Mayrhofen or Ischgl -which one!??--late March

papa_shango

Hi folks

Just booked flights to Munich (26 march to 1 april)

Two guys, but cannot decide between Mayrhofen or Ischgl

Will be booking accommodation etc outselves

I've been reading that both resorts are excellent for our level (i am intermediate and my friend is advanced intermediate)

Nightlife seems to be better in Ischgl-- we were in Andorra two years ago and nightlife was non existent (as were women on apres ski actually...) Soll a few years ago was much better.

Mayrhofen seems to be the cheaper place overall re food, drink, accommodation

Ischgl ski runs are up to 2900m (vs 2500m for Mayrhofen) , but not sure this is a massive factor re snow conditions late March?

At the moment i am slightly leaning towards Mayrhofen but looking for some input so can get the accommodation booked asap

So in summary -
* 2 guys
* intermediate skiers
* good/ very good apres ski wanted
* not somewhere too expensive
* flying into Munich 26 March


cheers in advance!

papa_shango

the ski conditions on this site seem to be much better in Ischgl -- can i say this will be a fair indicator of conditions 3 weeks from now? I presume one decent snow fall will change all this

http://www.bergfex.com/ischgl/schneebericht/
http://www.bergfex.com/mayrhofen/schneebericht/

a148pro

They are both class, and both quite similar too - both nice towns, both classy resorts and both have a good selection of steep slopes. Both also have the downside of having queues from the lift stations (I have experienced this in Ischgl but not in Mayer as I didn't stay there, I skiied in from the side so to speak but Mayer is well known for having very bad queues to get down the mountain as there's no home run).

I'd go with Ischgl - the extra height will be a good idea at that time of year. Plus their lift system is second to none, all ultra fast (some queues at weekends to get up as a lot of traffic will come up the valley). Also there is a home run and you can ski in to the town (albeit very few accomodation will actually be ski in ski out). Whereas I think in Mayer you'll have to get a bus to the lifts in the morning as they are a bit out of town.

Both class though so you'll enjoy. Ischgl can be tough to get accomodation sometimes though, and hard to split weeks if your dates are.

bluejelly

We are just back from Mayrhofen, loads of red slopes for intermediate skiers. Queues for the Penken lift were huge especially on Sunday morning, took us at least 40 mins to get up. You can avoid these q's by avoiding peak times tho or by going to the Horberg lift which is 10 mins by bus from the town. We stayed very close to the Horberg lift which was handy.

I'm afraid we didnt do much apres skiing but 1 or 2 bars at the bottom of the penken were always full.

a148pro

Sorry I should have pointed out that ischgl is supposed to be serious apres, everything from dodgy ski boot dancing on tables euro techno nonsense to proper Ibiza type clubs, replete with 25k bottles of bubbley for the rooskies. Lap dancing as well. I say apparently because I just skied there rather than boozed.

The one evening I spent in mayer was also lovely with nice bars / restaurants coda nice area to walk around and would have happily stayed there a few more nights.

I should also add that there are a lot of Brits in Mayer and some irish whereas in Four days in ischgl I didn't hear anyone speaking english, which I liked to be honest.

papa_shango

Thanks for the advice guys
Seems that that Ischgl is the frontrunner (accommodation allowing!)

Are there any other resorts we might consider ?
I see Obergurgl is quite high up and is roughly the same distance from Munich airport as Ischgl.
Any others we should be looking at or should we just go ahead and get booking Ischgl accommodation?

cheers

fannymagee

Paris Hilton was in Ischgl last week, topless table dancing with the Victoria's Secret models in Pacha. You missed the boat on that one! ;-)

Wherever you go, have a great time

a148pro

I'd say keep it simple papa, you've two good resorts there to work with, plenty of other trips to be had in the future to work your way through others I would hope

fmlarnapairce

euro for euro, i would rate ischgl as overall the best resort i've ever been at. Mayrhofen is very good too but there's really only one way up the mountain so you can have crazy queues to get on the gondola.
go ischgl, you won't be sorry.
ischgl, ist the bestgl. you will understand if you go there.

papa_shango

cheers folks
booked a cheapish place 1km from Ischgl town--so flights and accommodation for 375 euro each is not a bad start!
Now to find place we can get a good deal on ski gear hire/ski lift and getting cheaply from Munich to Ischgl and we'll be laughing!

a148pro

Best of luck with that - ski hire is nosebleed expensive (but on other hand was probably best ski hire place i've ever been to)

JoseJones

What's Ischgl likely to be like in late April? It seems quite high but I wouldn't want to turn up and have no snow whatsoever!

karl83

I would have chosen Mayrhofen over Ischgl, both great resorts but Ischgl is more on the expensive side. Apres is insane in both too. I was in Mayrhofen late last march and had knee deep powder, plus you have the glacier down the road for high altitude skiing.
Avoid Pacha in Ischgl unless you don't mind paying €12 a beer. You'll have a good time there with plenty of challenging terrain. Nice ski into switzerland too.

karl83

your probably looking at €200 each return from munich too mate

a148pro

I think you can get a train to a stop about 40 mins from ischgl and then a Taxi but that might be convoluted. Pretty sure you can get a train from munich airport to mayer easy enough with one or two stops.