Short heavy snow season with warm summers in Europe?

Supercell

I was wondering where you would like to retire to if you were going to decide purely on a weather basis?

You must go somewhere with warm summers and it must be in Western Europe preferably (near a Ryanair served airport would be good too).

I love a good deep snowmaggedon but after a few weeks of it I find the cold and inconvenience starts to wear thin (I lived in Annamoe in Wicklow for 4 winters two of which had snowmageddons ).

I was thinking somewhere like Grenada in southern Spain might be a runner. Warm in summer, not to cold in winter but on the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas mountains. Malaga Airport would be about an hours drive away so pretty good for visiting family back home, or for them coming out to you. It doesn't get much snow itself but lots and lots of it is pretty close.

Food in Spain is also about a third cheaper when Ireland so it seems like a good choice (at least it seems that way when we went on holidays there a couple of years ago).

What would you choose?

Harps

Can't say I've given my retirement any thought just yet but purely from a climate point of view Northern Italy would probably be my choice, nice hot and prolonged summers with frequent thunderstorms and varied winters with a mix of severe cold and mild spells. Both the Alps and Mediterranean are within easy access to escape/enjoy the extremes in both seasons so what more could you ask for!

maquiladora

I'd have to break the rules and go for somewhere like southeast Florida. Hot summers, mucho thunderstorms and of course tropical cyclones (inland a bit from the coast, in a well built house).

patneve2

Apennines in Italy (Eastern flank) at circa 900-1000 metres. Warm (but not oppressive) in the Summer and sometimes very snowy during the winter months due to lake effect snow from the Adriatic. Outside of Europe Hokkaido in Japan would be my choice, one of the snowiest areas on the planet, with pleasant summers, amazing

ltdslipdiff

I'd have to go with Andorra....beautiful scenery,lots of snow in the winter,france up the way, spain down. What more could you ask for?

Supercell

Northern Italy looks good, maybe somewhere like Milan. I like the sound of Andorra too, hadn't considered there. I haven't been there either yet, maybe somewhere to check out next year!

patneve2

Supercell wrote: »

Northern Italy looks good, maybe somewhere like Milan. I like the sound of Andorra too, hadn't considered there. I haven't been there either yet, maybe somewhere to check out next year!

Wouldn't like Milan in my old age, one of the most polluted cities in Europe! (even though it does get at least 2/3 heavy snowfalls a year and countless spring/summer thunderstorms). Bologna in Northern Italy would be my choice.

mitosis

Northern Italy. Turin, eg.

Dick Masterson

mitosis wrote: »

Northern Italy. Turin, eg.

Reading about the climate of that region today on Wikipedia and it's actually a very dry area because of the rain shadow created by the mountains. The other side of the Alps in southeast France is the best for snow and it's warm, too.

hardCopy

Les deux Alpes for me. Virtually year round glacier skiing, great weather and lots of mountain biking in the summer. Otherwise anywhere with access to water and mountains, Lake Garda or Como would be pretty sweet.

From a practical point of view I'm not sure I'd retire permanently overseas. It'd be great for a few years until you reach an age where you need regular lifts to hospital and stuff, a lot to be said for staying close to family at that point.

Larbre34

Italian lakes, up around Como city. Spent a few weeks there last September, beautiful summer warmth, clean air and environment, mahoosive thunderstorms, idyllic winter weather with skiing just a short distance away, just an hour by road from Milan for the big city necessities and 2 from the Med coast, and near to numerous airport serving Ireland and Europe. Bene!

eskimocat

From the looks of things a large group of Boardies might find themselves living next door to each other in Northern Italy... lol

I loved Iceland when I was there, but was only there for a quick trip... still think I would like somewhere quite northern like that. Not a huge sun worshipper so don't need high temps. Also love a good thunderstorm, so would have to do a bit of research to see where might give the best balance of all.

fits

Been in Finland the last year. The summer has been lovely. Still sunny and 21 degrees today but I don't expect that to last much longer. If the summer was as long as the winter and the winter as short as the summer, it'd be grand. they could do away with April and November (the damp and cold months) altogether too.