Serfaus/Fiss for blue run skiers

A snowHead

Considering Serfaus/Fiss for next season's trip. It's sold as a "family" resort, yet I look at the piste map and see mostly red and black runs with only a very limited few blue runs.

My kids are skiing blues so it doesn't look like a great resort for that, am I missing something? Is Serfaus/Fiss any good for early intermediates or look elsewhere?

A snowHead

If you want kids to learn to ski correctly, "Berta's Kindergarten" in Fiss/ Ladis and associated ski school has it all. Fiss is promoted as a family ski resort and would be better than Serfaus, which is much better than the French ski schools. The standards of ski school are high with an associated higher cost but much better value. From experience, there is a wide range of runs and Kids are challenged appropriately with a strong emphasis on good skiing techniques.

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Thanks but this wasn't really a question about how good the ski school is, I may not even choose to put them in ski school next year.

It's a question about blue runs and suitability of the resorts for early intermediate skiers.

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I go there every year with a load of 50-60 year olds for one day as we travel to different resorts each day. The older I get the more difficult it is , and i would say the piste map is spot on, it's mostly red, and quite hard red at that . The shame is the nicest/easiest blues are on the far left of the whole place - look left of serfaus towards the Masner restaurant , but getting there is a bit of a pig - reds 122 and 123 which take you there and get you back, are pretty nasty for blue merchants TBH. Quite steep , on a camber and in the morning flat light as not exposed to the sun. Once over there it's nice, but the though of red 122 or 123 coming back is not something I look fwd to. The lower sections around Fiss and Serfaus are blues, and the runs back down to each of thse villages are Ok, but can get busy and bit chopped up. All in all a brilliant place, loads of skiing and restaurants , but it really is no blue heaven

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@Pyramus, there was a recent ish thread that touched on this

https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=5238655

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Thanks. The way they choose to brand themselves as "We are family" I think is a strange strategy. Clearly yes they are well set up for kids at the very early stages of skiing with magic carpets, kids themed areas etc.

But then after that, the resort is clearly all about red and black runs, there is a big gap with no greens and very few blues. Tbh their resort branding is quite mis-leading, and based on the comments on that other thread, it's not just me that thinks that.

I was in St Anton last week with my young kids who were only on their second week of skiing. St Anton with its reputation of being terrible for beginners, drunks with too much apres, not good family resort etc. Yet they managed perfectly well in the St Anton ski school, and they had a bigger range of blue runs than apparently Serfaus/Fiss do.

It's weird the way ski resort reputations work..or don't work. I'll continue to ignore resort reputations and branding and make my own (better) judgement..

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@Pyramus, it was also pointed out on that other thread that kids tend to get on with what's put in front of them by the ski school instructors.
I think if you put your kids in ski school they would have no problems in the resort.

After all it is free

@ste_B, Probably not, but I'm considering not putting them in ski school next year and they ski with me on mainly blues, hence the question.

@Pyramus, I'm listening. You have it right: they have great kid-starter areas but not a ton of blues. That's why I go there: kids concentrated in places I won't go, and lots of reds and blacks.

Alta Badia is Blue Heaven. Take a hard look there.

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We went to serfaus this year, I don’t think we’ll be back until our kids are near experts Eh oh!

. Really great for children beginners who don’t want to do much mountain skiing as there’s much better training slopes vs nearly every other resort out there I reckon. From what I saw I don’t think the instructors are different from anywhere else, probably get more young ones which means less evil set in their ways types. But if you don’t like beginners or children on the mountain this is the perfect destination as the difficultly keeps most of them off the normal runs. I think it’s all the stuff around the outside that make this a family resort, such great marketing employed but in reality it’s for adults who like adult ski time & kids who stay in lessons all day - which for many is the perfect family arrangement. Hope this helps!

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@Pyramus, Quote ""weird the way ski resort reputations work..or don't work. I'll continue to ignore resort reputations and branding and make my own (better) judgement.""

Pyramus, you have clearly never been to Serfaus or, more particularly, ski school Fiss, yet you make the above statement with scant knowledge. From my knowledge of being in the resort
over the years with quite a number of families using Berta 's kindergarten, I have seen the results.
If you as "a blue Piste" skier are to ski and teach your children next year as opposed to putting them in Ski Lessons I would strongly suggest you do not do it in Serfus/Fiss /Ladis as you will find the ethos of the resort will not be to your liking.

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Don't know if I was being selfish, but I always figured if there was enough for me to do it would be fine for the children.

You know it makes sense.

@Pyramus stick to stanton

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

To be honest it’s definitely not on my list of places I want to return for a number of reasons now that I’ve reflected back on our trip though still did loads of skiing & had lots of fun.

Here’s my negatives;

Seemed to have pretty boring scenery, harder to get to a viewpoint than any resort I’ve ever visited, there was one location I really liked, but only 1.

The tube broke once we were there, and although we had children (yes children to carry too) and ski gear, you cannot get a taxi if you are on the tube line - crazy I know but we asked for one in our very nice hotel because it wasn’t far enough & they couldn’t help, nearly everyone who went out that morning had walked whatever distance to get on the gondola as they don’t put on replacement buses, so it it’s just one pay for bus every 1.5-2hrs at that time.

I am pretty sure I skied multiple blacks or near blacks at various times because that was the main route to that part of mountain or because the signage was rubbish & kept getting stuck on the same loop of run and at least on 2 days I literally ended up doing my first run on a black because it was awkward to get to another lift.

I didn’t really like the process of getting on a tube and a long gondola to start skiing.

Even the limited blue runs were on the harder scale for small children.

It felt like there was actually bottlenecks particularly plansegg lift after dropping off at ski school that’s the only proper lift out of there you can then ski to, to get high on the mountain.

It seemed busy & I had to queue at times on the quietest week of the year, I’d skied 4 vallees the week before & that was near empty & Flaine over Christmas week and really it wasn’t even that much better than what we experienced at Christmas. Everyone we met there said it was quiet as they’d been multiple times so it wasn’t just freak chance, it clearly has a very fixed fan base.

Considering these negatives there aren’t budget options like in France.

The positives is:

the hotels seemed super family friendly, more so than anywhere I’ve ever been.

They had these pretty amazing themed lunch areas for children of all ages, likely properly sitting in your own themed booth though can only access if you stay in lessons over lunch so not a family arrangement.

They had a number of children learner specific short runs (though longer than most nursery slopes), eg rabbits run through woods, bear trail, mermliweg trail, slalom, winding banked route & mini rollers, basically really amazing beginners areas & even a bouncy castle & play section all in same location. The main learner area really was pretty cool.

They seem good at running literally all of the lifts all the time.

Lots of seats that are heated & with bubbles, though I realise now even though we had mixed weather this didn’t massively change my enjoyment levels so it’s not something I’d seek out in future.

I’m glad so many Dutch & Germans love Serfaus/Fiss as hopefully they won’t clog up other resorts so much!

Maybe we’ve just skied France & Switzerland too much & this is how Austrian resorts are though (especially the scenery), any thoughts on this??

Sorry for not putting this info in the trip reports, I guess it’s only 1 opinion haha.

A snowHead

@Rh2205, Thanks really useful review.

Do you have any recommendations for Swiss resorts? I'm also eyeing up Flims as an option.

A snowHead

Flims, lots of connected blues and light reds. Some of the reds are dark red though. More terrain (re)opening next year.

If you decided on lessons it would need to be private, there wont be any english only open classes.

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@Rh2205, and what did your kids think of the place?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Origen, Mainly ESF in France and one of the private concerns targeting mainly English-speaking customers.
There is a fundamental difference in approach to teaching, and if comparing facilities and layout for beginners/young children, there is a vast difference.

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ESFs are different from each other, and even small resorts generally provide a choice. Don't know what you mean by "private concerns". Did you think ESF ski schools were run by the French State? Or that all resorts had the same "layout and facilities"? Or all the 400+ French ski schools charge the same? These generalisations are simply mindless and to suggest to the OP that he's somehow a neglectful father if he fails to send his kids to ski school all day is worse than mindless.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@Origen, Please carefully read the thread and my replies.
I do not imply or suggest as you Quote in the following ""to suggest to the OP that he's somehow a neglectful father if he fails to send his kids to ski school all day is worse than mindless"".
I am asking you to apologize for and retract the above statement. I replied to the OP based on my experiences of Fiss as a family-friendly resort and to your post questioning my experience of French ski schools.
Note; The proportion of blue runs in a resort does not necessarily reflect whether
or not, a resort is family-friendly.

After all it is free

@barrworst, your responses were unfriendly and failed to take into account that other posters who know the resort felt it would not suit the OP well, and that you have experienced only a tiny fraction of French ski schools. You said if the OP was the kind of skier who would take his kids skiing on blue runs (he didn't say he would teach them himself) he would not like the resort "vibe".

You replied to part of my post, so I shall reply to part of yours. wink

My kids were really happy, we all still enjoyed our holiday, not the age though where they can critically evaluate and compare, every resort has pros and cons & I can dig out cons of other French and Swiss resorts, but those cons bother me less than the cons of this resort and I haven’t been to any other Austrian resorts as a family, I’ve only been to 1 other Austrian resort in my life (mayrhofen), you look for different things as a family though. Probably get more constructive feedback from a pre-teen/teen, I think most families would enjoy at least a week in Serfaus/Fiss at some point, for a week it is so big there is still enough to do at any level or age. This is just my opinion of the resort, my husband really loved the skiing because he liked that all the runs were so steep, though did still complain about the lack of viewpoints, he still wouldn’t return now until we have much older children.

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@Origen, I agree with your comments. Honestly, this whole forum seems to get similar responses regardless of the topic or question being asked. People really need to chill out more.

It is also full of people with their own self/business interests promoting certain resorts but without any public declaration of that interest, pretending to be providing un-biased opinions. It's actually quite annoying.

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Yes I checked their website, there isn't any indication they don't offer English-speaking group lessons, all their website is in English which I guess also sets expectations..

https://laaxschool.com/course/67

@Pyramus, I have only been to Serfaus for a couple of day trips and dont have kids so that might influence views. I also dont generally take much notice of the "colour" of the pistes as I think it is very misleading (not only do snow conditions make a huge difference, what one place advertises as "blue" another might decide "black" simply because they need one on the piste map!). From what I have seen it is very family friendly as evidenced by the large number of families visiting but maybe the skiing is not as straight forward as some would like.

To try to give a somewhat objective view (from the "Where to Ski in Austria" book, the website seems to have disappeared)

You know it makes sense.

@T Bar, @Pyramus, i'm 100% sure all the instructor's will speak excellent English (German, Italinan and Romansch) but i was meaning the pupils, so the class gets taught in German (etc) mainly, with the English bit added on at the end, its human nature if you have a class of 2 english and 10 German speakers that that is going to happen, hence why you would get private. I heard more Romansch speakers last year than i did English.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@pyramus

A snowHead

Just perusing google maps (which shows lifts and runs) - and noticed Serfaus Fiss quite close to Ischgl. Am now considering it for next January

I get the impression from the comments above that it's fairly Ischgl like in terms of the skiing (mostly reds) and scenery (as at similar height) so more difficult than Obergurgl or Ski Welt say. Hotels seem quite classy in general with half board available. I'm a boring old fart and just like to ski early and long, and want something without too much walking to the and from the skiing. Just want a comfy hotel with decent food (seen one for HB for a week for about £1700 - Tirol Fiss).

I'd like to try somewhere different (done Ischgl 4 times, Obergurgl 5, Kitz, Mayrhofen, Saalbach, Ellmau etc). Flights already booked with the Avios...

A snowHead

@buchanan101, We had a boys trip there in week4, we went there because we have been most everywhere else in Austria. It was a good week, enjoyed the slopes and the snow was good for most of the week. The big apres bar in Fiss was good at the end of the day, only found one other bar in the village which was crap. Worth doing but I won't rush back.

The downside was lots of places selling a small beer for the price of a large beer. Seems to be the new normal though. Our BnB was very good, they had an honesty bar with beers at €3 a bottle. Hotel Garni Belmont

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

There is a bit more going on in Serfaus at night. There are a few bars and an entertaining late night music bar place that is run by a Dutch family.

@buchanan101, I suppose it is Ischgl-like on the mountain. Definitely not in the town.

My main downside to the place is the general lack of mountain huts, especially around Masner.

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@buchanan101, Despite its height it doesnt get huge amounts of snow (to some extent in the snow shadow of the Arlberg & the Lechtaler alps to the north / north west) though that should be less of an issue in January. It does have a good sunshine record. Personally I think the Arlberg is a better option for most (stay in Pettneu for a more old fashioned sort of ambience). A January negative for all of Ischgl, Arlberg & Serfaus is not much skiing below the tree line for when the weather is poor.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Maybe I should try St Anton. Have been put off by claims that it’s expensive but have stayed frequently in Ischgl and Obergurgl. Hotels seem no more expensive.

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So we have been to Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis lots in the summer and we’re all keen to try it for a skiing holiday. It certainly didn’t disappoint and when the family was asked their opinions on where to go this year this was their preferred option.

For my now 11 year old daughter it’s because she really enjoyed the ski school at Serfaus. She doesn’t always go to ski school but this one she loves. We have experienced a number.

Her instructor last year described many of the red runs as dark reds which I would say was fair. However the themed runs for the younger children are lovely and the ski school quickly get the 6 and 7 year olds skiing all the way down the mountain on the blue run.

If there was no interest in ski school we would go elsewhere as it would likely to be cheaper. However, while we’re at an age to enjoy what really is an excellent ski school we’re heading back this year with cousins aged 5 and 7 in tow.

I realise the original poster wasn’t asking specifically about ski school but that is what makes it such a family friendly resort. The snow show, alpine roller coaster, tobogganing run, soft play and indoor climbing centre are just the toppings. When we just wanted blues to cruise as a family we went to Kitzbuhel, Ski Welt and Zell am See.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@buchanan101, St Anton accommodation has got a lot more expensive in recent time though you can still find some not so expensive spots, certainly not more than Ischgl. As mentioned look at Pettneu or Stuben especially if you are not bothered about a selection of late night hostelries.

Help!!

Serfaus/Fiss for blue run skiers

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