Travel Log: Ischgl, Austria

It's Monday again!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Mine was spent catching up with dear friends and celebrating family birthdays, and overall quite relaxing.  I needed it!

Today's post is a continuation of Friday's post: Travel Log: Sankt Anton am Arlberg detailing the first half of our Austria trip.  After four days in St. Anton, we headed to our second ski destination of Ischgl (also where we met our friends).  Our hotel was in the town of Galtur, which is about a 10 minute bus ride from Ischgl.  It was very easy to get between the two towns, because there were free buses that ran often throughout the day!

Our first day in Ischgl was a laid-back, easy day.  We had already skied for three straight days in St. Anton, and my body needed a day off.  We spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the town as well as copied the rest of the people in town by sipping coffee and jagatee (tea with jagermeister) on the outdoor patio of the Hotel Post.

Coat: North Face (old), similar "Women's Arctic Parka" in fig green, $330 at North Face here
Chambray Shirt: Topshop (old), similar "Chambray Work Shirt" in blue, $58 at Nordstrom here
Sweater: Rubbish via Nordstrom, similar Hinge "Space Dye Sweater" in white combo, $29.97 (on sale!) at Nordstrom here
Sunglasses:  Kate Spade "Lulu" in tortoise/gold, $138 at Nordstrom here
Ring: Tiffany & Co (old), similar "Elsa Peretti Full Heart Ring" in sterling silver, $200 at Tiffany & Co here
Beanie: Coal (no longer available), similar Coal "Staple Brim Fall '12" in heather grey, $20 at Zappos here

 There are so many pubs with similar tasty dishes.  We stopped for weiner schnitzel (there were veal and pork options at most places), wine, and beer at one of the outdoor patios while waiting for the bus back to Galtur and meet up with our friends.  The lingonberry jam that they served with it was delicious!

 The next day, we hit the slopes with our friends.  Compared to St. Anton, Ischgl was more crowded but also had more pistes and gentler slopes.  There is also a much bigger apres-ski scene, which we took advantage of with the group (good times at the Kuhstall!).  Since there were so many of us, we would split up to ski during the day, then meet up to apres-ski for a few hours.  After apres-ski, we would return to our respective hotels to get ready, then all gather together for dinner before going out.  Dinners were so much fun with everyone together!

 

  Our second ski day, we decided to ski down one of the duty-free runs into Switzerland.  We looked at the map, and saw that there were several options.  We picked out a route that took us into town, and then had a gondola that we could take up to a restaurant for lunch with panoramic views.  Here we are at the top before starting our run down.  It looked like a postcard!

 At the end of the run, we found ourselves at one end of the town of Samnaun, Switzerland!  We ended up further from the gondola than we had thought, but luckily there was a bus stop nearby.  We hopped on the first bus, hoping that it would take us near the gondola, and it ended up dropping us off right at the gondola entrance.  That was a pleasant surprise!

 An amazing panoramic view during lunch was our prize at the top. 

After two days of skiing in Ischgl (a total of five for our trip), we had one final night out with the group and then headed home.  The Innsbruck airport is tiny, and this was our view as we walked out to the plane for the first leg of our journey.  Absolutely gorgeous!

The Tyrol region of Austria is beautiful and scenic, and I can see why the spring is the busy season for the ski towns.  We had sunshine every day!  If you are thinking about skiing in Austria, both of the towns we visited have great skiing.  Iscghl is definitely the bigger apres-ski and party town, where St. Anton is quieter but with more challenging terrain.  Don't forget your sunglasses - an essential element for stylish apres-ski!

I hope you enjoyed my photos, and thanks so much for reading!