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Serfaus offers the charm and nightlife of a typical Austrian village but with a decent ski area, fairly reliable snow and the huge benefit of being largely traffic-free. The resort deserves to be better known to skiers.

A skating rink, sleighs and an old church add to the village charm. Most visitors are well-heeled (though not particularly sophisticated) Germans and Dutch, who give the numerous bars and cafes a jolly atmosphere. Serfaus has few British visitors, but deserves more. The sunny shelf setting adds to the attraction.

Though not as impressive a ski area as nearby Ischgl, Serfaus is far from negligible, served by lifts less prone to wind and queues. The 80km of sunny pistes spread westwards from the resort. The ski area is long and thin and reaches the respectable height of 2685m. Most of it is above the tree-line and served by drags.

• The underground drops skiers at the main lift-station, from where a gondola and cable-car transport you to the mid-station. A second stage of the gondola rises to Lazid at 2350m. There are long reds from here back to the village and drags beyond lead to the highest Mindersjoch sector. There's the skiing of neighbouring Fiss to explore too, linked in both directions. It's smaller than the Serfaus area, but is somewhat steeper. The high average ski height, and snowmakers on four important pistes and the children's nursery area, make Serfaus reasonably snow sure.
• There are few challenging slopes for advanced skiers, on- or off-piste, but it is a good area for ski-touring. Good intermediates have a couple of short, steep runs between Lazid and the mid-station, while the most testing of the long runs is the pretty Alpkopf-village piste.
• Virtually the whole area has ideal runs for average intermediates. Less experienced skiers have wonderful long runs from Plansegg to the village, dropping gently almost 1000m vertical. Both the village and mid-station nursery slopes are good, and there is ample opportunity for beginners to progress to longer runs.
• The ski school has a good reputation but there have been complaints about standards of English in group classes. The 60km of cross-country trails are excellent and include some very pretty trails at altitude.
• The replacement of the Lazid chair by a second-stage of gondola has improved the mid-station queues. The Scheid and Plansegg drags can be bottlenecks in the early morning and late afternoon respectively. The seven mountain restaurants are adequate for the size of the ski area. The Masiner, on Mindersjoch, is atmospheric, and has a good ice bar. Skiing down the cross-country trail from Alpkopf is well worth it for a quiet lunch at Rodelhutte.

 

 

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