The Best Ski Resort For: Laundrettes

La Plagne, France

In 12 years of scouring the world for ski-resort statistics, my research agency, Snow24 (www.snow24.com), has compiled all the numbers you need to find the world's biggest lift-served vertical (Chamonix, 2,807m) or the resort with the most five-star hotels (Seefeld in Austria's six beats St Moritz's five). Take it from me that Flachau in Austria has more six-seater chairlifts (seven of them) than anywhere else, and that Zermatt's 10 cable cars are the most of any resort.

In 12 yearsof scouring the world for ski-resort statistics, my research agency, Snow24 ( www.snow24.com), has compiled all the numbers you need to find the world's biggest lift-served vertical (Chamonix, 2,807m) or the resort with the most five-star hotels (Seefeld in Austria's six beats St Moritz's five). Take it from me that Flachau in Austria has more six-seater chairlifts (seven of them) than anywhere else, and that Zermatt's 10 cable cars are the most of any resort.

But if you have a penchant for the less well-known resort data, Snow24 has the answers there too. The most laundrettes in a ski resort in the world for example? La Plagne in France takes top place with eight.

If, on the other hand, it's more important for you to know there's a hole-in-the-wall cash machine on every snow-covered street corner, your best bet is to head for the US or Switzerland.

The American resort of Taos in New Mexico is famous for many things including being one of the few surviving ski-only resorts (no boarders), but remarkably few people are aware that its 20 ATMs set it above other North American competitors. Is this a marketing opportunity lost? The historic and cosmopolitan centre of Chur in Switzerland scores the equaliser for Europe, also with 20 machines to visit and enjoy.

Health care is high on the list of priorities for many skiers. If you want to be safe, your best bet is the Swiss resort of Davos, which has a dozen hospitals and health centres – surely enough for every eventuality. If dental work is a more pressing concern, look a little further north to Garmisch in Germany, which employs 34 dentists, more than any other ski resort. If your needs go beyond the physical, then religious provision might be of interest. For the greatest choice of places to worship, stay in Innsbruck in Austria, with its 39 churches, though only two of them are Protestant. Interestingly, Innsbruck's 15 post offices are also a ski-resort world record that its marketing department has failed to capitalise on.