 Poster: A snowHead
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skimac, oh dear, I guess you couldn't help yourself. Without wishing to vilify you, these characteristics are available in Austria:
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Snow sure, good night life, big areas to ski
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and these are available in France
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Super scenery, very child friendly, much nicer accomodation, and sooooooo much cheaper.
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It's merely a question of where you look (and that goes for eateries within ski resorts, as well as ski resorts themselves.)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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skimac, brace yourself....
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and sooooooo much cheaper.
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won't go down well with my Sensei!
2 different holidays with completely different requirements...
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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NE1, I can't advise on the buses as I've never used them except to say that I have seen plenty flitting around the area. I've had two holidays there based in Flachau and have been most impressed with the apparent ease of moving between the resorts. OK I take a car, but all those little buses must zoom about between places just as easily, I've even seen little shuttle tractors taking groups of skiers across the main road from one side of the valley to another in places which have slopes practically adjacent to each other on different sides of the roads. I have a huge love of VT in France, yet for a holiday that I organise myself, this year I am going to Flachau for the third time because of cost savings, better on mountain facilities (IMO) and a great welcome. Why do you need a TO? Why not instead book yourself some flights and then hire a car for a week once at the airport, then you can leave the buses behind if you don't fancy them, or just drive all the way there as we do? Try it, but beware, you might not want to go back to France (though I still try to do a holiday there most years too  )
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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flangesax, After the following churlish responses right at the beginning of the thread to someone who had mistakenly used the wrong smiley
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Give one good reason why any of us who ski regularly in the Sportwelt amadé region should even bother to try and convince you? You seem to have enough prejudices already. If you like "French mega-resorts", find one to stay in!
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Stick to France, Austria is pants
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you said, much more helpfully,
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All the towns are pretty. The majority of them are 'proper' towns so are not quite as centralised as a 'resprt'.
If you have a phobia to busses and want to cover the most piste area then I would go for Schladming (which you may pay for the priveledge).
Flachay allows easy access to iteself along with the links to Wagrain.
If you aren't too scared of a bus then you can shoot up to Flachau Winkl and Zauchensee too.
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However, there is still no indication at all of how much piste you can access from Schladming or Flachau. Are we talking 100 kms, or 200 kms, or 400 kms? I honestly haven't the slightest idea and although yes, the OP could go away and do the research herself, as Samerberg Sue suggested, information from people with local knowledge can be one of the most valuable aspects of Snowheads (and yes, I do know that "kms of piste" isn't always the most useful info, but it's a start).
I really do think your area is probably lovely - everyone who has been seems to enjoy it and it honestly defeats me that, as somebody with a commercial interest in "selling it", you have spent more time huffing and moaning at me and making point-scoring "jokes" than you have answering the question.
Despite the OP's good humour and courtesy in the face of an entirely unjustified onslaught of rudeness she has probably given up by now.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Could I stay in bad gastein? Would that be a good base. Flachau and schaldming seem quite big places. I read on here about Maria alm, that sounds lively, how about there for a base?
Hells bells, Pam W, it's easier and cheaper for us to travel by TO. Time is a premium, holiday allocation is short so we need to travel as quick as possible, which for us excludes self drive. Can't do two days travelling either side of holiday. I have checked out transfer from airports but for two people it's out of the question. I hate being herded like sheep but at the mo it's our only option. We use TO to get us there and back, after that they don't know we are there.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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N.B. OK, the distance issue: We skied several of the different areas the first year, but last year we didn't move away from Flachau all week. We don't ski hard (ski a bit, find a bar, ski a bit more etc) and spent the week finding places in Flachau we hadn't previously found and still had a full weeks skiing.
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pam w, in my second post I hope I was helpful about getting around by bus from flachau to several mountains. I have absolutely bo idea how many km of piste that is. that sort if info is not on my radar. But for a recreational skier it keeps me and my buddies occupied easily for a week. I only skied altenmarkt radstat for the first time the other week and ive hardly touched zauchensee.
Does that help?
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NE1, Maria Alm is lovely but again make sure your accomidation is well located for a lift.
Btw A return transfer frpm Salzburg airport in a shared minibus takes less than an hour and costs €50 per person. ..just in case that helps.
I haven't skied bad gastein but I looked at a flat there. Many on here love it but I disliked the layout of the village..it's on many different levels. ..and I would have to get a bus to the lift!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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probably less than €20 each way on the train from Salzburg? although the train doesn't go thru all villages.
spose it depends on which village you prefer as a base, and convenience, etc.
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NE1, Gasteins are good but you will want to cover the 3 different areas within the week (so busses required).
Sounds to me that a TO to Schladming will be pretty much perfect. 4 linked mountains, tons of skiing piste/off piste, decent nightlife.
Or (dare I say it and wrench the thread off topic) you could head past Radstadt and up to Obertauern which is technically purpose built but is all in the alpine style.
I can ski Obertauern out in a day ('cos I am well 'ard) so tend to only go up there at the beginning and end of the season (part of the Super Salzburg pass rather than Ski Amadé). I find the vertical drop too small and seem to be on lifts most the time rather than skiing.
I don't know Maria Alm very well and have only visited the HochKoenig region a handful of times (really pretty there though!)
Transfers from Salzburg to anywhere within Amadé cost about €50 per person for a return trip (should you decide to book any Indies)
I think Flachau and Schladming are the best bets....
(I'm pretty sure you have found the Ski Amadé website by now.... got all the lift info, resort sizes and all kinds of other info... if you haven't found it then I could draw you a piste map
)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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holidayloverxx, We've skied Zauchensee - did it the first year, and I must say I was amazed at just how much skiing was hidden behind the first lift up from the Flachau winkl side of the valley - a huge bowl shaped area! Well worth a good day or maybe a few if you get the chance. I'm sure it was lovely scenery too, but there was a bit of a white out going on up above and we couldn't see for fog  I should think a regular bus must run to it from Flachau - it is less than 10 mins up the road.
Last edited by snowHeads are a friendly bunch. on Tue 7-01-14 12:00; edited 1 time in total
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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andy, I'd not bother with the train if there was no station in the village I want. It's a faff with luggage and skis plus the cost of the rram to the station and the taxi at the other end. I think the transfer cist for flachau ...to get door to door. ..is very reasonable.
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I have checked out transfer from airports but for two people it's out of the question
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Why? As pointed out above, Salzburg is not far from the ski areas.
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You know it makes sense.
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Just a quick cost breakdown for you.
Flights to Salzburg with BA £120 each
Transfers by shared mini bus €51 each return to Radstadt.
That's for the end of January.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Nunfa1 wrote: |
Just a quick cost breakdown for you.
Flights to Salzburg with BA £120 each
Transfers by shared mini bus €51 each return to Radstadt.
That's for the end of January. |
And much the same, as I've just researched, for mid-March. Admittedly I live in London, with maximum flight availability, but I've hardly ever got to a ski resort as conveniently, quickly and cheaply as going to Radstadt via Salzburg, independently, last season.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Nunfa1, the OP is based in the NE of England, BA not much use I'm afraid
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| holidayloverxx wrote: |
| NE1I haven't skied bad gastein but I looked at a flat there. Many on here love it but I disliked the layout of the village..it's on many different levels. ..and I would have to get a bus to the lift! |
The village is on lots of levels but does make for some excellent views from nearly all the hotels and apartments. You should see the view from my balcony!
Kersh
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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True enough, but it is at least something to go by.
If the OP is hiring equipment rather than taking their own then flights might be cheaper.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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This all sounds really positive, thanks folks. I think this may be our destination for Jan 2015. Any thoughts on Rauris? It seems to be on offer at the mo.
HolidayloverXx, 😀
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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It's not easy to find out what the size of the local areas are, from some websites. The Flachau one says that with one lift pass you can access 760kms of piste but I spent a bit of time failing to find out how big the local lift-linked area is. I'm sure some of them are very large. On snow-forecast is says "Schladming has 25 pistes with a total length of 115 kilometers" but presumably the lift-linked area is much bigger than that? The snow forecast info is also misleading about Les Saisies, correctly saying it has 30 lifts but not mentioning that it is part of a linked area with 85 lifts. Information available on-line can be very misleading or just plain wrong. It seems strange that nobody can say more precisely how extensive the skiing is in the different parts of the Ski Amadé - even people who live there and even people who have a commercial interest in attracting people to the area. Like it or not, it's the kind of thing visitors like to know and can help to reassure the "mega resort" fans that if they venture outside the Tarentaise they won't be condemned to skiing the same half dozen pistes for a week.
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lufthansa from manc - 2 flights a day to munic
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Cost me 50E return in a shared to taxi from Salzburg to the door in Flachua last year. Also Jet2 from up norf (Take your pick from Man or LBA) weekly.
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pam w, you could always try www.skiamade.com - may help. I do tend to think that some people are a little bit more savvy than you take them for. (http://www.skiamade.com/en/winter/skiresorts/schladming-dachstein/hauser-kaibling)
I'll reserve a room for you if you like as you are doing a lot of research and are certainly incredibly interested in the area.. that way this thread will keep up my commercial interest (which seems so important to you) and i'll gain a massive amount of cash.. yee-ha!!
It seems we are both a bit bored at home (I'm waiting for a plumber.... what's your excuse?) but I just don't understand your interest in this thread. You have never been to the area, your internet searching skills seem to lack in ability and you are just trolling about. I'll fix that by chucking you on ignore for a bit.
Can't help you with Rauris I'm afriad.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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pam w, at http://www.flachau.at/en/skiing/ski-area.html
It says:
snow space Flachau is the centre of Ski amadé, Austria's largest skiing playground, with five top class regions and 25 ski resorts. With just one ticket you can also be part of Ski amadé and make use of a total of 760 kilometres of piste and 270 lifts.
Took me all of 10 seconds on Google.
Does that help?
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I always just look at the piste maps of any area I am heading to. You can get a much better idea of how a resort is laid out. That linked one I posted shows just how much terrain is around the Flachau area and it's linked resorts. Much more useful than a simple mileage figure IMHO as a resort could have a load of boring long similar runs which put the figures up but which you may not wish to ski all day.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Megamum wrote: |
pam w, at http://www.flachau.at/en/skiing/ski-area.html
It says:
snow space Flachau is the centre of Ski amadé, Austria's largest skiing playground, with five top class regions and 25 ski resorts. With just one ticket you can also be part of Ski amadé and make use of a total of 760 kilometres of piste and 270 lifts.
Took me all of 10 seconds on Google.
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It certainly doesn't help the OP, who wants information on the ski areas which can be skied without needing to use roads.
Avalanche Poodle, agreed, I always look at piste maps too.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Some places just totally make up numbers too. At least one place I know counts the same piste more than once when they fork. And another has reported the same total km since that day I put on skis for the first time, and I know they've installed more lifts and made new pistes since then!
And others list the km and lift count for individual villages, despite being fully linked to the next, and to most punters you probably wouldn't even know where the boundary is. Put Dolomiti Supoerski in that bracket... 1200km for the lift ticket, lots of individual figures for the villages, nothing really obvious saying what the figure is that's fully lift linked (probably about 2/3 of that 1200 on the Sella Ronda). Even the sign between the Alta Badia and Val Gardena local pass areaboundary is actually in the middle of the 3 lifts run by one operator, I think.
SHame really cos lots of people do look at those numbers. I tend to look more at the array of red wiggles on the map.
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andy,
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I tend to look more at the array of red wiggles on the map.
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Exactly
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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NE1, You asked about Maria Alm. I stayed there for 4 days in the first week of March last year.
Plus side: The village is lovely, the skiing picturesque (lots of tree lined runs) with generally quiet slopes, and enough skiing for a few days.
Down side: Bus may well be needed. There are a couple of runs directly into the village served from one lift, but as the link slope to the rest of the area was closed, the only option to get there was to take the bus. I was lucky enough to be staying next to the bus route’s starting point (Next to the village lift and lift pass office) but as the bus went through the village it became rammed after just a handful of stops and had no option but to pass many people waiting at all the following stops, as it was full to bursting. I think it was timetabled to run about every 20 mins, which could be a long and fruitless wait, if the following buses were the same.
This is the only place in the Ski Amade region that I’ve encountered such busy buses, to my recollection others have never whizzed by and I’ve always had a seat. I think this was because Maria Alm village is at the end of the valley and becomes ‘cut off’ if the one link run across to the rest of the area gets closed. And that’s a lot of people at 8.30am!
If you are tempted by it, be warned; being next to the 1st bus stop was a great advantage, but it was also right next to the village church, that rang it’s bells; loudly, (Jeez they were loud!) multiple peals, (with extra twidley bits sometimes) every 15 short mins from 6.00am to 10.30pm. I wouldn’t return for that reason alone!
Anyway, back to the skiing…I can’t quote kms but I think Maria Alm could potentially be on the small side for a full week of skiing; I enjoyed the 4 days I had, but I left feeling I'd covered the area well in that time. I’ve skied in the Schladming/Flachau area a few times, which I would say is much bigger and a better choice than MA. The transfer to the Schladming area is quite a bit shorter too, 45mins ish, whereas MA was over 1.5hrs.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Ah, and if you click on the resort name in the table it tells you on the next page if you scroll down how long the runs in each place are - it says Flachau has 56Km.
So the OP might now be able to find out how many Km they have where they want to stay
So will that do? 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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vertical decent, uplift
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Said website appears to take a stab at these stats too.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Nightcap, I'm not too familiar with Maria Alm but it's all linked with the Hochkonig valley, lots of new linking lifts gone in during last few seasons. Maria also has some fab looking freeride bowls of it's own. Also I'm sure there must be a bus to Zell am See, not Ski Amade but on Salzburg Superpass for a little bit more, Leogang is only 12kms by road from Maria Alm - lift linked to Saalbach. So I'd say Maria Alm has plenty to keep you busy for a week.
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| Megamum wrote: |
| holidayloverxx, We've skied Zauchensee - did it the first year, and I must say I was amazed at just how much skiing was hidden behind the first lift up from the Flachau winkl side of the valley - a huge bowl shaped area! Well worth a good day or maybe a few if you get the chance. I'm sure it was lovely scenery too, but there was a bit of a white out going on up above and we couldn't see for fog I should think a regular bus must run to it from Flachau - it is less than 10 mins up the road. |
yes that's right, I've been a few times and just scratched the surface. You get the Postbus at the end if the street ..direction Flachauwinkl...then get the tractor shuttle to the Zauch lift
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Megamum, sarcasm was not aimed in your direction BTW.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Kersh wrote: |
| holidayloverxx wrote: |
| NE1I haven't skied bad gastein but I looked at a flat there. Many on here love it but I disliked the layout of the village..it's on many different levels. ..and I would have to get a bus to the lift! |
The village is on lots of levels but does make for some excellent views from nearly all the hotels and apartments. You should see the view from my balcony!
Kersh |
Indeed, one flat I looked at had am amazing view 
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waynos, We had the Ski Amade pass, not the Salzburg Superpass, so that wasn't an option for us at the time, though it sounds likes a good idea!
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FAQ
I was flustered at the memory 
