zell am see ski holiday

LOTTOWINNER

Hi all,
Booked a ski holiday today, or more correctly a friend of mine booked it, hence I know very little about the resort, as mentioned it's zell am see and the hotel is the St. George, any info, tips, advice would be very much appreciated.
I have skied before, although never in Austria, and it's been 6 years since I last skied.

Thanks in advance.

coin

Hi, I was in Zell for New Years just gone.Really lovely place, but it seemed kinda quiet for apres ski, but apparently it doesn't get busy lit about now. Unbelievably scenic at tis time of year cos the lake is frozen over and there might just be ice skating on it!If not just head down to the indoor stadium for skating, its literally 5 mins walk from the town centre. Some nice little shops around and a beautiful church in the centre also. Skiing wise, the lifts are modern and very efficient and pistes are well kept.instruction and hire is available everywhere, try look up Alex in the SkiSchool!! Expect to pay about 50€ per hour for private lessons though. Loads of nice restaurants to eat in at night as well, I recommend a nice Italian near the centre.There's an Irish bar on the main road, 4 mins from ski lift but I didn't try it out. Really nice around the Grand Hotel if out and about, great photos to be taken of the lake. I'm not familiar with the St.George unfortunately but most of the hotels in Zell are like 3* in Ireland. Basically everything in the town is so handy and easy to get around. and if you want its about 20mins to Kaprun.Drop a pm if you can think of any questions.Enjoy!

Imposter

I'm pretty sure the lake won't be frozen. Things are relatively warm this year - not as bad as last year but warmish nonetheless.

LOTTOWINNER

Thanks for the advice, as we are travelling without ski hire, ski pass and lessons, could you recommend somewhere or someone that could organise these for us.
I will visit skischool and possibly see Alex, would he or another instructor be able to organise, ski hire, lessons and pass? We're more interested in a ski class than one to one instruction.

cheers

watna

I was there at Christmas. The lake was frozen over and it was beautiful. However is was -12c and I've never been so cold in my life! The town does seem quiet (I was staying in Saalbach and just went in to Zell for the morning to have look around) but it's probably busier this time of year. If you find it a bit quiet you can easily get a taxi in to Saalbach which is very lively for apres ski.

I've attached a photo of the frozen lake to get you all excited!

rossie1977

beautiful part of the country, there are some decent drinking holes in the centre of town such as Crazy Daisy Pub which has live bands each night and another where live bands play but whose name escapes me at this moment.

if you guys plan a day-trip you could do worse that taking a trip up to the Grossglockner which is about 45-60 minutes drive from Zell (Austria's tallest mountain). The scenery along the drive is spectacular

LOTTOWINNER

thanks people for all the replies, we're heading on the 23rd of this month and it sounds like a nice place, lets hope there will be lots of fresh snow when we arrive!!!!

Gatsby

Just got back from Kaprun yesterday which is in the same resort area as Zell am See. The same ski pass works for three different ski areas and available at the base of all the ski areas. It snowed a couple of times during the week so the conditions for skiing were close to perfect. Spent must of our time on the high altitude slopes near Kaprun. Lots of blue slopes up there so ideal if you havent skied in a few years.

There were a couple of good bars on the main street in zell am see that were packed out any time i went there. Can't recomend any restauraunts there as I thought the food was generally poor/bland over all.

Oh and the lake is still mostly frozen over but it didnt look thick enough to skate on.