Love Arosa? Where to go next for the family week, the snow or the gentle runs

Of the French resorts we cover, our matching puts La Plagne closest to Arosa, and it keeps more of the package than anything else. Our village figure is the same, 1,800 metres. We tag both as family resorts, and our read of La Plagne is a big, gentle area that families love, with beginners on its list too. The season is the same December to April.

Then it scales everything up. Paradiski, which La Plagne shares with Les Arcs, is 425 kilometres, nearly twice Arosa Lenzerheide. Around La Plagne we measure 202.5 kilometres, about 20 more than around Arosa and the fifth most of the 55 resorts we cover, with 127.9 kilometres of green and blue, about 31 more than your blue and easier. The skiing reaches 3,022 metres by our measurement, 174 above Arosa's top, and 80 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 65.

The easy runs will feel the same: La Plagne's blues average 15.5 percent, against Arosa's 15.4. The hard end changes shape. La Plagne has 28 kilometres of black, the fourth most of the 55 resorts we cover, against your 14.5, but those blacks average 25.5 percent against your 32.4. More black, gentler black.

The trade is the country. La Plagne is practical and friendly by our read, and modern, where Arosa is a gentle, sunny Swiss bowl, and you fly to Geneva or Chambéry rather than Zurich. There is less marked itinerary too, 3.0 kilometres against 8.5.

Across all 55 resorts we cover, our matching puts Sestriere closest to Arosa, and on one count it beats it outright. The village is at 2,035 metres, the fourth highest of the 55 resorts we cover and 235 above Arosa, and 91 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 65. Three quarters of it, 75 percent, is above 2,000 metres, against 38. It is snow sure on our measure with room to spare.

The size carries over reasonably well. The Via Lattea is sold as 400 kilometres, but the standard pass covers the Italian lifts only, roughly 305 on our own subtraction, since no source publishes an Italy only figure. Around Sestriere we measure 160 kilometres, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover and about 23 fewer than around Arosa. Its share of gentle piste is the same as yours, 35 percent, and its blues are gentler still, averaging 12.0 percent: only one resort we cover has gentler blues.

The trade is the family feel and the middle of the mountain. We do not tag Sestriere as a family resort; our read is high and practical, purpose built. There are 49.8 kilometres of blue and easier, about half Arosa's 97, and 30 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against your 24. Its top, 2,788 metres, is actually 60 below Arosa's. Fly to Turin.

If the best part of an Arosa week is the whole family on easy runs in the sun, Alta Badia does that with Italian food. Our matching ranks it second in Italy and it keeps the family tag; our read is warm and welcoming, with cuisine, the Sellaronda and families on its list.

It is gentler than Arosa. Only 15 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against your 24, and 40 percent is gentler than 15 percent, the joint fourth highest share of the 55 resorts we cover. Sixty one percent of what we measure is blue and easier, 76.4 kilometres, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. And on the snow, one figure matches exactly: 65 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, the same as Arosa.

It is smaller around the village and bigger beyond it. We measure 124.5 kilometres around Alta Badia, against 183, and its own sector is 130. From a base on the Sellaronda, around 500 kilometres is reachable by lift, though that is our own approximate sum. The Dolomiti Superski pass covers 1,200 kilometres across twelve areas, only four of them joined by lift.

The trade is height and bite. The village is at 1,568 metres, 232 below yours, and the skiing stops at 2,509, 339 below, which only just clears our snow sure line. There are 7.5 kilometres of black against your 14.5. Fly to Venice or Innsbruck.

If the strongest skier in the family now wants more, Lech is our closest Austrian match and keeps the family tag, with an upmarket one besides; our read is refined and snowy. We measure 174.8 kilometres around it, against 183 around Arosa, so the size is close. The Arlberg's total is not classified in our data, so that measured figure is the one to go by. And you can still fly to Zurich.

The difference is the hard end. Lech has 26 kilometres of black against your 14.5, 33 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four against 24, and it has 56.1 kilometres of marked itinerary, the second most of the 55 resorts we cover, against 8.5. There is still plenty of easy running, 79.1 kilometres of blue and easier, though its blues average 17.0 percent against your 15.4.

The trade is height. Lech's village is at 1,450 metres, 350 below yours, and the skiing stops at 2,440, 408 below. Sixty one percent of its piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 65, and it sits near the line we use for snow sure; we have not called it either way.