Thinking about skiing.....

Tony,
Obergurgl is very expensive, and it's only a comparatively small ski area for an advanced skier. I don't think it's much good for shopping and things like that either. I don't know what the night life is like because I'm always too whacked out after ski-ing to bother with anything like that.

My impression of the place was that it was designed for people with plenty of money who like to be comfortable. It's not meant for the sort of people who want to clock up piste miles, or have a cheap holiday and party all night.

For example, our hotel had an evening of wine tasting, where everyone dresses up in evening dress, and the host and hostess welcome you, and you get to taste all sorts of wine free. They were rather stumped with me, because I'm tea-total. But I had specially brought some fancy clothes with me, so at least I could join everyone else even though I was drinking orange juice with the kids.

You could do it the other way around - stay in Solden and visit Obergurgl. If you started early and skied flat out all day with only a short break for lunch I should think you could ski most of the ski area in one day, because there are hardly any queues.

Ally

Just what I thought. Obergurgl isnt a place on my radar, but I know its close to Solden. I want to go to Solden. However, I think Obergurgl would be full of people who would get right under my skin, so I havent bothered.
Solden has a much better ski area, and a great apres scene. But its expensive too, so I was thinking stop in Obergurgl and bus to Solden every day.

Maybe not.

I don't remember it being especially expensive last year, at least compared to St Anton. I think the big difference is it's more difficult to find cheaper accommodation.

I liked the place a great deal. I even think Obergurgl would suit your skiing style Tony. Solden got a bad wrap from some of the locals but then I suppose it would do.

P.S. I think it was 10 euros to upgrade the Obergurgle lift pass to cover Solden for the day (just one day though).

Tony,
All the people I met were very nice and helpful. As I said before, my daughter's ski instructor was great. She was very young, and a fantastic skier, and really kind. My younger daughter and I were going up a chair lift to her lesson, and we made a mess of getting off the chair, and ended up rolling down a small slope and through the lift man's tape (the year we went there was very little snow anywhere, so they'd had to make snow ramps). And her teacher came along to help me as well as her. Of course it was rather embarassing for her, her whole class seeing her rolling down a slope all tangled up with her mother. But the teacher just laughed about it.

And my older daughter, the one who's not well, also collapsed on a slope somewhere with numb legs, when she was ski-ing with me, and we had several offers of help from people ski-ing past.

I would say that people were generally much more considerate than in other resorts I've been to. Yes, some of them clearly had far more money than me, but that didn't seem to bother them, or me.

Ally

Hmm, think the last couple of posts have helped my decision. Lack of piste mileage would be a problem for me, I like to do something different every day if I can, if you can ski it in a day then I might leave it til I'm not such a speed freak.

Well I cant find a holiday to Obergurgl for 2 adults for much under £2000 inc lift passes. I really want to ski Solden though and I now dont see Obergurgl as a sensible option.
I am sure I'd enjoy the skiing like Ellistine says, but its just not good value as far as I am concerned.

Tony,
If you were thinking of driving, you could stay in a B&B pension, for less than that. There is one advertised on the Obergurgl.com website for 2nd Jan (I can't remember when you said you wanted to go) for 441 Euros for 7 nights for 2 adults. It's called Pension Landhaus Scheiber, and I have no idea what it's like but the picture looks very nice. I think it's outside Obergurgl somewhere, but still in the Obergurgl area. And they say they speak English.

One of the reasons one can ski most of Obergurgl in a day, if you're a good skier, is because it has long runs and a very efficient lift system, which is fast and you don't have to queue. It's not that it's a very small place, it's just that you can get about really fast.

Ally

Tony,
I've just done some more research.

You can get return flights to Innsbruck for £100 each, or less if you don't go on Saturday. A week's car hire from Innsbruck is 250 euros. 6 days ski pass is 220 euros. And that pension is 441 euros for 2 people, or the pension Rosengarten is 700 euros for 2 people. It seems you can arrive on a day other than Saturday at a pension.

Total cost (less fuel) per person is around £665 in the cheaper pension, or 795 in the more expensive one. But you do have to buy your own dinner, unlike staying half board in a fancy hotel. And costs assume one euro = one pound, and it's much better than that at the moment.

Ally