Austria 2011

slowrun

Hi,
After skiing in france for the last few years,we're keen to try Austria for a change in 2011!
We will be a group of 8-10 people,looking for a chalet(catered or not it doesn't matter) or apartment. However I'm finding it hard to come up with anything easily online.
We're hoping to book everything ourselves to keep costs down and we've found before we got better accommodation that way!
So I'm wondering if anyone knows any good websites for finding accommodation in Austria(I seem to be able to find loads in France) or any good recommendations?
Also,can anyone recommend a good resort? I've been looking at the saalbach area? There's just so much to choose from!the group is mixed ability but mostly intermediate/advanced!!!
Any help would be great-thanks
SR

davmol

If you do a search in this section for austria you will find tons of good threads on different resorts in Austria and details such value ,apres ski and activities in each resort.
A gang of us went to Soll last year and had a ball.
We found the second week in january to be very cheap as its after the holday period and kids have gone back to school.Got i for approx 350 P.P.
They have night skiing there too which is great,never crowded and sometimes u dont make it to slopes during the day if your nursing a hangover from hell so its nice to have the option to go out later and a big dirty fry=hangover cure.

Ive been to lots of resorts and austria has been one of the best so far and cheapest.

Overflow

Hi,

It will be hard to find a chalet in Austria, they are not common like in France and other countries.

You should have no problem though finding an apartment. I've rented an apartment in Saalbach the past 4 years now.

There is a huge list of accommodation on the Saalbach resort website.

I highly recommend Saalbach as i have done before on here, its an amazing place, a huge resort and a tons of slopes to choose from. You can also ski right down into the town from the mountains. Everything is central. The apres-ski is fantastic aswell.

jterijdt

We used this one the past winter to book our chalet in Austria. Plenty of choice.
http://www.belvilla.com

We were in Skiwelt (http://www.skiwelt.at). Decent size area. Slightly low altitude though and the runs are not that long. We had great snow when we were there (1st week of February)

slowrun

Thanks for the replies!
I've been looking at the threads & had decided on Saalbach! Still having trouble finding what we're looking for though!
Is there much difference between saalbach itself & hinterglemm?I notice someone had said here that they didn't want to stay in hinterglemm? Why?
Also having trouble finding large apt! Was looking for something to suit 8-12 ppl!
Have seen some nice places in Zell am See but not sure how this compares?
Nothing with fantastic deals sticking out for me yet though!:-(

Fattes

Diffrence between Saalbach and Hinterglim is night life! Both have good access to the hill and its half a dozen of one and the other about where you get on the hill in the morning and ski options.

You are a litte further from Hinterglim which tends to have the best early morning conditions

Zeel is a nice spot much smaller ski are than Saalbach but very pretty and has a back up glacier close bye.

A few of ski schools have apartments to let and should be able to cater to the numbers in the one building at least.

duckysauce

Overflow wrote: »

Hi,

It will be hard to find a chalet in Austria, they are not common like in France and other countries.

You should have no problem though finding an apartment. I've rented an apartment in Saalbach the past 4 years now.

There is a huge list of accommodation on the Saalbach resort website.

I highly recommend Saalbach as i have done before on here, its an amazing place, a huge resort and a tons of slopes to choose from. You can also ski right down into the town from the mountains. Everything is central. The apres-ski is fantastic aswell.

how long is the transfer from the airport to Saalbach?

flikflak

^ about an hour and a half. Not including stops in other resorts on the way if you are transferring with a tour op. Private one should be 1hr 30 mins.

slowrun

Ok so have booked flights (which went down by €20 three days later) with ryanair and accommodation in hinterglemm.
Looking now at ski schools,equipment etc. Can anybody recommend any good suppliers in hinterglemm? From looking online there seems to be only two ski schools operating in hinterglemm &tbh they seem expensive enough (in comparison with the French ones anyway!).
Are there any schools that do a package of ski school &lift pass? Any good equipment providers in the area?
Really getting excited already now....just wish it wasn't so far away!!!
Thanks :-)

i dont care

hi, iam heading to soll on the 10th of jan and were booking everything seperate ourselves, we booked the tannenhof soell and its only costing 210 each for six of us.
were in the process of sorting out are transfer from munich airport to soll so if anyone has any ideas that would be great the transfer takes about an hour and twenty.
flights with aer lingus are not bad either booked two friends in yesterday for 150 each.

olaola

slowrun wrote: »

Ok so have booked flights (which went down by €20 three days later) with ryanair and accommodation in hinterglemm.
Looking now at ski schools,equipment etc. Can anybody recommend any good suppliers in hinterglemm? From looking online there seems to be only two ski schools operating in hinterglemm &tbh they seem expensive enough (in comparison with the French ones anyway!).
Are there any schools that do a package of ski school &lift pass? Any good equipment providers in the area?
Really getting excited already now....just wish it wasn't so far away!!!
Thanks :-)

http://www.skischule-saalbach.at/en/preise_packages.asp

We've used these guys in Saalbach twice now, and they've been great. Not sure if it's handy for you though! The ski school + equipment deal is very good value. The deal is with Intersport
and I got whatever skis I wanted last year (Atomic cloud 8s - brand new!!) so I was chuffed.

Edited to say - here is the list of skischools in Hinterglemm:
http://www.saalbach.com/en/winter/skicircus/ski-snowboardschools/ski-snowboardschools-in-hinterglemm.html

niceoneted

SLowrun, In Austria they tend to do longer ski lessons so you will have about 2 hrs in the morning 2 hr break and 2 -.25 in the afternoon. That is probably why you are seeing a difference in price. I want to go back to Austria myself this year as tired of France. I found too that the yrs I skied in Austria my skiing came on a sight with the longer lessons.
Oh gosh looking to get something booked myself.

anymore

olaola wrote: »

http://www.skischule-saalbach.at/en/preise_packages.asp

We've used these guys in Saalbach twice now, and they've been great. Not sure if it's handy for you though! The ski school + equipment deal is very good value. The deal is with Intersport
and I got whatever skis I wanted last year (Atomic cloud 8s - brand new!!) so I was chuffed.

Edited to say - here is the list of skischools in Hinterglemm:
http://www.saalbach.com/en/winter/skicircus/ski-snowboardschools/ski-snowboardschools-in-hinterglemm.html

Ive used Intersport about six times, once in Mayrhoffen, amd remainder of time in Hintertux and have found they usually gave out fairly new equipment and are pretty friendly. Cant comment much on whether there are cheaper outlets.

anymore

niceoneted wrote: »

SLowrun, In Austria they tend to do longer ski lessons so you will have about 2 hrs in the morning 2 hr break and 2 -.25 in the afternoon. That is probably why you are seeing a difference in price. I want to go back to Austria myself this year as tired of France. I found too that the yrs I skied in Austria my skiing came on a sight with the longer lessons.
Oh gosh looking to get something booked myself.

The schools tend to vary hours in Austria. The two hours lessons and then two hours break you mentioned applied to the school I attended in Soll, but the previous year in St Johann, the school simply took a lunch break at some convenient restaurant on the mountains - usually around 45 minutes and everybody in group ate together which was much more sociable. The added bonus of this was that the lesson ended about an hour earlier leaving us to head off back to the slopes on our own. This pracice of short lunch break on the mountains and finishing earlier also applied in Arinsal, Andora.
The other comment I wil pas on the ski school in Soll was that people were able to do either full days or half days and also people could join the school halfway through the week. The result was the group changed with people coming and going and also instead of the group making reasonable progress together and being a cohesive unit, the group had to accomodate newcomers and wait until they had progressed closer to the standard of the group which was tedious. I just skipped the last day and a half in frustation. It may be most profitable way to run a ski school, but it seems unfair on those who have paid to do a full weeks tuition.