The alpine village offering a serene snow escape just minutes from Hotham

It's so quiet here." It's the first comment my son makes after we park outside our chalet in Dinner Plain. The wintry gales that you often hear whistling through ski towns are absent, leaving the eucalyptus leaves to hang limply from the village's many snow gums. Patches of snow on the ground help absorb nature's chorus. And noise pollution from motor vehicles is non-existent.

Unlike nearby Mt Hotham, there are no shuttle buses continually ferrying snow lovers back and forth between the ski slopes and their accommodation. Where Hotham's lodges and hotels are strung out along a ridgetop three kilometres long, the freehold properties at Dinner Plain splinter off a circular ring road called Big Muster Drive. There's no need to catch buses; it's possible to walk anywhere. And walkers are something we come across often, mostly accompanied by their dogs. Dogs are banned at Hotham, but not outside the resort boundaries at Dinner Plain. That's one matter the two neighbours haven't agreed on. Otherwise, they seem to get along fine.

Dinner Plain was named in the late 19th century, when horse-drawn travellers on the road between Omeo and Bright would stop for a midday meal at the mountaintop. The area remained underdeveloped until 1986, when Australia's only freehold village above the snowline officially opened. The houses strewn across the plain at the time resembled cattlemen's huts. Pleasingly, those huts define the village's architectural style today. New housing materials are restricted to timber, local stone and corrugated iron, and eyesores like antennae, fences and washing lines are outlawed. The resultant look is uniquely appealing, so much so that it isn't long before I'm browsing through real estate pages online.

Most visitors arrive at Dinner Plain by car, just like they do at any other ski resort in Australia. It's a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Melbourne without stopping. At Hotham, 14 kilometres along the Great Alpine Road, you can unload your car outside your lodge before having to relocate to one of several overnight parking areas beyond the village. As part of the resort entry fee, Hotham provides a free village bus service during the snow season, from 7am to 12.30am each day. These shuttle buses will ferry you back to your lodge.

At Dinner Plain, you can park in an allocated space outside your door. Then when you want to access the slopes at Hotham, there are two options.

Entry permits to Hotham include day or overnight parking. Permits cost $64 per vehicle each day. Vehicles may seat up to nine passengers before additional costs apply so for larger groups, it's cheaper to use your own transport. For the average family comprising two adults and two children, you can take your pick.

The alternative is to catch the Dinner Plain-Hotham shuttle bus from one of four stops within the village. Buses depart hourly between 7am and 10pm. Return tickets include resort entry and cost $21 per adult or $13 for children. But here's the twist: the Hotham to Dinner Plain leg is free, so it's effectively a one-way ticket.

Every time I've skied at Hotham, I've bedded down overnight in a lodge in the village. This is my first time skiing at Hotham but staying at Dinner Plain.

Our accommodation is in one of Club Wyndham's self-contained deluxe suites that are separate from the hotel. It contains two bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs. At ground level, there's a kitchen, living room, laundry, drying room and balcony.

It's all perfectly cosy but we don't take advantage of our kitchen, which would help save on costs if we stayed in and cooked. Instead, breakfast on our first morning is at Club Wyndham's Elements restaurant and bar while that evening we dine at Namara, a Japanese pop-up that opened for the 2024 snow season.

Other dining and entertainment options include the Dinner Plain and High Plains Hotels, and the Big Muster Distilling Company. To fuel up on coffee, there are three cafes in town.

After the first day's skiing, we soak our tired muscles in Dinner Plain Onsen's Japanese-inspired heated outdoor pool. We're meant to join a Howling Huskys sled dog tour on our second afternoon but are forced to relocate to Mt Hotham due to insufficient snow on the ground at Dinner Plain. Our thrilling 30-minute tour winds between snow gums and features outstanding views across the Dargo Valley.

Hotham is considered to be Australia's extreme skiing hotspot but the backcountry runs beyond the Orchard quad chair are closed on this particular weekend. Everything instead funnels into Heavenly Valley. The highlight for us is definitely First Tracks. From Wednesday to Sunday, the Heavenly Valley lift opens at 7.30am, allowing early risers the chance to ski on perfectly groomed slopes before they're inevitably cut up by ski and snowboard traffic.

Expert skiers will love the challenging terrain on offer at Hotham but its Achilles' heel is that it isn't really a ski-in-ski-out resort, so staying 14 kilometres away at Dinner Plain isn't a major inconvenience. In fact, it's no hassle at all. I love the homely feel to the village and would happily stay there again.

The writer was a guest of Club Wyndham, Mount Hotham, and Bright and Surrounds.