I’m thinking of taking my wife skiing this Winter, i’ve been a couple of times myself before (Serre Chevalier, Schladming and a few of the smaller resorts in Germany for weekends). I did enjoy Serre Chevalier, but much preferred the social side in Scladming (And the prices!). The only thing that puts me off going back to Austria is the low altitude resorts, and how they would stand up in a mild/poor Winter?

Does anyone have any experience of the higher resorts in Austria (Or elsewhere with a similar vibe)? I’ve looked at Ischgl, but it seems to be very busy and the Apres might be a bit ott, don’t get me wrong i love the Apres, but Ischgl sounds like the Alpine version of Magaluf and i did that to death in my 20’s.

So basically i’m looking for somewhere with a great snow record, good for beginners/intermediate (With a bit of off piste) and fairly good but not mental nightlife… The moon on a stick? 😕 Any help appreciated, cheers.

Lots of info here.

Obergurgl is sounding good to me. Many of the French/Swiss resorts have loony tunes long transfers, which puts me off!

I was in Niederau last year in the Wildschonau valley. Great resorts for beginners and intermediates. I guess I might have been lucky but the snow conditions were some of the best I’d ever experienced – and that was in mid-March.

Although it’s fairly low altitude itself, it’s a 10 minute bus ride from getting onto the Ski Weldt at nearby Hopfgarten which is a bit higher up and has great snowmaking facilities, as well as being a huge ski area.

Going by what you’re looking for, you might also want to consider Sestriere in Italy as well. Highest resort in the Milky Way ski area.

Spindleruv Mlyn in Czech Republic. Loads of snow, dozens of pistes, German and Norwegian girls last time I went so entertainment aplenty, especially after dark 😉

Thanks for the info so far, i’ll check them both out. I’ll probably be driving, so transfers won’t be an issue.

Sestriere is a good one, too. However, if you’re driving, Les Arcs is rather nice. Not the prettiest resort, but 1950 is meant to be nicer, yet you’ll find a load of great skiing.

Les Arcs / La Plagne, great for the intermediate / beginner, you can do a different run almost every time, top to bottom blues from the glacier to well below the tree line.

Spindleruv Mlyn is well connected with Germany road-wise. 10hrs from France, some 700 miles if you take the E40 IIRC.

Lots for me to mull over there, thanks all. The thread that CFH linked is a wealth of info too, cheers.

good int. resort in Austria is Obertauern, village is at 1630m and top lift is at 2313m. This is high for Austria and makes it a snow sure resort when other lower resorts are strugling.

http://www.obertauern.com/en/

It is deffo a int. resort, but also has good off piste for the more advanced skier along with a few cracking black runs. A total beginner may struggle as the resort is mainly blue and red runs, of which some blues would be red in some resorts and some of the reds would be easy ish blacks also. A good beginner will be ok and will no doubt improve a lot over the week but a very timid beginner will struggle. Obertauern is a little gem that many (non German/Austrian) folk dont know about but it is getting more known in the last few years with Brits etc.

No matter where else you go or how hyped a resort is i and my m8, who has been skiing over 30yrs both agree that Obetauern is up ther with the best of em.

kitzbuhel is another good int. resort but is low in altitude.

Spindleruv Mlyn is well connected with Germany road-wise. 10hrs from France, some 700 miles if you take the E40 IIRC.

Only go there if you like queueing at lifts more than you do skiing.

If you were looking at Ischgl, have a look at Fiss-Servaus-Ladis. We were there last winter and I was really impressed with the area. They have around 190km of pistes catering for all abilities and there is a small but active apres ski scene if you want it or there are some quieter bars too.

Havent skied in Austria but others I have been in that would fit that requirement would be:
Sauze D’Oulx
Mongenevre
Andorra
Canazei/ Dolomites

God no, not Sauze D’Oulx. Old, badly linked lift system, crap apes ski although allegedelly good.

Risoul in the French alps is a good place, but quiet ish nightlife

Les Arcs is a one stop shop, literally all things to all people.

You can’t go wrong there.

The first (and only) time I went snowboarding we stayed in Neustift in Austria, which is about 10km from the Stubai glacier.

There wasn’t a massive amount to do there, but was enough bars/restaurants for us. I’d only had 4 lessons on a dry slope before we went, but got on OK & the friends we went with who can snowboard a lot better than I can had plenty of routes to keep them occupied.

We stayed at the Schoenherr Haus, which was really nice.

The missus has done 2 weeks skiing now – morzine and la plagne. I’ve been boarding 15 or so holidays so an intermediate.

La plagne was much more suited to her, some really nice blues, wide with mellow gradient which had a little bit of interest off to either side for me (tree lines to board through, wee little jumps etc..)

Both of us had a great time. Not to many drag lifts either. Beer was silly expensive (probably same at any resort, just the first time I’ve really noticed it so much)

la plagne is perfect, took my 5 year old son, nice wide blues, with a few morning lessons he was on reds by the end of the week. You can also link up with les arc but to be honest there’s plenty to ski in la plagne.