Which has better skiing, Austria or Switzerland? I'm from new hampshire and am going to do a foriegn exchange and in a debate of where to go. At first I was thinking Norway but now I am thinking of going to either Austria or Switzerland. Which one do you all think would be a better country to go to in terms of skiing and just an overall foreign exchange experience? I know both countries speak primarily german, except for some parts in Switzerland, but out of curiousity, how much english is spoken over there? Hope you can answer my questions, thank you!
Austria or Switzerland?
- Thread starter shindigg
- Start date
Austria is way cheaper than Switzerland and the snow conditions are abbout the same. All depends on which area you go to. Also the Austrian apres ski is the craziest in the world. A wicked place to go is Kirchberg/Kitzbuhel. Awesome skiarea. Very big and lots of new lifts. Be sure to buy the alpenpass if you want to ride park to cos the Kitzbuhel park is a park that doesn't even exist. IT SUCKS!. But if you have the alpenpass you can drive to Steinplatte or Westendorf which is only like half an hour away by car. They do have proper parks. For backcountry even Austrians say Kitzbuhel is the best in Tirol/Austria. If you are a park-rat I advise you to go to Mayerhofen. Has one of the best Austrian parks and also a crazy apres-ski. Expect to see a lot of Dutch people in Austria. They almost take over the country in the wintertime. Hope this helps you some. Have fun man
Ow and yeah I advise you to learn some geram beforehand. It does come in handy. There are a lot of seasonworkers that start of the season with no german background at all so don't worry about that. ANd about culture. You probably get in contact with a lot of cultures exept the Austrian one. Especially when you speak English only. You will meet a lot of others from different countries that do the same thing as you though
Ow and yeah I advise you to learn some geram beforehand. It does come in handy. There are a lot of seasonworkers that start of the season with no german background at all so don't worry about that. ANd about culture. You probably get in contact with a lot of cultures exept the Austrian one. Especially when you speak English only. You will meet a lot of others from different countries that do the same thing as you though
feihlination
Active member
i am 16 yrs old, from austria, and i think anyone in my elder understands english in a proper way. Austria is better. fo sho.
The area Ischgl, Samnaun / St. Anton, Lech / Silvretta Nova has together around 1000 km of groomed trails. Decent parks and pipes too. And this three resorts can be reached within a car-hour.
And if you dont know exactly where to go, come to my hometown, there you can ride with your skis on from austria to switzerland. Nice...
proudly representing ISCHGL, TIROL, AUSTRIA
The area Ischgl, Samnaun / St. Anton, Lech / Silvretta Nova has together around 1000 km of groomed trails. Decent parks and pipes too. And this three resorts can be reached within a car-hour.
And if you dont know exactly where to go, come to my hometown, there you can ride with your skis on from austria to switzerland. Nice...
proudly representing ISCHGL, TIROL, AUSTRIA
Thanks for all of your input. I just got a few more questions. Besides just going to a country with good skiing, I am also looking for a country with a good music scene in which I can go to shows and concerts at since music is one of my large interests too. I would think of Switzerland as having a better music scene (in terms of punk and ska music) but what do I know! Which country do you think has more of a musical influence and is a place where I can go see shows and concerts? Also, when I think of Austria or any German speaking country, for food, I think of sausage and lots of meat, and I am vegetarian. It is probably just an evil food stereotype, but do you austrians/swiss eat a lot of meat, and would this be hard to live there and not eat meat? I really hope that I can get with a host family that skis, and hopefully friends that ski also...if not, then I hope the public transportation is good over there so I can get myself to and from the ski area. How is the public transportation?
seine_Dudeheit
Active member
If you think of music, i think it def. better to go to swiss... the only thing, thats going on in Austria in winter is everywere the same aprés ski bullshit music (with exceptions of course - especially in bigger ski resorts)
rk1080
Active member
yo man im in my 3rd week of being an exchange student in austria. i also had the same questions as you (about skiing that is) and i chose austria cause its waaaaaaaaay cheaper. unless you have unlimited funds and excellent german i wouldnt go to switzerland. the swiss are very precise and if you cannot speak their language you will not be treated to kindly. believe me ive talked to swiss exchangers. also, even though both countries speak german, switzerland has a dialect thats particularily hard to learn. i love it here in austria but i do eat lots of meat. im not trying to diss you or anything but being an exchange student means giving up some things you like to try completely new things. it doesnt seem like a good idea to pick one country over the other because the music scene is better. you (usually) dont have any say where you will be placed inside your country of pick so dont plan on doing all the things you would like to do.
Austria - Switzerland?? It's almost the same.
Food is cheaper in Austria, the rest (skiing, drinks, hotels, etc.) is about the same (my experience as Swiss in Ischgl holidays).
Best ski areas in Switzerland are in canton Graubuenden and/or Wallis. If you want to learn german, take care not to go to the french speaking part of Wallis (famous places there are Verbier, Portes du soleil).
If you want to ski in both countries, go to Ischgl/Samnaun (Austria/Switzerland). Great bilateral skiing area and Ischgl is a beautiful village with the ultimate après-ski! Samnaun is duty free, so gas, cigarettes and alcohol (it's allowed to drink beer with 16 years, harder drinks with 18) and other stuff is cheap.
Food is cheaper in Austria, the rest (skiing, drinks, hotels, etc.) is about the same (my experience as Swiss in Ischgl holidays).
Best ski areas in Switzerland are in canton Graubuenden and/or Wallis. If you want to learn german, take care not to go to the french speaking part of Wallis (famous places there are Verbier, Portes du soleil).
If you want to ski in both countries, go to Ischgl/Samnaun (Austria/Switzerland). Great bilateral skiing area and Ischgl is a beautiful village with the ultimate après-ski! Samnaun is duty free, so gas, cigarettes and alcohol (it's allowed to drink beer with 16 years, harder drinks with 18) and other stuff is cheap.
haha - this thread is so old.
anyways, i chose switzerland and did the exchange program last year. like the person above me said, the swiss have a crazy dialect and i didn't know that before going but now i'm back and i know german and understand swiss. the skiing was amazing (i skied Engelberg mostly) and i'm glad i chose switzerland (except for the dialect and that isolating feeling i got from it and it is extremely expensive) but all in all it was a pretty neat experience.
anyways, i chose switzerland and did the exchange program last year. like the person above me said, the swiss have a crazy dialect and i didn't know that before going but now i'm back and i know german and understand swiss. the skiing was amazing (i skied Engelberg mostly) and i'm glad i chose switzerland (except for the dialect and that isolating feeling i got from it and it is extremely expensive) but all in all it was a pretty neat experience.