Falls Creek

If you are more of a boarder than a skier and your priority is to come away having mastered a few sweet new tricks then Falls Creek, four and a half hours drive from Melbourne, is the resort for you. As the country’s free-ride and freestyle capital – the resort has four terrain parks for you to explore depending on your abilities and don’t be surprised if you see a big name or two working on their airs and grabs beside you.

Fox Trail is the terrain park designed for kids so best you try and avoid that unless you have a child with you that you can ‘blame’ for your presence. Panorama Park is home to a few more grown-up, yet not completely terrifying, features where the risk of seriously injuring (or embarrassing) yourself remains relatively low. When it comes time to step it up a notch – the Ruined Castle Advanced Park is the next step and is probably best avoided unless you consider yourself to be of a certain standard. The Ruined Castle Expert Park is a place where you can expect to seriously injure yourself if you don’t know what you are doing. To help you understand what you’re contending with – it’s dubbed the “Big Daddy” of terrain parks. If this title alone terrifies you, probably best you stick to watching!

If you bruise like peach and would rather stay away from this type of risky business, you can always head cross-country and explore the 65 kilometers of trails that the Australian National team use to train. Make sure that you take along a camera as these trails present plenty of photo ops across the Kiewa Valley and Bogong High Plains.

When the sun goes down and you aren’t tired yet, there are a range of fun bars to explore until the wee hours where drink deals, live music and flavoured vodkas reign supreme. Particularly popular are The Frying Pan Inn and Tom Dick and Harry’s Après Ski Bar.

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