Paddies Weekend Trip

lbj666 · 12-02-2014 11:21am #1

Hey,

I am back from a great week in the porte du soleil and have an itch to try and get a 3.5 to 4 days before the seasons done, possibly over Paddies Weekend (taking friday or tuesday off)

Has anyone tried this, or have any suggestions where its possible to go keeping travel/transfer time and costs to a minimum and snow time to a maximum.

Flights to the usual places Munich/salzburg/grenoble/milan/geneva look awkward or very pricey.

fmlarnapairce · 12-02-2014 11:39am

lbj666 wrote: »

Hey,

I am back from a great week in the porte du soleil and have an itch to try and get a 3.5 to 4 days before the seasons done, possibly over Paddies Weekend (taking friday or tuesday off)

Has anyone tried this, or have any suggestions where its possible to go keeping travel/transfer time and costs to a minimum and snow time to a maximum.

Flights to the usual places Munich/salzburg/grenoble/milan/geneva look awkward or very pricey.

we're doing one to engelberg on paddys, see that thread for info. best bet though is to aim for a high resort, tignes, val thorens (although i have not been here). fly to lyon and rent a car. saas fee and engelberg, easy access from zurich and trains more or less straight to the resort. we did megeve one year at paddys and were blessed with the snow, but it could have been a disaster. travel time from geneva was very short i remember (even when we took 3 wrong turns on the motorway).

bottom line, high altitude resort.

Fattes · 12-02-2014 12:02pm

Ssshhhhh you Engelberg is a secret!!!!

It's normally a safe enough week for snow cover on most resorts but ideally the higher the better.

Saas fee is a bit of a hike in the train as it involves a bus transfer and it's eye watering expensive! I know I got married there!!

Flaine might be a good option shortest transfer from Geneva and snow sure

dogsears · 12-02-2014 12:53pm

Leo Varadkar was on the radio the morning talking about various "greening" initiatives for Paddy's Day. He said there was a new one this year where they were planning to "green" a ski slope in Austria on Paddy's Day. He didn't mention where - does anyone know? - but that might be a place with a bit of crack around then?

cormee · 12-02-2014 12:58pm

fmlarnapairce wrote: »

we're doing one to engelberg on paddys, see that thread for info. best bet though is to aim for a high resort, tignes, val thorens (although i have not been here). fly to lyon and rent a car. saas fee and engelberg, easy access from zurich and trains more or less straight to the resort. we did megeve one year at paddys and were blessed with the snow, but it could have been a disaster. travel time from geneva was very short i remember (even when we took 3 wrong turns on the motorway).

bottom line, high altitude resort.

Val Thorens would be an awful long bus trip for a weekend away. At the very least, it's three hours each way.

It's a complete dump too - windswept and bleak and completely overpriced!

fannymagee · 12-02-2014 1:09pm

Ooh not sure about the slope, but the Soll tourist board are beginning to cotton on to the Paddy's Day thing- we'd a mini-parade on the slopes last year it was great craic!! A lot of it fuelled by jagermeister & schnapps ;-)

Quite a bit of talk about this year again- must check out about the greening. Will let you know ;-)

Here's a few pics from last year...

fmlarnapairce · 12-02-2014 1:14pm

yeah, engelberg too small and too low, definitely don't go there. regarding val thorens, i realise it's a hike but hop in a car, share the driving and you'll get there. we went to tignes a few years ago and even though it was a drive from lyon you dont mind when there's a gang of you. it's all about the good snow at that time of year in my opinion.

http://welove2ski.com/the-best-resorts-for-ski-weekends gives some tips, but ignore tip 4 as it is wrong.

a148pro · 12-02-2014 1:29pm

Did St anton last 3 years running on paddy's day. Got Lucky with some fresh snow each time but it's medium height resort so wouldn't be a bad idea to aim higher.

Dublin zurich 2 hour 15 in car which is good to drive to other resorts such as zurs where best pistes are. Aer lingus flights timed to allow half day off work on way out then ski till 4 o'clock on way home. Moose usually good craic on paddy's, lots of leprechaun suits and face painting etc.

If doing that book car early as price of rental goes up. Munich and friedrichshafen with Lufthansa also other options. Swiss fly zurich too but morning flights.

stevire · 12-02-2014 2:34pm

dogsears wrote: »

Leo Varadkar was on the radio the morning talking about various "greening" initiatives for Paddy's Day. He said there was a new one this year where they were planning to "green" a ski slope in Austria on Paddy's Day. He didn't mention where - does anyone know? - but that might be a place with a bit of crack around then?

With the lack of snow cover this year there could be a lot of green ski slopes around that time!!

fannymagee · 12-02-2014 3:03pm

stevire wrote: »

With the lack of snow cover this year there could be a lot of green ski slopes around that time!!

I dunno Stevire, with the snow coming so late this year the opposite could be true too!!

But... ya never know. Time will tell. I'm pretty confident about Paddy's weekend though- there was great snow well past Easter last year :-)

Fattes · 12-02-2014 3:28pm

Its the Holmenkollbakken ski jump in Oslo and whistler they are turning green

dogsears · 12-02-2014 3:38pm

Yes he could definitely have said Oslo when I thought he said Austria. Thanks.

fannymagee · 12-02-2014 3:43pm

Nope. Breaking news guys, it's the SkiWelt/Soll that's going green- LOL!!!

I thought it was a joke, but apparently not. Hilarious!! Looks like all last years messing paid off, lol!! :-)

fannymagee · 12-02-2014 4:55pm

There are two Austrian locations planned: Skiwelt (Soll) and Kaprun Castle (Zell am See) :-)

Fattes · 12-02-2014 6:33pm

Here is the official board failte list announced today

https://www.dfa.ie/our-role-policies/our-work/casestudiesarchive/2014/february/global-greenings-for-st-patricks-day-2014/

fannymagee · 12-02-2014 6:40pm

Haha cool, so it's official?! Oh my God that's hilarious. We were completely joking about it last year!! Now to get the Salven to turn the beer green too, lol!! :-)

teacherhead · 12-02-2014 7:23pm

I've been a few places for Patrick's weekend, had a massive dump of powder in Switzerland 2 years ago was great. Two days blistering sun two days snowfall.

You just never know how or will be. Smaller resorts are great for 3/4 days cheaper and enough to keep you going. Paganella in Italy is a nice spot, not far from Verona if flights are running there that time of year.

Lillehammer nice spot too enough for a few days, not high but snow generally v good at thattone, skied therein April one year, it was a bit heavy but we managed

handy transfer from Oslo by train.

Garmisch again easy transfer from Munich or head across the border to lermoos which goes up to about 2000m iirc

fannymagee · 18-02-2014 12:32am

Schedule for St Patrick's Week, Soll:

Sat 15th:

13.00: 10th Annual Ted Kaufmann Seilrenne (Rope Race). Giant Slalom with a difference- charity race with teams of 3 skiers/snowboarders racing while tied together with a rope. Twice as much fun as it sounds- all welcome to enter!!! Just bring a rope... (Not in your hand luggage though, lol) ;-)

18.00: Ireland -vs- France, SalvenStadl.

18.30: St Patrick's Week Special welcome evening, Hochsoll- Slopes floodlit in GREEEEEN!!! 2 toboggan runs open for the non-skiers.

21.00: Red Horse Welcome Party

21.30: Live Music: Frog on the Tyne, Rossini

Sunday 16th:

16.00: Salvenstadl, Live Music Big Frog

16.30: Red Horse, Live Music Cuckoo

21.00: SalvenStadl Welcome Party, DJ Glenn

Monday 17th ST PATRICK'S DAY

12.45: FACY DRESS SKI PARADE: Meet with Skischool Soll Hochsoll (Blue uniforms) at GrundlAlm- bring your flags/fancy dress/rubber shamrocks, whatever! Parade will be from Keat to GrundlAlm, and will be photographed & videoed by SkiWelt & published online at www.skiwelt.at.

14.00: St Patrck's Day Party @ GrundlAlm/ Umbrella Bar, Live Music.

16.00: SalvenStadtl Apres Ski, Frog on the Tyne: MAHOOSIVE Paddy's Day Party.

21:00: Live music in Gasthof Christopherous & Red Horse (but I can pretty much guarantee you'll won't be inclined to leave the SalvenStadl- they know how to throw a party) ;-)

fannymagee · 11-03-2014 8:15pm

Soooo, who's going where for Paddy's Day?! Obv I'll be found on the schlopes in Soll- if anyone is coming over, giz a shout!! :-)

Dr Nic · 12-03-2014 4:23pm

san anton austria here for my third and final week of the year. Cant wait! :-)
3 cm snow due at the weekend. hope it falls!! :-)

AlternateID · 12-03-2014 5:00pm

I'm so tempted.

Bags have been packed since my last trip a month ago.

Odd to see the underground not listed for an event as they are the only pub with Guinness. And it's not bad either. I always have a few in there.

fannymagee · 12-03-2014 5:10pm

Aaaah AlternateID, that just goes to showe it's been too long since you were last there- you need to come back!!

The Underground USED to be the only bar with Guinness, but that's all changed in the past year! And Dave is English, so is probably offering respite to the non-Irish contingent, lol ;-)

There's now a (real) Irish bar in the back of the Red Horse, rune by Seán & Sinéad, a brother & sister from Meath. You might remember Sinéad as the blonde irish barmaid from the SalvenStadl. So the Guiness drinkers naturally gravitated to the Irish bartenders for their Guinness (and extensive whiskey range!). Then the Whisky Muehl also decided to get in on the action, and they opened their version of an Irish bar (Austrian style, run by a Scotsman, but serving Guinness) and now even the SalvenStadl has got in on the Guinness action, and they've installed a tap too.

SO the only thing for you to do now is come on over and do a Guinness pub crawl for Paddy's Day!! Ahh g'wan g'wan G'WAN!! it's going to be great craic all weekend, (esp Saturday & Monday) You know you want to!! ;-)

AlternateID · 12-03-2014 5:46pm

Any cheap flights?

fannymagee · 12-03-2014 5:54pm

Check out Aer Lingus to Munich, or Ryanair to Salzburg.

The EI strike on Friday means all passengers from the fri am flight to Munich have been rescheduled onto the Fri PM flight, so that's getting backed up. If you're flexible on times/dates you might make it for a reasonable price though, or if you don;t mind a longer transfer you could try flying Ryanair into Memmingen on Sat or Sunday morning? They provide a bus into Munich, and then you can get a train to Kufstein from there, takes about 90mins & costs €19 - €25. A bus from Kufstein to Soll takes about 20 mins.

Very doable :-)

AlternateID · 12-03-2014 11:23pm

Alas I'd have to be back for Tuesday and next flight is Wed. I need to plan better for next year. (And Aug/Sept in Hinter)

fannymagee · 13-03-2014 11:09am

Is that Ryanair, or are Aer Lingus booked out too?!

AlternateID · 13-03-2014 11:45am

Not booked out I don't think. Just bad timing.

Ryanair don't have a return flight till the following Sat from Salzburg or Wednesday from Memmingen. Returning from Munich with Air Lingus is Thursday and €406. I need to be here on Tuesday.

fannymagee · 13-03-2014 5:03pm

AlternateID wrote: »

Not booked out I don't think. Just bad timing.

Ryanair don't have a return flight till the following Sat from Salzburg or Wednesday from Memmingen. Returning from Munich with Air Lingus is Thursday and €406. I need to be here on Tuesday.

Jaysis!! At airport now, it's feckin mental!! Flights are jammed...

Paddies Weekend Trip

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