Love Alta Badia? Where to go next for the easy runs, the long lunch or the view

Madonna di Campiglio is the closest match to Alta Badia we measure, anywhere, and it is in Italy too, beneath the Brenta Dolomites. It is a family resort by our read, like yours, with grooming on its list of what it does best. The village sits at 1,550 metres, 18 below Alta Badia's, and the skiing tops out at 2,496 metres, measured, against your 2,509. On height you would barely notice the move.

On the snow it skis like home, and in places kinder. Madonna's blues average 12.9 percent against your 14.4, and its reds 19.7 against your 21.7. Eighteen percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against 15, and there is more at the top end: 17 kilometres of black, against your 7.5. For a family with one strong skier who gets restless by Wednesday, that is the better split. Around the village we measure 115 kilometres, against 125 around Alta Badia.

On snow the two are close. Sixty one percent of Madonna's piste is above 1,800 metres, against your 65. If snow is the thing that worries you, read the next route instead.

The trade is the circuit. Madonna's ski area is 155 kilometres, all three sectors joined by lift, which is bigger than Alta Badia's own sector and about a third of what you can reach from a Sellaronda base. And the mood shifts from warm to smart: we class Madonna as upmarket as well as family, sociable and stylish, where Alta Badia is the more relaxed of the two.

If the best part of an Alta Badia week is easy, sunny cruising, and the nagging worry is the snow, go to the Matterhorn. Cervinia's village is at 2,050 metres, the third highest of the 55 resorts we cover and 482 above yours. It is snow sure by any reading of our test: 99 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, against your 65, and the skiing reaches 3,869 metres, measured, the joint highest of the 55, though that top is the Klein Matterhorn, reached over the Swiss side. The season runs from late November to May.

It is every bit as gentle. Fifteen percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, exactly your figure, and 39 percent is gentler than 15 percent, against your 40. Its reds average 18.1 percent, the fourth gentlest of the 55 we cover and well under your 21.7.

The trade is the map, and it will look wrong to you. Cervinia is 72 percent red, with 24 kilometres of blue and easier against your 76. By the gradient those reds are kinder than Alta Badia's, so a confident blue skier will cope, but a nervous one will see a lot of red signs. The village is built for skiing rather than for wandering, which is a change from the Ladin villages you know.

Size is the other catch. We measure 116 kilometres around the village, against 125 around Alta Badia. Over the top it links to Zermatt for 322 kilometres, measured, but that needs the dearer International pass and the high crossing can close in wind. Treat Zermatt as a day out, not as the size of your week.

If what you love is the food first and the skiing around it, Saint-Martin is the French answer. It is an old Savoyard village inside the Three Valleys, traditional and quiet by our read, and food is on its list of what it does best. Evenings are quiet, which will suit anyone who likes Alta Badia's.

The map gets bigger. The Three Valleys is quoted at 600 kilometres and it is genuinely joined by lift, though we have not measured the whole of it ourselves. On the quoted figure that is more than the 500 or so you reach from a Sellaronda base, and it is one linked area rather than a circuit. Around Saint-Martin itself we measure 75 kilometres, so most of that size is a ski away rather than outside the door.

It is higher where it counts. The village, at 1,450 metres, is 118 below yours, but 75 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, against your 65, and the skiing around it reaches 2,691 metres, measured. It is snow sure on our test, with a bit more margin than Alta Badia.

The trade is some of the gentleness. Twenty percent of the piste here is steeper than one in four, against your 15. The reds measure almost exactly like yours, 21.9 percent against 21.7, but French blues run steeper than Italian ones, and Saint-Martin's average 16.6 against your 14.4. There are 50 kilometres of green and blue, and 6 of black. We do not class it as a family resort, and children used to Alta Badia's blues may want a day to settle in.

Part of Alta Badia's pull is skiing under mountains that look painted. In Switzerland, that is Grindelwald, beneath the north face of the Eiger. It is postcard pretty and traditional by our read, a family resort like yours, and you can arrive by train.

The skiing is a near twin. Fifteen percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, the same as Alta Badia, and 42 percent is gentler than 15 percent, the third highest share of the 55 we cover, one place above yours. Its reds average 18.3 percent, the fifth gentlest of the 55, and Swiss reds run a touch kinder than Italian ones on average. We measure 132 kilometres around the village against your 125, and 150 kilometres is reachable from Grindelwald's own lifts. There is more for a strong skier too: 19 kilometres of black, against your 7.5.

The trade is height. Grindelwald's village is at 1,034 metres, 534 below yours. The skiing tops out at 2,496 metres, measured, close to your 2,509, but only 59 percent of the piste is above 1,800 metres, against your 65. There is also less blue: 55 kilometres of blue and easier, against your 76. Go for the view and the gentle runs, knowing that height is what you are giving up for them.