Soll Austria

irishguy

What do people think about Soll for Skiing? We went to Kaprun/Zell am Zee last year which was very nice and some good ski runs so would be looking for the same kind of thing. I heard Soll is cheaper, but more drinking than Skiing..

fannymagee

I LOVE Soll for skiing- but I keep getting torn apart on here for saying that so standby for that, lol! It has everything, on and off-piste and I love the long runs in the SkiWelt, great for really stretching your legs & blowing the cobwebs out!!

I'll put it to you this way- if you fancy yourself as the next Jamey Parks, don't go to Soll. Likewise if you're very technical and like to put on big shows of your Go Pro achievements when you get home- it's not for you :-)

If, on the other had, you're fairly laid back about your skiing and want a balance of skiing and socialising on your trip, you'll love Soll. It's not the hard core drinking zone that some people make it out to be- I spend most of the season there and I'm not a drinker- you can make what you want of it- great craic to be had! The Skiwelt is huge, so there's something for everyone, and some nice long daytrips if you want to rack up some milage. Fabulous night skiing and a great toboggan run for a bit of variety in the evenings.

If you're into off-piste, I'd recommend you find a local and ask their advice (I can hook you up if you like- might cost you a beer though lol!). there is plenty of great off-piste, but most visitors don't know where to look so it's worth doing your homework on that one f it's something you'll want to do.

When are you thinking of going?

Fattes

Compared to Zell it is bigger but the quality of skiing is nowhere close, if you ski reds comfortably there is very little challenge in the ski welt outside of Flachau. Its a easy beginner piste resort nothing more.

fannymagee

Irishguy have a look on Snowheads.com too, you might get a wider variety of opinions. They have a thread on Resort reports which is old, but gives a fairly good idea of the atmosphere and vibe of the place. Note that the lift infrastructure has ben upgraded considerably since then though, and Westendorf is now easily accessible from Soll :-)

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewpost.php?p=109126

Fattes

http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/resorts/Soll/

Here is pretty much the definitive guide to every resort on the planet! I dont agree with their opinion in relation to Soll & beginners & the piste map thing but other than that a pretty good review of Soll or any resort for that

fannymagee

Yes it's also dated though, there's been quite a lot of upgrades to the lift infrastructure since 2011. They've also moved the Stockllift specifically to ease the transition from blues to reds for beginners. That piste-map criticism is quite common, but that's a side effect of how extensive the ski area is, they have to try to represent the entire circumference of the mountain on the map, and the routes to the surrounding villages. I reckon they did a pretty good job considering!

Does anywhere update their resort reports annually?

Fattes

That website does but it is behind a paywayll and I cant for copyright issues publish here. Sorry

The book is pretty good but in an effort to cut costs they have reduced the periods of review.

fannymagee

I think I have actually seen that entire review cut and pasted into a newspaper article- talk about lazy journalism! lol :-)

fannymagee

Here's a decent review of Soll from the ski perspective, a few route suggestions & photos

http://www.skiing.ie/news/soell-austria-resort-review/

Fattes

I think it was sold to the Daily mail of the telegrph a few years back, but it is a bible for jounalists who regurlarly refrence it

cormee

fannymagee wrote: »

I think I have actually seen that entire review cut and pasted into a newspaper article- talk about lazy journalism! lol :-)

I was enjoying my breakfast leafing through a travel supplement in the Sunday Business Post about two years ago, it was a feature on snow holidays. It took about 15 seconds for me to realise it, but there, on the top of the page, was a photo of me lying in the snow in Avoriaz (they labelled it Morzine). They had lifted it from my Picassa album. It's kind of weird just happening upon something like that.

Fattes

Look at you, handsome devil ya!!! Ha Ha Way to live up to the boarder stereotype

A well-known Irish Travel operator used 3 of my other half’s photos in a Winter brochure one year without permission. When I addressed it with the man that owns the company he was trying to say they were not the photos I thought they were. Up until I pointed out I was in one of them!!!

It is actually a lot more common than you think, I know of at least 12-15 examples off hand of it happening people here and in the UK, including an instructor who wrote a ski book using multiple photos belonging to someone else and getting a hefty bill at the end for his trouble!

cormee

Fattes wrote: »

Look at you, handsome devil ya!!! Ha Ha Way to live up to the boarder stereotype

A well-known Irish Travel operator used 3 of my other half’s photos in a Winter brochure one year without permission. When I addressed it with the man that owns the company he was trying to say they were not the photos I thought they were. Up until I pointed out I was in one of them!!!

It is actually a lot more common than you think, I know of at least 12-15 examples off hand of it happening people here and in the UK, including an instructor who wrote a ski book using multiple photos belonging to someone else and getting a hefty bill at the end for his trouble!

Ah stop! Storm model agency have been banging down my door ever since.

... in all seriousness though, I did have the Creative Commons licensing attributes attached to all images in the directory, which the SBP seemed to disregard completely, however I was more amused than outraged by the whole experience.

fannymagee

Haha!! Looks refreshingly down to earth alright!! The cheeky feckers

loobylou

Why should you never stop in the middle of the piste?













Cos then the boarders will have nowhere to sit down.:D

fannymagee

BOOM BOOM!!

irishguy

Fattes wrote: »

Compared to Zell it is bigger but the quality of skiing is nowhere close, if you ski reds comfortably there is very little challenge in the ski welt outside of Flachau. Its a easy beginner piste resort nothing more.

we are intermediate skiers so wouldnt be looking for very challenging conditions. Looking for decent blues/reds some nice scenery and not too expensive for food/drink.

fannymagee

God I can't wait to get back there!! Two more weeks :-)

Fattes

we are intermediate skiers so wouldnt be looking for very challenging conditions. Looking for decent blues/reds some nice scenery and not too expensive for food/drink.

Ski Welt, Saalbach, Mayrhofen, Tignes (France) Lermoos ( A bit Quiet)

The challenging conditions is the important thing in your factors, Saalbach, Mayrhofen and Tignes have historically better snow & piste conditions than the Ski Welt resorts.

fannymagee

irishguy wrote: »

we are intermediate skiers so wouldnt be looking for very challenging conditions. Looking for decent blues/reds some nice scenery and not too expensive for food/drink.

Sounds like Soll!! See previous reviews on this thread :-)

stevire

What's Soll like for food around the town? Considering a cheap trip in Jan before Mayrhofen in March

B&B option is coming in cheap, with Half-Board working out at 22e extra a day per person. I would assume we could get a decent meal around Soll for that price?

fannymagee

Hi Stevire, yes you'll get a decent meal for that in Soll, there are plenty of really nice places to eat in the village. Here's a tripadvisor list, http://www.tripadvisor.ie/Restaurants-g608680-Soll_Tirol_Austrian_Alps.html. You HAVE to try the Wienerschnitzel in the Oberhausberg, which is halfway down the blue family run to the village- it's renowned locally for being the best in the area. My personal favourite is the Dorfstubn- lovely traditional feel and great food. There's also the Postwirt bang in the middle of town which is slightly pricier, but also very traditional, great food and usu live music later on. Both of these places do AMAZING steaks :-) Also SollerStuben (not sure if it's open this year though) and Kaiserstuben have great food too. If you want casual right next to the pubs there's Pizzeria Venezia, which is across the road from the Salven Stadtl and above the Underground Bar. Great pizza & Italian menu, very reasonable and you can bring it downstairs to the bar & eat it with your pint if you like. There's also Bella Vita and Rossini, which are both lovely but with a more modern, less traditional vibe.

I'm not a big fan of the half-board option, it can get boring to eat in the same place every night! You can even skip your dinner one of the evenings & get a steak semmel freshly BBQ'd outside the SalvenStadtl- they're lovely too! :-)

stevire

fannymagee wrote: »

Hi Stevire, yes you'll get a decent meal for that in Soll, there are plenty of really nice places to eat in the village. Here's a tripadvisor list, http://www.tripadvisor.ie/Restaurants-g608680-Soll_Tirol_Austrian_Alps.html. You HAVE to try the Wienerschnitzel in the Oberhausberg, which is halfway down the blue family run to the village- it's renowned locally for being the best in the area. My personal favourite is the Dorfstubn- lovely traditional feel and great food. There's also the Postwirt bang in the middle of town which is slightly pricier, but also very traditional, great food and usu live music later on. Both of these places do AMAZING steaks :-) Also SollerStuben (not sure if it's open this year though) and Kaiserstuben have great food too. If you want casual right next to the pubs there's Pizzeria Venezia, which is across the road from the Salven Stadtl and above the Underground Bar. Great pizza & Italian menu, very reasonable and you can bring it downstairs to the bar & eat it with your pint if you like. There's also Bella Vita and Rossini, which are both lovely but with a more modern, less traditional vibe.

I'm not a big fan of the half-board option, it can get boring to eat in the same place every night! You can even skip your dinner one of the evenings & get a steak semmel freshly BBQ'd outside the SalvenStadtl- they're lovely too! :-)

Sounds amazing!! Thanks a mill for the info

fannymagee

stevire wrote: »

Sounds amazing!! Thanks a mill for the info

Haha no prob- writing that was a nice distraction! I'm literally biding my time till I head back in a fortnight, so if I can help with anything else just shout!

Am just back from my lunchbreak, spent it skigear shopping in TK Maxx. Have seriously itchy skifeet at the mo :rolleyes:

stevire

fannymagee wrote: »

Haha no prob- writing that was a nice distraction! I'm literally biding my time till I head back in a fortnight, so if I can help with anything else just shout!

Am just back from my lunchbreak, spent it skigear shopping in TK Maxx. Have seriously itchy skifeet at the mo :rolleyes:

Was in there yesterday too, 53 Degrees North had a good selection upstairs in Carrickmines too. Last few bits from the last sample sale...

fannymagee

stevire wrote: »

Was in there yesterday too, 53 Degrees North had a good selection upstairs in Carrickmines too. Last few bits from the last sample sale...

Cool, must try to make it over for a look. Everywhere seems to be full of feckin neon colours at the moment and I'm not a fan of them!! I like a bit of discretion on the slopes lol ;-)

cormee

fannymagee wrote: »

Haha no prob- writing that was a nice distraction! I'm literally biding my time till I head back in a fortnight, so if I can help with anything else just shout!

Am just back from my lunchbreak, spent it skigear shopping in TK Maxx. Have seriously itchy skifeet at the mo :rolleyes:

Well for you, only two weeks to go. I've 64 days left.

To get me through the long wait I've got one of the home screens on my phone set up with - two webcam widgets (showing webcams in resort), a countdown widget to departure date, a weather (in the resort) widget, and an exercise widget that's measuring my training. I might have a problem



[EDIT} exercise widget isn't showing

fannymagee

Haha Cormee!! Oh God I hear ya though- this time of year begins to feel like torture lol!!

The snow updates are beginning in earnest now though so that's good, and the webcams are showing nice and white. I love your widgets idea, haha! I'm beginning to regret my lack of excercise, shoulda got one a them widgets, I'll be there before the lifts open so it's gonna involve a LOT of uphill work- will prob come back destroyed. Oh well. All part of the fun lol.

Where are you off to? :-)

cormee

fannymagee wrote: »

Haha Cormee!! Oh God I hear ya though- this time of year begins to feel like torture lol!!

The snow updates are beginning in earnest now though so that's good, and the webcams are showing nice and white. I love your widgets idea, haha! I'm beginning to regret my lack of excercise, shoulda got one a them widgets, I'll be there before the lifts open so it's gonna involve a LOT of uphill work- will prob come back destroyed. Oh well. All part of the fun lol.

Where are you off to? :-)

The rest of the year is torture too, I find Vimeo.com helps a lot though, new amateur (ski & board) videos daily.

Exercise was a game changer for me last year, seriously, I can't recommend it too much, especially if you're on the reds and blacks (probably not so necessary if you're on blues and greens), you'll notice the difference in everything you do. I start thee months before departure date, three nights a week. Off to St. Martin de Belleville, it's a small village in the Three Valleys, close to Les Menuires, it's about 15/20 minutes on lifts away from the main Three Valleys ski/lifts network. Lovely place, very quiet, quaint & cheap enough.

I can't for one second imagine not having the lifts to carry me uphill, God help you! Have you done that before? What resort?

fannymagee

Ah I know, in fairness I'm not too bad- it's just the first outing of the season tends to be murder on the legs!

Off to Soll- it's my winter home lol. I don't know if you know the area, but we'll go from Soll to Scheffau on touring skis, and then ski back to Soll. A long day out but there'll be nobody about, fresh prepared pistes & untracked off-piste, and we'll stop into a few of the mountain huts to say hello & have a pre-season schnapps on the way. So it's a really nice day out before the season starts in earnest.

OH GOD IS IT DECEMBER YET???!! :-) :-)