Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Ski trip to Innsbruck

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Ski trip to Innsbruck

Hi all, I'm planning a ski trip to Innsbruck in Feb. I'm uncertain if my group of 13 will like staying in a "city" and travelling each day to the slopes. My questions are how far are we from each ski area and which ones will be suitable for high intermediate skiers? Diane

Diane, Check out GoSki.com at http://www.goski.com/austria.htm They have all the specific information you need, plus resort reviews, distances etc. Good luck...planning for 13 is a daunting challenge! Jan

Another great help could be ski-europe.com. We went to Innsbruck through them a couple of years ago and had a great experience. They also have good info on their web site.

I think the basic question you need to ask is whether you want the variety and amenities of a rather large city (with the accompanying traffic, the time and problems of driving each day, etc.) or whether you want a more typical "ski resort" experience. On the several ski trips to Europe that I've made I've always opted for the latter because I pretty much have the former where I live (Boston). The experience of walking out of the hotel with your boots on and skis over your shoulder and strolling a couple hundred yards to the gondola that leaves from the center of town is just too good to pass up, IMHO. I would also think that a party of 13 might want to avoid the logistics of getting self and gear into the cars each morning and evening. If you are "high intermediate" skiers - the European term is "advanced" - I can highly recommend Ischgl, where I went last year. It's a lovely Alpine village with a huge ski area on the Austrian/Swiss border about an hour or so west of Innsbruck. Very snow sure, with the most modern lift facilities I've ever seen anywhere. Skiing across the border into Switzerland adds to the fun. Ischgl has a well-deserved reputation as a party town, but has some elegant hotels as well. I also particularly liked the fact that it's largely unvisited by Americans and Brits, so has more of an authentic feel to it - as opposed to, say, Grindelwald, which I love but which caters to English-speaking guests so much that you at times feel like you haven't left home.

OOPs Try again Diane:

Guess I cannot use the 'tab' key..thats strange.... Diane: Dick makes some very good points. I have skied all over Europe and the magic is the staying at the site! Innsbruck is a nice town to visit but it is a big city that has its traffic problems as well. I know America has great packages to Innsbruck but how about a resort like Lech, St. Anton!!. That has the best of all ski worlds. Another quieter area near Innsbruck is Seefeld. Known more for cross-country skiing ,but has some nice alpine slopes. There you can also ski Mittenwald and Garmish! JOHN

Seefeld is awesome village. Great train ride also. We enjoyed our trip to Innsbruck there are plenty of free ski busses. Stubai, Slick 2000 {sp?} Kitzbuel. PJ

Thank you all for your reply. I have thought of staying in Lech, but money is an issue. Innsbruck "deal" seem resonable. Our group has always stayed either ski on ski off locations or close by. Last years trip to Squaw had us driving quite a bit in lots of traffic. I'd like to avoid the driving. Two members of our group do not ski. Is it easy to take excursions from smaller villages to places like Vienna? Diane

Diane: We also thought Lech would be expensive, however we put together a nice 4 star resort property for about 12,000 AS That included the Lift Tix for the week, Bus transfer from Zurich, Rooms, two meals a day (4 course dinners)and local ski busses to Zurs, St. Christof and St. Anton. Stayed at Egon Zimmermans Gastehaus ( He was the 1960 Downhill Gold Medal winner in the Innsbruck Olympics! Great Gentleman! Great Skiing! JOHN

Our extended family group of 10 had a trip planned, ticketed, and paid for to Innsbruck last Xmastime (had to be cancelled for several reasons), and we chose Innsbruck b/c of the many options of where to ski, including the Stubai, where there's always snow. Perhaps in Feb. that would be less of an issue, b/c there should be good ski conditions "everywhere" by that time. It also seemed that there were some ski areas suited to particular levels of ability, so everyone could get what he/she wanted. Another consideration was that some of our group don't ski, and there are many places close enough for day trips (if long days!). We received info on excursions to Luzerne, Venice, Salzburg (and some closer destinations) but not Vienna. It is over 300 mi. from Innsbruck--pretty much requiring an overnight. We did a smaller family ski-in, ski-out vacation a couple of yrs. ago in Fr. Alpes, and that was wonderful and certainly much easier access to the slopes, but would not have been good for those wanting to do excursions, etc. Seems to me that Innsbruck provides the best of two worlds and fairly inexpensively, also. Have a wonderful time!