Ischgl lies at an altitude between 1300 and 2871 m. The total length of its numerous trails is 230 km. The whole resort, except for its three trails leading to the village, is glacier-like, situated on a rocky surface, with no forests, which resulted in very wide and spatial trails.
The resort consists of two, extremely well connected parts. On one side there is the Austrian, and on the other, the Swiss part. On the resort's top, we ran across an interesting sight; a hut with the national border sign and a notice that one can cross the border only after submitting a legally valid personal document. Of course, it is not necessary. The interesting thing is that when you ski to Samnaun, you can buy stuff in numerous duty free shops and supply yourself without having to go far from the ski trail. However, the prices are not duty free in the least.
Ischgl is a typical Austrian village situated beside a river, brimming with hotels and houses built in classical alpine style, all in wood. The interesting thing is that there is a tunnel with magic carpet in it, leading from ski trail directly to the center of the village, so you don't have to carry your ski equipment. We were very surprised to see the liveliness and roar of the place at night. It is brimming with bars, pubs, disco clubs, apres-ski bars. People are happy and tipsy as soon as skiing is over. Of course, everything is way too expensive.
The resort is excellently connected by ski lifts; on the Austrian there are six and eight-seater Doppelmayer ski lifts, and on the Swiss side, there are Graventa ski lifts. We even managed to find three anchor lifts in some secluded parts of the resort. The greatest attraction is a Twinliner cabin lift taking you from Samnaun to ski trails, its capacity being for 180 people.
The trails are wide, spatial, excellently groomed and mostly with natural snow, so will hardy run into some icy surfaces. Only the trails leading to the foot of the resort are covered in artificial snow. Most trails are marked red, although according to our opinion some of them should be marked blue. Black trails are few, but once you descend them, you may wonder why are they marked black. However, those trails are the best to ski on, because they are the least crowdy; you can ski over the last night's snowcat tracks as late as around noon. Considering the enviable total length of ski trails you can ski all day without having to descent the same trail twice. Also, for the same reason, the trails are not too crowdy, except for the one leading to the village. In the afternoon, when everybody are descending toward the village, that trail is not only crowdy, but also worn out and icy. However, you have to descend it only once a day, so it's bearable.
To conclude, it is worth putting Ischgl on your "must visit" list. According to statistics, it ranks high on the resorts top lists. We consider it on of the best Austrian resorts we have visited so far.
The price of 7-day ski lift pass is EUR 200.5, with EUR 5 deposit.
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