Zürs is the smaller neighbour of Lech. The village is very much a resort for those who don’t want to make a fuss about the fact that they’re here, so there isn’t actually a huge choice of shops and restaurants, as many of the guests don’t go out much except to ski. The skiing is, of course, excellent, with the famous white ring circuit linking the local slopes to those of Lech and the fast new lift connection to St Anton’s skiing too,
Zürs is definitely one of the world’s most high class destinations with no accommodation rated below three star and much of it in fact 4 or 5 star. Despite this classy reputation it is not actually the most picturesque Austrian resort, with much of the modern village purpose built, albeit in a traditional architectural style, but more importantly it is high altitude as well as high class, with its base at 1730m meaning you can ski back to the resort from the very start of the season to the very end most years.
Despite its modern appearance Zürs, in common with the rest of the Arlberg region, has a long history as a ski destination, with the first skiers taking to the slopes in the early years of the 20th century. One of the world’s first ski lifts was built here too about a century ago. These days the main village is made up of about two dozen buildings, most of them large, chalet-style hotels.
The ski slopes around the village include some of the gentlest terrain in the Arlberg region, which infamously has blue runs that might be considered red elsewhere and similarly reds that might be considered blacks. So it’s a good choice for those wanting to ski in the Arlberg but not actually looking for those famed steep challenges.
That said all that the Arlberg has to offer is easily accessible from Zürs. Given its pedigree it’s no surprise to know that heliskiing is possible from here and arguably the region’s best known off piste descent down from Valluga ends up in Zürs.
