Expensive pleasure

Where a day’s skiing plus one night is the most exclusive

Obergurgl tops the price list, with a day ski pass and an overnight stay in a vacation apartment being put under the microscope.(Bild: Ötztal Tourismus)

A travel portal surveyed the average prices in European ski resorts for accommodation (vacation apartment) and ski pass in the high and low season. Conclusion: There are offers for all budgets, but you have to dig a little deeper into your pockets for two top Tyrolean resorts.

Which ski resort suits my wallet? The travel portal holidu.at has compared prices in all European ski resorts with more than 20 kilometers of slopes. The travel periods from December 22 to 29 (high season) and March 23 to 30 (low season) were taken into account.

Top place for the rear Ötztal
First place for the most exclusive ski resort goes to Tyrol, specifically to Obergurgl-Hochgurgl. The 26 lifts at an altitude of 1793 to 3030 meters above sea level offer an extensive network of 108 kilometers of pistes and a fairly high level of snow reliability. This costs 284 euros.

At the foot of the Matterhorn
Second place goes to the Swiss ski resort of Zermatt at the foot of the Matterhorn. Here, accommodation and ski pass cost 256 euros. The day ski pass alone costs a whopping 95 euros this year, with 53 lifts and 322 kilometers of slopes awaiting skiers.

Third place goes to Tyrol again
In third place in the ranking, we are back in Tyrol - at the Hintertux Glacier. Austria's only year-round ski resort offers 60 kilometers of slopes at altitudes of 1500 to 3250 meters above sea level. The combination of a day ticket and overnight stay in a vacation home costs 245 euros.

French "dwarf" scores with a ridiculously low price
At the other end of the scale, you will naturally find the tiny ski resorts: Réallon is located in the French Southern Alps, vacation accommodation is available from 12 to 19 euros, the ski pass costs 29 euros. The average price is only 44.50 euros.

You can read the whole study at www.holidu.at/f/huetten-chalets-oesterreich#ski-preisindex