Anyone been skiing in Austria? Family of 4 <BR>(2 teens) over the holidays - mostly inter. aftera day or so! Any suggestions for resort, hotel/inn, etc.??? Thanks.

LC: <BR> <BR>Lech! One of the greatest ski resorts in all of Europe! Expensive but doable with their ski week packages <BR>JOHN

Checkout Solden and Obergurgel in the Ötztal of Austria west and south of Innsbruck. Many nice places to stay. <BR>We rented a furnished apartment for a week that was quite nicely appointed. The apartment was in Haus Michael in Längenfeld. It has a website that will tell you about it, in German. But the owners, Frederike and Erhard Schöpf speak passable English and will be happy to assist you. The rate in season would run you about $55-60 a night for two bedrooms and an eating/dining area with a kitchen corner that has a refrigerator, stove, oven, and all of the implements. <BR>Skiing is the main winter source of revenue in the valley, so the whole economy is geared toward it. <BR>

I guess apologies to LC may be in order for "poaching" on his/her original post, but maybe this will help us both out. We're considering skiing in Ischgl, Austria in March after having been to Grindelwald for the last few years and I'm wondering if anyone has any opinions or recommendations.

LC: I skied in Austria last February and stayed a the Gray Bauer (Grey Bear) in Innsbruck. One block away from the historical district, and ski bus pick-up to take you to the mountains. I found the prices very resonable. Skied north of the town and in Kitzburl(?) You'll love it. Skiing in Europe is not as 'friendly' as here in the states; less people to assist you and the trail signs are definitely not as good. But go anyway. I highly suggest you go on the web to Alpineadventures.net. Or you can call them, ask for Libby, at 1-800-755-1330. Seven of us went on a guys get-away. Get this, round trip from Miami to Munich, chartered bus to Innsbruck right to your hotel, 7 nights, great breakfast each morning, all for $825. I don't work for Alpine but I must say they put together a good package. They use Lauder airlines, and if your not familiar with Lauder, they're one of the best, each seat had their own TV. <BR>Have a great time and the food is great. <BR>Auf Weiderzahen!

I would second Lech/Zurs. Excellent snow record, beautiful village, some stunning hotels.

It's been several years, but we went to Filzmoos and found it friendly and reasonably priced.

OOPs. It is the &Ouml;tztal in Austria.<BR>I think the text recorder on Fodors butchered the umlaut over the O.<BR>In case it does it again, the alternative is Oeztal, using an e to designate the umlaut. But there a lot of ski runs up in those hills.<BR><BR>And the word Bauer means farmer in German, not bear. Bear is der B&auml;r.<BR>I think the hotel to wich you have reference is the Hotel Grauer B&auml;r. It is a 4 star establishment with rooms going for 153 e nightly in ski season.<BR>

On the Yahoo news today there was a story about a mother and her sons taking a ski lift near the end of the day at an Austrian resort and oops, while they were halfway up, the lift operator forget anyone was still on the lift, closed it down and left. The mom and her kids sat up in the freezing cold (it's been very bitter lately) and she finally jumped off the lift (a 26 foot drop), walked down 30 minutes (frostbitten along the way) to find someone to help her...what a story! By the way, I highly doubt this would ever happen to anyone here, it's an extremely unusual story and no one loves Austria, winter or summer, more than me, but the story seemed apropos to this thread<BR>here's the link: <BR>http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/2002...lift_dc_1.html

Unfortunately I have to tell that the story IS TRUE. As I was told the mom was badly injured on her spinal column. She was only able to creep away. Finally a ski run worker saw her. It happened in the Grossglockner area, I am assuming it must be in the ski area of Heiligenblut.<BR><BR>Ingo

Dick, to respond to your question about Ischgl, we skied Galtur/Ischgl several years ago and just loved it. We spent most of our ski weeks in Austria near Salzburg (Wilder Kaiser region) and loved it, but were completely won over by this tiny corner of the country. We could almost literally walk out of our hotel onto the lifts, there were not huge crowds, the powder skiing was terrific, and you could ski down the back of the range into Switzerland if you wished. I am a cross-country skier and the trail between the villages was only okay, but the downhillers were in heaven. Think you'd enjoy it.

Wow what a story!! It is very relevant to me since I am going snowboarding with my son in 2 weeks to Austria!!! Well I will not be the last one the lift!! Tell you about my trip when I get back! Patricia