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Skiing in Austria

Hi,
My partner and I will be in Austria in late December and would like to visit the ski slopes. The plan at the moment is to base ourselves in Salzburg and do a couple of day trips to the slopes (Flachau area).. Any suggestions?

Posted by
1875 posts

... and would like to visit the ski slopes.

Do you just want to see the ski slopes or do you want to go for skiing?

Posted by
19654 posts

By "late December" what precise dates? Depending on how the snow is going, you might want to find a higher elevation area to find good snow. As long as it is not the Christmas-New Year Holiday period, you should be able to find lodging at the resorts. It is about 1 1/2 hours travel from Salzburg to Flachau, a train to Radstadt, then local bus to Flachau, or stay on the train another 15 minutes to Schladming. There is a glacier at Kaprun by Zell am See that tops out at 3000 m.

Otherwise, St Anton am Arlberg is right on the mainline rail route between Innsbruck and Zurich. You can stay by the slopes. PM me if you are looking for a nice B&B in town. Again, stay away from the Christmas-New Year Holiday. Everybody in Europe will be skiing that week, so you can imagine the prices.

Posted by
1875 posts

You should decide whether you want to visit Salzburg or want to go for skiing holidays.

Skiing just as a day trip is not very reasonable. At that time of the year you have the absolute minimum of daylight hours. You have to travel to the skiing resort, there you must find a rental for all the gear, most likely there will be some waiting time until the skis are prepared, eventually you can go to the slopes. In the evening you must return all the gear and travel back to Salzburg. All this limits the net time available for skiing, not having considered waiting times at the lifts and cable cars.

Posted by
5 posts

Thank you for your replies. we had planned to be in Austria during the Christmas/New Year week... Could it be a possibility to stay in Flachau or nearby?
What would be a better option Flachau or St Anton area? My partner is set on skiing.

Posted by
5835 posts

We (cross country) skied in the Fieberbrunn/PillerseeTal area about a two hour train ride from Salzburg. Our hotel (Sporthotel Fontan, Fiberbrun) was at the base of a ski resort. https://www.kitzbueheler-alpen.com/en/pillerseetal/winter/skiing-tirol/ski-areas.html

For early season (December/early January) natural snow in this era of climate change can be a problem. When we arrive late January 2014 there was only a couple of cm of natural snow at valley floor. Event organizers had been making snow and moving natural snow around to set up the race course. A couple of days later a big snow event dropped 30 cm or more of natural snow.
https://www.onthesnow.com/tyrol/buchensteinwand/historical-snowfall.html?y=2014&q=top

You may be best served with ski resorts with snow making capability. Some of the information websites report snow making capabilites. For example:

https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Austria/Fieberbrunn_PillerseeTal.html

Sowmaking :- Fieberbrunn - PillerseeTal is able to augment natural
snow, on 33km of ski runs, with 30 Snow Cannons.

Posted by
5362 posts

You should base yourself in a ski area. Unfortunately, during that holiday week, most places will only accept a one week minimum stay. Most places are also reserved a year or two in advance for this period. I think just having snow is the least of your worries. If you’re intent on this, find a place to stay asap. Look at Flachau, Schladming, Flizmoos, Obertauern.

Posted by
5 posts

Ok I have booked 3 nights in Fieberbrunn. The accommodation has free cancellation so we can change our mind if this area is not right.
Next question- did I book the right area? Also on Christmas Day will transport be available (bus, train etc)?

Posted by
5362 posts

I would strongly suggest posting your plan/question on Trip Advisor where there are several experts in Austrian skiing who can advise you. You will struggle to find that level of expertise on this forum where the main interest is Hallstatt, Salzburg and Vienna (not skiing).

Posted by
19654 posts

I think you got a good start. The train schedules will be revised effective December 9, so they are not available yet, maybe by the end of the month. You are in the Saalbach-Hinterglem Ski Circus, a huge interconnected ski area. Skiing is a very big business in Tirol, and Christmas is a very busy time, as everyone will be on holiday. Skiers have to get to the slopes, so transport should not be a problem.

Fieberbrunn is on the rail line between Woergl and Schwarzach-St Veit, so connections from anywhere in Europe is possible. Where will you be coming from?

https://www.bergbahnen-fieberbrunn.at/en/ski-area-tyrol-kitzbuehel-austria

Posted by
5835 posts

We flew in to Salzburg and spent several days enjoying the town. We then took the OBB regional train to Fiberbrunn using the Einfach Raus group (two to five) ticket. The Einfach Raus does not require advanced purchase and can be bought at a staffed station or ticket machine. Note that Fiberbrunn is not a staffed station. Train is regional with multiple stops but on a scenic route.
Details: https://www.oebb.at/en/tickets-kundenkarten/schueler-gruppen/einfach-raus-ticket.html

We arrived in Fiberbrunn expecting to take a local bus from the train station to our hotel at the other end of town. Unfortunatelcy, the local bus service seemes to have a limited commute schedule. We were fortunate in that a young mother with several children stopped and used her cell phone to arrange for a taxi. (Apparently one could walk 700 meters down the hill from the train station to the main road served by bus but we were traveling heavy with skis).

Note that once we checked in to the hotel, we had free bus service in the PillerseeTal five village area. Skier would take the bus to the various ski areas and the drivers did not ask to see bus passes since everyone was riding for free. https://www.kitzbueheler-alpen.com/en/pillerseetal/bus-time-tables-regiobus.html

PS We were on half board (breakfast and dinner) that simplified searching for evening meal options.

Posted by
5835 posts

Added note about ski rentals in the PillerseeTal.

Resorts have thier own rental shops. Alternative is sports shops in the village. Intersport is the big sports shop in many areas of Europe. Interport rental prices: http://www.intersportguenther.at/de/verleih/winter/ (In German, use Google Translate)
Note that Interport has split hours and is shut for about 3 hours mid-day.

Some serious skiers compromise by bringing their own ski boots and renting skis and sticks.

Posted by
3049 posts

I don't know how serious you guys are about skiing, but if you wanted to base somewhere that was a mix of sightseeing AND skiing, you could stay in Innsbruck. It's only 30 minutes via cog train/skilift to the summit from the center of town. It doesn't have that "apres ski" vibe though, while the mountain was legit and people were skiing in early December I got the feeling that serious skiiers go elsewhere.

I have been on skiing trips in Austria to Soelden in the Oetztal and Schladming. I'm not a skiier, though, but I have friends who are German skiiers and these are the spots in Austria they always go to. I don't know if that's helpful or not, sounds like Trip Advisor would be the right place to ask this question.