 Poster: A snowHead
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I'm not really adding much, but first time in Austria has to be St. Anton. It will be great for everyone except the real beginner, just make sure they get in a snow dome for a few lessons before hand as they will enjoy it much more.
Unless you feel comfortable about leaving it until last minute with the hope of getting a deal I would recommend flying to Zurich with Swiss and then you can take a train from the airport into resort. Easy. Look on the Alberg website and you can book accommodation direct at a good price. If you submit a request you will get plenty of replies with quotes.
To make it even cheaper, and this applies to most of Austria, there are certain weeks where hotels will include a ski pass in the price.
One thing to look out for is that a lot of small hotels and BB’s don’t accept credit cards so you will need to bank transfer a deposit.
Ischgl is good, but the better skiers will have skied the place out in a few days. Samuan is not all that and can be a trek between piste and lift unless you have a bite to eat in one of the restaurants that throw in a taxi. Having said that, the pistes have more in common with many French resorts as they are nicely groomed and you can ski like a hero down some steep and wide slopes.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Bambi on ice, St Anton is not the best resort for a beginner but skiers with 2-3 weeks will be fine. Lech is the best place for beginners but I found Lech very boring skiing
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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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cool... you'll have to remind me though!... I need an excuse to visit the gasteins!
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Thanks everyone for the advice! 
Sounds like it will be a blast, looking forward to improving my bumps technique.
Will deffo be checking out the private instructor Boabski.
Will definitely check out the train option from zurich. I have been looking at flying in to munich with lufthansa and driving down but 300km drive is putting me off (flights only 85 quid return from manchester currently). I had concluded that TO would be he mot cost effective way to travel but if the train works out at a reasonable price, I would sooner go independently.
Anyone got any recommendations for independent hotels / pensions / chalets?
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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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Train is 35 euros from Zurich. You can also fly then get the train from Munich and Innsbruck, both of which are a shorter train than from Zurich, I think Munich may be more expensive but from memory Innsbruck was something like 14 euros. Sorry, that's all on way journeys though, can't remember return costs).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Glen Charman wrote: |
| Bambi on ice, St Anton is not the best resort for a beginner but skiers with 2-3 weeks will be fine. |
Sorry, but I totally disagree with this. For the "never skied" StA is fine - there are are 3 or 4 absolute beginners lifts. It is the next step that is difficult at StA. There are virtually no "light blues".
BTW: Munich Flughafen to StA is further than Zurich to StA. The latter is about 2 1/2 hours, vs about 4 hours for the best connection from Muncih.
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Zurich was 3.5 hours on the two trips I've gone that way, you may well be right about Munich though.
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QUOTE:
BAMBI ON ICE provate lessons... some of the group are pretty good skiers but GF and I will be wanting to book a few hours of lessons (will probably focus on bumps technique) any recommendations?
If you are looking for a very good private ski instructor in St Anton. I would recommend this guy, he holds the highest Austrian qualification and his prices are very competitive (cheaper than the one listed above):
georg-scherfler@st-anton.at
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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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clarky999, Just had a look at the rail europe website and it says the tickets are 185 notes and it takes just over two hours from the zurich HB... admittedly this isn't for the dates I want to go as they aren't on sale yet... is there a better (cheaper) website to hunt tickets on.
ulmerhutte, If there are very few light blues then I would say that st anton is definitely not a place for beginners as thats what they are looking at skiing after half a week.
How is the snow up at Mount Buller... I spent my first few hours on skiis up there, only Bourke Street was open but it was enough to get me hooked!
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Bambi on ice, try OBB (dot something, maybe at?) - google austria trains and it comes up with it anyway, basically Austria's version of National Rail. Could be worth checking out the vorteils card too if it costs that much, 20 euros for the card, which gives you a 50% discount, but only on the parts within Austria. Think you have to be under 25 as well?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Just checked OBB, depending on when you want to leave it either takes 2.5 or 3.5 hours (from the airport), both of which cost 41 euros (one way
The english version of the site is at http://www.oebb.at/en/index.jsp
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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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Just reading your posts..... Zurich to St Anton is a good route by train and the trip is normally around 2 hrs 20 mins if you get the direct train. Munich trains go via Salzburg and take much longer. You could look at Ryanair from Stansted to Memmingen, the train journey can be a pain but there are direct transfers and I m pretty sure a shuttle bus will run to the Arlberg region from there this season. Inssbruck is the closest airport but you run the risk of being diverted when there is bad weather. New for this season is this German company:
http://www.flymywings.com/en/buchung
They are flying into Friedrichshafen from Gatwick (ryanair no longer fly to there from Stansted having changed to Memmingen for cost reasons!) and Friedricjshafen has excellent and cheap transfers by shuttle bus to St Anton. For more details: http://www.st-antonamarlberg.co.uk/getting_to_st_anton.html
With regards St Anton not being a resort for beginners and nivice skiers, I totally disagree having had many friends come here as total beginners. I think that the problem is that many people have a few lessons and then try and teach themselves from that point and therefore struggle as the technique is not there. If you have lessons, not only will your skiing (and enjoyment) improve but you will learn your way around the slopes that you can ski. Individual lessons are of course the fast track way, intially more expensive but not in the long run as you improve at a far greater pace, but if you make sure that you get a good ski school instructor then again you should soon be skiing all around St Anton. Believe it or not but 50% of the runs in St Anton are prepared for the beginner!
I would however admit that there are some pretty steep blues and some very easy blacks in the resort and what you really need is a good knowledge of just where to ski - if you don't know anyone with that knowledge then it is another good reason to have an instructor who will help you learn the best places for you to ski....
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sidneyreilly, just a reminder that if the flight arrival time does not fit in with the train departure time you may have upto a 90 minute wait for the train which can be a pain as the train departures before 12 noon seemed a bit stretched out - happened to me last season
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You know it makes sense.
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That is true !!! Takes a bit of planning....
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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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| Bambi on ice wrote: |
Im planning a trip to St Anton for the first week in Jan for a small group, if anyone can help with a couple of questions i'd be grateful...
Exactly how hard is the skiing... Me and girlfriend are very definitely intermediates, albeit adventurous ones I think. To give you an idea, we have about four weeks skiing under our belts, we have skied espace killy for a week and a half and Portes Du Soleil as complete beginners and on our last holiday. When skiing the PDS in March we stopped short of skiing the swiss wall but did the pretty steep (or it felt that way) mogul run down to plain dranse (if anyone knows it) and also started doing a bit of basic off piste. I'm not normally concerned about things but all the info I've read seems to suggest that the whole area is massively gnarly... We want to have fun and improve not survive!
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When we went there I had been skiing quite a few weeks with my parents previously and then once with my husband but it was my husband third week (and hist first weeks skiing was with school and nearly put him off for live!) and we both got on great. We had also done a bit of dry skiing as well in between. I am sure you will get on great. I can't comment on off piste though as we haven't (deliberately ahem), done any.
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Poster: A snowHead
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sidneyreilly, the trains seemed a lot more frequent to St Anton from Innsbruck (a lot closer and on the same main line) in comparison with Zurich
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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sidneyreilly,
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Munich trains go via Salzburg and take much longer.
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This is not correct, you have never had to go via Salzburg unless you wanted to or did not know what you were doing when booking/buying a ticket.
The choices are via Rosenheim/Kufstein and it takes 3 or 4 hours depending on whether you have fast or slow trains. Or via Garmisch and it takes about 2 hours 50 minutes to 3.15 (the latter time is for the ICE funnily enough!). The price for a single this coming Saturday via Garmisch for example is from 30.70€
S-Bahn connections from the airport to the central station run every 10 minutes (Line 1 or line 8 each being on a 20 minute cycle). The translfer from the S-bahn station to the main station is as easy as in London!
Nice to note that another airline has taken over Ryan air's slot at Friedrichshafen - the airport has done a lot to improve the transport infrastructure. especially in the ski season.
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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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Anyone got ay recommendations for places to stay (independent booking) I tried the st anton arlberg tourist office but got limited response.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I use Bergfex.com or Google map. For the latter just locate the area and then type "hotel" and the map will be filled with accommodation choices.
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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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Bambi on ice, do a search for accommodation on the St Anton web site, then contact any of the accommodation you fancy that is free in the period you are interested in. Most have their own web sites and can work with varying degrees of success in English if you do not speak/write German.
I do this every year and usually find something that fits my price bracket. Most of the tourist offices have search function some even have an online booking system, but I prefer to deal with the accommodation directly. Never had a problem even in the busiest periods of the season and I'm usually a solo traveller.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Bambi on ice, get in touch with sidneyreilly on here. He has a few apartments in excellent locations. Otherwise I would highly recommend the Haus Angelika rudi.tschol@st-anton.at Without doubt the best location in town imo.
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Is easiest way to travel not fly to Innsbruck, and then train or drive? It's only an hour or so in the car, and that means you can wheech round to Lech when you feel like it?
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Ghost Dog, yes. One hour on the train from Innsbruck, in the region of 10 euros one way. Probably around 1.5/1.75 hour drive?
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FAQ
