Zillertal Valley Questions:

A snowHead

Have a chance to join a group trip to the Zillertal Valley. Dates would be March 15 to 23. I'm pretty ignorant about the Zillertal and had a few questions:

The hotel is the Hotel Theresia. Which I believe is in Ramsau. Curious about the location in general. Looks like it might be a bit isolated. Is it reasonably convenient to get to the lifts? We're not late not party goers but do enjoy a lively spot for a bit of afternoon apres ski.

Any comments on the specific Hotel?

Is the snow quality generally still good at that time of year?

How long are the typical transfers to and from Munich?

Thanks much!

A snowHead

RISkier, Skied in Mayrhofen, Hintertux and Zillertal Arena in March 2013. Great area and will definitely go again. Can't help with specifics on your hotel as we stayed in Mayrhofen, which was fairly lively. We had a hire car and the drive from Munich in the evening took just over 2 hours. However, the drive back on a Sunday afternoon took nearly 4 hours! Traffic was horrendous and we only just made our flight.

Great skiing and the snow cover was excellent when we were there which was early March.

Not much help sorry but others with more local knowledge will be along shortly.

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RISkier, Well the Zillertal Valley is an excellent ski area and is one of my favourites in Austria. Lots of information about the valley and its resorts here

There are 3 main ski regions as you go up the valley these are Kaltenbach/Hochfugen (called the Hochzillertal ski area), the town of Zell am Ziller (with its associated Zillertal Arena ski area), and the largest town in the valley Mayrhofen (with its own ski areas on the Penken and Ahorn mountains). In addition, there is all year round skiing on the Hintertux glacier at the top of the valley.

I've looked up the Hotel Theresia on the Zillertal tourist brochure - I see that the hotel has a website and it seems to be a good 4 star hotel with nice spa facilities. From the Zillertal tourist office map the hotel is actually situated in a small village called Bichl (adjacent to Ramsau) and the hotel itself is just a few yards walk from the skibus stop and the request stop on the Zillertalbahn railway. (As well as the free ski busses the valley has a narrow gauge railway that runs from the start of the valley at Jenbach as far up the valley as Mayrhofen and free travel on it is included in the liftpass. During the day the trains runs twice an hour in both directions and is a good way of getting around the valley). Just one word of warning - the train always stops at the larger stations on the line e.g Zell am Ziller, but only stops at the smaller "Bedarfshalt" or request only stations if you press the stop request button in the carriages before you reach the halt (the carriages have a plan of the line with all the stations listed, and also electronic display screens and announcements in German and English showing the next station, so you should be able to follow where you are quite easily.) Toofy Grin

Conversely if you are waiting at one of the request only stations then there is a machine with a big knob that you press which sends a signal to the train driver that he should halt at the stop so you can board. Laughing

In terms of your nearest skiing your best bet will probably be to get the skibus from outside your hotel to the base station of the nearby Horbergbahn which is across on the other side of the valley (only about 1km away by the looks of it) and which takes you directly up into the extensive skiing on the Penken mountain above Mayrhofen. This actually has the advantage over catching the skibus into the centre of Mayrhofen as in the mornings there is often quite a big queue to use the Penkenbahn gondola in the centre of Mayrhofen, but for apres ski at the end of the day it's best to download on the Penkenbahn and there are numerous apres ski bars nearby. Once you've had sufficient drinks you can then catch a skibus or train back from Mayrhofen to Bichl. There is also a small skiing area accessible from the nearby village of Ramsau (it's an old chairlift that goes up the Hainzenberg mountain). It's maybe worthwhile visiting it for a few hours, but the main interest there is that it has the largest tobogganing area in the valley, so if any of your party fancy doing that (I believe they also do evening toboggan sessions) you might care to check that out.

As I said previously, apart from the Mayrhofen ski area the other two big ski area are the Zillertal Arena and the Hochzillertal areas and I would definitely recommend that your party spends at least one day at each of them. For the Zillertal Arena it's probably best to take the train to Zell am Ziller where a skibus meets you and takes you to the Ski Arena gondola area which is more than 1km from the centre. For Hochzillertal just take the train to Kaltenbach and the gondola is just about 200 to 300 metres walk from the station.

Hope this helps!

Edit: There's more information about the Ziller Valley on this thread: http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=2119772&highlight=eberharter#2119772

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halfhand, and Alastair Pink,

This is very very helpful information. I've done some searching here and found some encouraging information. Looks more and more promising as I do some more homework. Thanks so much for your replies.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

i stayed in hippach a couple of years ago , which is connected to ramsau . the two villages are either side of the river and really one. nice place to stay as it`s easy to get to the ski areas in mayrhofen. probably quicker than being in mayrhofen as you go to the horberg lift which was pretty much walk straight on to the gondala. there are a couple of nice bars (big ben was one i think) and enough restaurants for a week , though i would think a 4* hotel would be half board. as others have said zell and kalltenbach are great and easy to get to . for the hintertaux i think you will need to get the train to mayrhofen and then a bus whick take 35/40 mins but worth it if you go on a nice sunny day. any questions fire away . been to mayrhofen 5 times .

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RISkier, You're welcome!
If you go to the Zillertal Tourist Office website http://www.zillertal.at/en/winter/services/information-material/ you can download the (112MB!) "Häuserkatalog" that lists all accommodation in the Zillertal and has some very useful maps. You'll see that the Hotel Theresia is listed on page 136 of the download, and if you look at the map on page 129 the Hotel location is indicated by the red 500 rectangle in Bichl (map grid square H6). You'll see that it is right next to a bus stop (the yellow letter H on a blue circular background).

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I think the guys above have pretty much covered it. There are a couple of Apres ski bars at the bottom of the Horbergbahn which are quite lively. If you are not too bothered about late night bars etc then it is a pretty good spot. You can get to Zell and Kaltenbach etc fairly easily and you can walk into Ramsau where there are more bars etc. I don't know the particular hotel, however most of them around here are a pretty good standard. With regards to transfers then the four seasons transfer is good value in my opinion, however the train is also easy and not subject to any traffic delays.

After all it is free

if you need or are forced to have a day off there is a nice walk along the river either to mayrhofen of the other way to zell.

From the point of a skier visiting Zillertal Valley with a car I would say it has 7 unlinked skiing areas of

Spieljoch access at Fugen at the front of the valley (with 21km piste)
Hochzillertal/Hochfugen access at Kaltnbach (3rd largest with 134km piste)
Zillertal Arena access at Zell am Ziller, Gerlo, or Konigsteinten/Krimml (largest area with 163km piste)
Gerlostein access either from Ramsau or Hainzenberg (might be include in the above but physically separate)
Ahorn access from Mayrhofen ( a small separate area inside Mayrhofen within walking distance to Penken gondola station)
Penken Hoarberg/Rastkogel/Eggalm access from Mayrhofen, Hoarberg, Finkenberg, Tux-Vorderlanersbach and Tux-Lansbach (3rd largest with 157km piste)
Hintertux glacier access Hintertux (has 86km piste)

Any ski pass purchased an any of the above for a period of 4 days or more will automatically entitle the holder to ski anywhere in the entire valley.

I have skied Gerlostein area via the chairlift at Ramsau. It is quite quiet there and this area is visited by people who do sledging.

Distance wise starting from Ransau out of the valley to Fugen, Kaltenbach, Zell am Ziller are
11.6, 8 and 2.3 miles respectively. Into the valley the distances to Hoarberg, Mayrhofen (station inside the town), Ahorn and Hintertux are 1.6, 2.8, 3.7 and 14.3 miles respectively. With the exception of Mayrhofen and Ahorn all the other chairlifts are virtually next to the main valley road. Snow is sure in March but as everywhere in Austria you need to take the first chairlift to reach it.

My message is Ramsau may be a cheaper place to stay because it is small and not one of the big areas. However if you venture out Ramsau is about the mid point of the valley.

Remember the steepest "groomed" run in Austria is Harakiri in Mayrhofen. It has to be hooked to a winch to groom that piste. Ahorn boosts to have once the largest cable car in the Alps in 2008 when it could take 160 passengers. Hintertux is possible the most windy glacier to ski and Zell am Ziller is among the longest resort. So enjoy Zillertal Valley!

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Thanks again for all of your help. It's truly been helpful. Would probably prefer to be right in Mayrhofen in the evening, but this actually looks more convenient in the morning. And we're not late night party goers. This looks like a great trip. Still need to clear up a couple of things with the organizers but I'm sold. Cheers to all.

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RISkier, Enjoy the Zillertal!

theres a swimming pool/ water park near to the valley entrance, worth an evening in if thats your thing

You know it makes sense.

Kaltenbach has some of the nicest mountain restaurants I have found and the skiing is pretty good too!

Help!!

Zillertal Valley Questions:

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