Skiing in Austria

[winterrabbit]

Can anyone recommend good resorts for families? We have a 13 year old and 11 year old who are good skiers so will want intermediate slopes and fun things to do plus a 3 year old who may not ski that much so it would be nice to have a nice village/shops/swimming pool etc. Want to be as close to the slopes as possible, ideally ski in ski out but there doesn't seem to be many like that in Austria. TIA!

Lech is my favourite Austrian resort, but it is pricey as others have mentioned.

We stayed in a lovely ski in ski out apartment in Obertauern one year, and I remember it being in a nice varied ski area (not nearly as large as la plagne but big enough to keep us occupied for the week)

@winterrabbit No worries, just give me a shout if you do decide you might be interested. I'm amazing and lots of fun (not blowing my own trumpet of course, just being factual! ) so good at bonding with little ones very quickly and bringing the shy ones out of their shell. Anyway, hope you get your trip sorted!

Hinterglemm - www.unterschwarzach.at/en/the-hotel/

@winterrabbit - ignore my recommendation (unless you are happy to pay ££!) - stayed there a few years ago, great hotel and location but didn't realise it had gone 'up market'!

Hi , I have lots of ski experience in Austria . It’s absolutely lovely and can totally compete with France. I just haven’t been in a while. My favorite area is Bad Hofgastein. Not sure how that compares with where you are flying in to. Tirol.com has a list of all the areas with comparisons in English. Why not write the tourist board with what you would like. See what they come back with. Austrians have great food especially if you can swing a 4 star hotel and lovely wines. My all time favourite though are the Italian Dolomites if you have ever the chance. But don’t give up on Austria ..Kitzbuehl is nice if a bit up market.

I have skied in Austria a lot and I also think Serfaus is the best. You have to walk to the gondola but when you get up it everything is in a bowl with the baby slopes and ski school in the middle. So you can put your children in ski school, go off for the morning, and come and get them at lunchtime, all without going back to the village.

Another vote for Kinderhotels, also look at Falkensteiner. So many other resorts to consider in Austria - St Anton (mainstream choice, easy by train from Innsbruck airport, loads of accommodation options and a great public swimming pool!), Serfaus (stayed here), Seefeld - so so easy from Innsbruck (stayed here). Other suggestions are Obertauern, Schladming, Bad Gastein etc, etc... There are also loads of self catering options.

We went to Obertauern a few years ago and most places seemed ski-in ski-out as the village is mainly along one road with slopes and lifts either side. Several hotels had pools - ours had a very child-friendly pool with a big slide.

Lots of long red runs but also some nursery runs and blacks. And there was a cool 'ghost' piste for children, with spooky noises and figures hidden in trees, and you skied through a cave.

There's also cross-country, and the simpler tracks might be possible for a 3 year old if you wanted to do something altogether as a family.

Have a look at the villages in the snow space Salzburg ski area, some of them have have ski in ski out and they have some bits on the mountain for younger kids to play on when they don’t want to ski. There is also Therme Amade nearby which is a huge pool/spa complex. Some of the hotels have amazing kids clubs any playrooms. We stayed at the Felsenhof in Flachau right before covid hit and it’s amazing (but not ski in ski out) If ski in ski out is really important to you I’d look at Zauchensee or Alpendorf. It’s also on the same lift pass as Obertauern as others have mentioned. If you fancy a day off skiing, the Dachstein glacier is a good day out.

We’ve been to this place (from a MN a recommendation) and it’s great.

www.sporthotel-achensee.com/en/

Plenty of intermediate skiing, and the lift is at the back of the hotel. Ski school for all children 3+ is included in the price if you choose, and the teenagers can opt to go and refine their technique, or just ski with you. Ski hire shop in the hotel and a dedicated locker as you enter the hotel from the lift area. When we went there were a lot of English speaking kids there, so we barely saw our children. It’s a Kinderhotel so has a kids’ club, soft play, pool (more for the smaller kids but teenagers can play around - no flumes though). They have a teenagers programme which might be a bit cheesy but mine enjoyed a trip to do tubing nearby. The food is included and very good, and they do airport transfers from Innsbruck and Munich. It’s also a lot cheaper than a lot of other ski holidays - I’ve been told!

If you want luxury then check out Dachsteinkönig which was recently voted the best family hotel in Austria. www.dachsteinkoenig.at/en

It's in Gosau which isn't deep in the Alps like many of the other ski resorts but it still has breathtaking scenery. And it's next to the picturesque Hallstatt village in case you want to do some sightseeing. It's fairly quiet at the moment since a bulk of visitors come from Asia and long haul tourists are still gone.

@Sleepyteach

Have a look at the villages in the snow space Salzburg ski area, some of them have have ski in ski out and they have some bits on the mountain for younger kids to play on when they don’t want to ski. There is also Therme Amade nearby which is a huge pool/spa complex. Some of the hotels have amazing kids clubs any playrooms. We stayed at the Felsenhof in Flachau right before covid hit and it’s amazing (but not ski in ski out) If ski in ski out is really important to you I’d look at Zauchensee or Alpendorf. It’s also on the same lift pass as Obertauern as others have mentioned. If you fancy a day off skiing, the Dachstein glacier is a good day out.

Yes snow space is great. Although for this winter, at least the next weeks it is a no go. We are not long back from the area and restaurants and hotels are closing left right and centre.

Also been to Felsenhof it's great for little ones. But flachau is now pretty much shut currently. Let's hope things improve in February although currently not looking great.

Are they closing because of an impending lockdown? Or because night time restrictions are making it uneconomical too open?

@Doubleraspberry

There are several reasons for businesses closing or operating restricted hours in resorts at the moment.

Infection rates have rocketed over the last week in many resorts - almost a 6-fold increase in some resorts in just a few days. Most of those infected seem to be hotel staff and ski instructors, who have contact with numerous people during the course of a day and who live in close proximity to one another, often in shared rooms. The net result is that as staff have to quarantine, there are too few staff to cook and serve meals, clean the rooms etc. There was already a general shortage of seasonal staff in many places and some restaurants and hotels have not opened at all.

New Year has been busy in the resorts, but now that the families have gone home the groups that traditionally come in January do not seem to be coming. If they come as much for the party and beer as for the skiing, then clearly the impact of there being no apres ski and the restaurants closing at 22.00 makes that type of holiday less attractive.

For those resorts that are popular with guests from UK, Denmark, Norway and Netherlands, the vaccination and PCR requirements for these guests have had a clear negative effect on bookings.

And so the spiral begins. With fewer staff and fewer customers, some businesses are closing or consolidating. Many hotels, bars and shops are family-owned and they often run 2 or 3 businesses, so by putting all of the guests into one hotel rather than in 3, by opening only one restaurant rather than 3 or 4, or by opening only one ski shop instead of 2 or 3, they can keep the businesses ticking over in the hope that they get a good February.

Zell am See. Lovely resort.

I much prefer Austria to France

I prefer Austria to France as well. It's better value for money, there are some beautiful small towns where you can go shopping as well (Zell am See or Kitzbuhel for example), the food is better (yes really!), the apres-ski entertainment is better (Ischgl or Obertauern for example), the resorts are much more family friendly and the Austrians haven't destroyed the beautiful alpine scenery with 10-storey concrete hotels like the French.

Another vote for Kinderhotels, they are absolutely brilliant. We went to the hotel Galtenberg in Alpbach twice, it’s an easy drive from Munich airport. Alpbach would not normally be my choice of resort as it’s not huge but it did keep DH and me entertained for a week with some off piste too, and the kids loved it.

Other than that, Lech is our all time favourite and has a lovely crèche too. Pricey but worth it and a good choice of self catering apartments. The tobogganing is fantastic too (for the older ones).

Obertauern is almost entirely ski in ski out but the skiing is a little limited if you’re good skiers. And the village itself is a bit boring.

My family didn’t like Serfaus that much. The skiing is good but everyone having to get on the same gondola in the morning causes a bottleneck. Plus the village didn’t have that much of a friendly vibe. But yes they are very well set up for families and we loved the crèche there.

I’d always choose Austria over France for the nicer accommodation, prettier resorts, better ski school / childcare arrangements and the food!

Everyone has gotten me in the mood again with this thread so we've booked to go back end of February to Snow Space Salzburg. Quite possibly a Schnappsidee as you'd say in German, but if it is mines a Williams please. We just want to make up for missing last year and the kids are beyond ecstatic 😀 So let's hope and pray numbers do go down and nothing stops us from entering Austria

That sounds great @NoKnit, hope you have a good time! Numbers are going up in Austria at the moment but by the end of February they should hopefully be going down. Fingers crossed!

@NoKnit that is so sad. I really hope things get better there soon, it’s such a lovely place. I’m looking forward to the day I can dance on the bar in the dampfkessel again! I knew they’d moved the racing to schladming this week because of rising cases but I didn’t realise how bad it was from a tourist POV - when they made the announcement about the racing the rate across the area was similar to the city I live in so I was too concerned, but it sounds like flachau is driving the high rates across the area which would explain the skiing there being cancelled but not zauchensee.

The reopening of France means we can now get to Austria. We just need to wait to find out whether Austria shuts. We're due to go in half term.

Part of me would be pleased if it all goes tits up as it would save us the cost of the holiday. But the kids will love it if we make it.

I don't think Austria will shut again. But I might be wrong. If there is it'll be another short sharp lock down like last time. There was talk about tourist ban in one of the papers but I didn't see any more on that

We’re taking our non-skiing four year old to Mayrhofen. We took him when he was two and had a great time.

Plenty of stuff to do in town for the parent on childminding duties. Nice walks, lovely pool, ice rink. Cross country skiing if you like that, though it’s in the valley so melts quite early.

Cute igloo up the top of the Ahorn lift. DS was perfectly happy sitting up there digging in the snow while DS sat in a deckchair with a beer, watching the snowcats, eating chips in one of the huts, and drinking hot chocolate in the igloo. Throw in an afternoon in the pool and a trip on the steam train, and he was entertained all week. The hotel also had a lovely playroom.

Came on to add my voice to those saying Zell am See, I've been taking my now 13 yr old since he was 4, we've usually got an apartment through booking.com but this year we're in a hotel in the town, it's about 100m from the gondola. The infrastructure is great and they really look out for kids, the whole place is very child friendly, like everywhere we have to keep an eye on any changes due to covid but it does look like it will be okay this year, although there is some talk of a shorter season but nothing set yet.

Does anyone here know how often Austria update their travel restrictions? Do they do it on a regular schedule like the UK were doing or is it adhoc? I’ve currently got Covid so unless they remove the requirement for PCRs for UK arrivals I’m not taking the risk of booking for half term!