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Driving to Austria

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
We're looking to keep down the costs of a weeks skiing for our family of four in Maria Alm Austria over New Year and are looking at driving there but just from a quick google it looks like you need to have winter tyres fitted (snow chains won't do) to drive through Germany and to the resort in Austria. Anyone have any thoughts about how they've done this or better ways to get there whilst keeping costs as low as poss?

Thanks
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
MrsVizsla, Welcome to snowHeads. I'm sure others will be along soon to contribute, but a quick answer from me is that I keep all weather tyres on all year round. They aren't winter tyres but with the S&M symbol are legal and have been fine on the motorways and valley roads (most of your trip will be this). Snow chains are always in the boot just in case
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
MrsVizsla, you need tyres suitable for the weather conditions prevalent at the time you are driving. The fines are going up this season for not having suitable tyres and also for causing a hindrance for failure to be properly equipped for the conditions. The police have also announced that they will be carrying out more checks as well. While most Germans do change from summer to winter tyres, the vast majority of tourists do not, so they will be the ones targeted by the police at these controls. The Bavarian police will of course take a great deal of pleasure doing this, particularly to our yellow-number plated friends from the flatlands Toofy Grin We here in Bavaria follow the Austrian motto for winter tyre use: from O bis O (Oktober bis Ostern = October to Easter)

As holidayloverxx says good quality all-weather tyres with the mountain snowflake symbol should be OK in all but the worse conditions when most of us put our chains on anyway.

The ADAC have just published the results of their bi-annual tyre tests; the 15m difference between the stopping distances of a car with "good" winter tyres and the car with "satisfactory" ones was a revelation! I'm glad mine were in the good category Little Angel
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Luxemburg also requires winter tyres.
Belgium has just voted not to enforce this, but leave it down to the driver's common sense.
France, Not sure, but think also not required.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Just use good quality all seasons with a snowflake symbol on if you don't do a high mileage each year. I hit a load of snow in Belgium last year and eas glad of them there. Once in Austria they had no problems driving up to a variety of resorts. I didn't bother with chains although I've used them in the past but I did have all wheel drive.
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Quote:

Not sure, but think also not required

not required in France but when the roads are busy and conditions bad you might well be required to put chains on, on roads up to resorts (regardless of what sort of tyres you have, sometimes, and even on 4WD vehicles if you don't have snow tyres in good condition, with plenty of tread.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
pam... yes, in really bad conditions chains would be needed. I did half of the season last winter and didn't need them, but if it had really started coming down bad I'd have jumped on the ski bus and left the car in the valley.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
MrsVizsla, well, Samerberg Sue is correct in saying that the Dutch, the British (except me) and many other visiting nationalities, don't bother or aren't even aware about ze law. Most get away with it because (a) the Austrians are very good at keeping roads clear (b) there aren't many steep bits and (c) I have NEVER seen an Austrian cop going around checking ad hoc - they do value their tourist trade too. The issue becomes serious if you are involved in an accident or stopped for any other reason and a check is made. In an accident it'll be YOUR fault, best assume that, whether it was or wasn't because you're not properly shod. Your insurer may disown you because you aren't legal.

Other thing to consider is this - if your car is close to needing new tyres anyway, chuck a set of winters on them and run them all year. The "they wear out in the summer" thing is a myth in my experience.
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Quote:

did half of the season last winter and didn't need them

I've done about 3 months in each of the last 10 winters, and rarely needed them, but apart from having snow tyres that's partly because I NEVER drive on those roads on a Saturday. It's not unusual for the police to require chaining up when conditions are bad on busy days - because otherwise just a few twits skidded across the road can bring the whole thing to a halt. The frequency of snow ploughing drops off steeply at night, on minor roads. If you have a hired car with 3 very tired kids in the back, struggle to put chains on for the first time in the dark, and then have one fall off somewhere and have to abandon your journey and bang on doors on the way up, to try to find a bed for the night, it's not much fun (happened to people we met a few years ago). One of our French friends, who arrives late at night regularly, as they live some way away, had to abandon his car at midnight because there was simply too much snow to drive through - chains become irrelevant. They had to carry 3 kids up the last, steep, exhausting, stretch of road in deep snow. These things happen rarely, but they happen.

One of the times I needed chains was early October, I still had summer tyres on, 10 inches of snow fell the night before we had to leave and there was no sign of a plough anywhere up our way.
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Having driven through Austria many years ago on 'ordinary' UK tyres, I became a convert to the use of 'Winter tyres' long before they became fashionable.
We rolled our car at very low speeds. It didn't even activate the airbags. I was driving. Three of our children were in the car. No-one was injured.
I would not even think about driving in Winter without appropriate (ie Winter) tyres. If you are the only survivor, how can you live with your decision afterwards.
Sorry if this sounds over dramatic
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We drove to Les Arcs last Feb half term - the road up to 1950 wasn't the problem - it was the A26 north of Troyes on the Friday night going down - dark, snowing and slush all over a road full of speeding Belgians. We drive a BMW with full winters and we were quite pleased that we have them. Conversely, we drove to Austria a couple of years ago and it was properly dry, hot and sunny all of the way.
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