Mad Dog Resort Guides

Mad Dog Resort Guides give you the insider knowledge to several ski resorts in the Alps. The company was established in 2004 and to date, Mad Dog has published guides to Courchevel, Meribel, Tignes and Val d'Isere. St. Anton, Verbier and Zermatt are next on the list. If you are new to a resort, Mad Dog Guides will save you the hassle of wandering around like a gourmless twit so that you can get onto the slopes looking as though you've been around for weeks. Each guide costs £10, which you can buy online through their site.

The guides are spiral bound, small enough to fit in your pocket and strong enough to survive the odd tumble (waterproof). Within the guide's 200 pages, you will find information on where to ski (with proper piste ranking), where to have fun apres ski and where to eat in the midday sun. Every inch of the resort has been furiously skied in the name of research and each restaurant recommended in the guide has been visited by one of the team. The guide will tell you where to shop whether it's for hiring skis or buying groceries.

The website gives you an overview of a guide's contents so if you are new to Mad Dogs, this is the place to start. It won't take you long to realise though that they are the business.