

My heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who made this an experience to remember but especially to Linda for organising this, and Debbie for helping.

So Linda, when is the next trip?