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Austria Feb Half Term Quieter Resorts

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Hi All

After the disaster which was French holidays / Feb half term this year, I'm thinking of organising our next Gove enforced Feb half-term family ski trip to Austria next year, but I was thinking about some of the smaller, (hopefully) less popular resorts to try and avoid the masses and keep the prices down...

We'll have a car and will be flying into Munich or Friedrichshafen and so far I've kind of narrowed it down to one of the following three:

1) Staying at Oetz and skiing Hochoetz, Kuhtai and maybe a day in Solden or Hochgurgl / Obergurgl
2) Staying in Mittelberg and skiing the various Kleinwalsertal areas
3) Staying in Lofer and sking Loferer Alm, Waidring-Steinplatte and maybe St Johann or others nearby

Out of all these areas, we've only skied Hochgurgl / Obergurgl previously, which I know will be popular at half-term, but I'm hoping the others being smaller and less well known, will be a lot quieter.

So my questions would be:

Am I right, will they / should they be quieter?
Jr will be in ski school for at least at 2 days, so is it safe to assume they will all have English speaking instructors?
Is there some sort of shared pass for option 3? There seems to lots within about 15-30 minute drive.
Is there anywhere else we should look at? 2, 3, 4 or more smallish areas close to each other?

Thanks All
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mauddib, any particular reason you are flying into Munich or Friedrichshafen? Could salzburg be entered into the mix at all?

When are your regions Half Term dates? This is the key factor. If it clashes with several German Bündesländer (States) then you will need alternative routes from Munich Airport to your area of choice.

I believe that the Lofereralm, Waidring and St Johann im Tirol ski areas are all on a common ski pass called the Schneewinkel, but I'm not 100% sure as I always use the Salzburgerland Super Ski pass which includes the Schneewinkel. It may also include fieberbrunn, but the local expert there is espri as he lives in Fieberbrunn.

All the Austrian ski schools will have English-speaking instructors as the language component is an essential part of their training. The level of English, particularly among the younger instructors (and they are usually the ones assigned to childrens classes) is very high. You may even have some native-speakers or near native-speakers (i.e. Dutch, Danish or Scandinavian) instructors.

I would also add the regions of the Hochkönig (based at the Maria Alm end) and the Sportsworld Amadé to your possible mix as they give you a good range of skiing areas that are relatively close together. In the Amadé area only Flachau should be avoided as a base in the really busy weeks as the main nursery area are is pretty crowded and not too pleasant to ski in at times. Most of us based in the region use alternative slopes during the busiest week(s) simply because it is less stress. But even Flachau at its busiest is "quieter" compared with many French resorts in their peak weeks.

I take it that you are organising everything -i.e. DIY-ing so maybe finding out what the accommodation costs are and if there is any accommodation that suits your needs and pocket would be a good place to start. The Tourist Information sites for the base areas should be able to give you are good idea of relative costs and availabilty if you do a search based on your dates and criteria. Many of the 2 and 3-Star hotels have a flat-rate for the whole season for B&B as well as Half Board for example (Übernachtung mit Frühstuck and Halb-Pension).

Let me know if I can help out in any way, also contacting flangesax (Austrian Adventures) would be a really good bet as their town of Radstadt is perfectly positioned to benefit from several good resorts all within easy reach. I like the Altenmarkt-Radstadt locality as a base for my longer holidays as I'm able to get to a whole host of world class resorts within 30 minutes driving (often much less) without paying an arm and a leg for the pleasure! Toofy Grin
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Ski Amade? Stay in Radstadt (I am sure there is a Brit instructor who lives there....). Easy access to Flachau, Zauchensee and Wagrain. Radstadt is a really pleasant town and the immediate ski area charming - great for beginners and intermediates. May be worth having a look at http://www.austrian-adventures.com/

There are other resorts in the Ski Amade, but Flachau, Zauchensee and Wagrain are within 30 minutes drive.

If you like traditional towns, interesting skiing and not overly crowded slopes, then def worth taking a look. Munich to Radstadt is about 2 - 2.5 hours by car, from memory.
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Ah...I see resident expert got in there first Laughing
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Cacciatore, NehNeh NehNeh NehNeh NehNeh you'se only jeelous cos we don't have to drive from Calais/Dunkirk first wink
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There is that Laughing
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The most quiet place = dead! i have stayed in, is Brixen im Thale, big area, not many people - every skischool talks english as well.

Very easy skiing.

http://www.kitzbueheler-alpen.com/de/brixen-im-thale/urlaub-winter-sommer.html

http://www.skiwelt.at/en/brixen-im-thale.html

Shocked
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Thanks Samerberg Sue &Cacciatore, your help is much appreciated and I hadn't thought about Ski Amade, so I'll have a look at Hochkonig.

I'd pretty much excluded Salzburg (and Innsbruck) as the flights are almost 2-3 times more expensive than Munich and Friedrichshafen, plus Munich is handy for the eastern end of the Tyrol / Salzbergerland and Friedrichshafen for the western part of the Tyrol as well as Vorarlberg / Arlberg.

I've just looked at http://www.schneewinkel-tirol.com/ and it looks like Lofer isn't on the same pass, which is a shame, but not the end of the world.

I'd been using Bergfex to get a list of the accommodations at the various resorts and have emailed the suitable ones directly and so far we have at least one hotel in each of the 3 villages.

Our half-term is Feb 14th - 21st
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Hyst, I've skied the Skiwelt many times and I'm guessing it will be busy at that time won't it?

When I started looking for places to stay, I searched for skiwelt accom and not much came up, although I didn't particularly focus on Brixen.
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Don't know about half term but Kappl was nice and quiet at NY
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mauddib, All depends on the continetial holidays, not so much the location.

http://www.schoolholidayseurope.eu/

Ours are one week before yours tthis year.
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mauddib, Schneewinkel gives you a huge variety of slopes but your week coincides with the Bavarian Fasching holiday so roads on the two Saturdays (motorways to/from Munich area) will be pretty dire. I can easily give you a route that takes you from the airport to the Salzburg end of things avoiding all the hold ups, it worked beautifully for another snowHead last year. Reit in Winkel may also be choked with day trippers that week as it is a favourite are for SE Bavarians. But Fieberbrunn is an amazing base to be honest loads of Freeride territory as well, but below the horizon for most tour operators of any country.

If you are looking at Brixen, also take a peak at Westerndorf and Hopfgarten(Markt, not im Brixental if possible). You could also take a look at the Wildschonau (contact carolyn for up to date info as she lives there, works for the ski school and her son runs a big apartment complex above the village of Niederau. Toofy Grin
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Take a look at the Montafon valley. Off the radar for uk tour ops so usually quiet at half term.
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Samerberg Sue I'd be grateful of the alt route if that's OK and are we saying the Skiwelt will be quiet then? I know from skiing Westerndorf that it is usually quieter than the main part, but I'd have thought if it's only an hour-ish from Munich it would be busy?

Elizabeth B I've been looking at the Montafon area, but even though it's not popular with Brits, the pricing is still at the high end compared to some of the other resorts.

The two favourites at the mo look like Lofer & Schneewinkel or Oetz
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mauddib, I'll hunt out the link I sent to waterford2 and forward the route to you. Can you PM me a normal email address as it comes directly from Google Maps so I cannot use this site to send it.

Skiwelt may not be so rammed as your average peak week in France, but it is busier in places at certain times of course. Most day trippers start from Scheffau as it is easier to reach without a vignette, hence the acres of parking there. Or now they have to buy a vignette if they stay on the motorway, many carry on to the Zillertal exit at Weising (Exit 39) in addition to all the Munichers coming over the Achen Pass. In peak season the queue to get off the motorway is sometimes so bad they have added another double exit lane at least 2kms long!

What we now moan about as busy here is often nothing compared to the favourite Parisian resorts, especially when you consider how much money the Austrian resorts have invested in fast, modern and efficient uplift to move people around more effectively. One of two hold ups at some bottlenecks, like the Penkenbahn (Mayrhofen) or Brandstadl (Scheffau) lifts then everyone moves off in different directions. Most of these bottlenecks can be avoided as well with very little effort but the herding instinct seems to be strong even in the hardiest of us! wink
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 Poster: A snowHead
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mauddib, What I liked about Brixen was that if most went to Ski-Welt side- then I went to Kitzbüll side, and if most went to Kitzbüll side then I went to Ski-Welt side.
And having both lifts from the same starting point was very nice. But there is not much town there, and skiing si very easy.

If you choose Brixen, stay close to this two lifts - the "town" is a bit away form the lifts.
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mauddib, I stayed in Fieberbrunn last February half-term, I can really recommend it. I have skied in loads of different resorts in Austria and France. The accommodation is excellent value for money. We stayed in a really good self-catering apartment. The ski school was excellent for our 4yr old, and he loved it. The freeriding and guiding in Fieberbrunn is also really excellent. Everybody in the ski school and hire shops were really excellent and highly professional. The food on the mountain was good quality, and very good value. The ski area in Fieberbrunn and St Johann were really child friendly. There was no long queueing at all, it was not an issue for us. I would not say it was busy at all. So the skiing and everything associated with that was excellent. The drive from Munich was absolutely horrible - I am not sure how to tackle that next year. We drove the whole way, easy until Munich!

My son and wife hired their gear and had lessons with S4, and I skied with off-piste one of their Mountain Guides, Richard. They were top class. Link below.

http://www.s4-fieberbrunn.at/en/home/

DIY Accommodation from the tourist board. Very easy.

http://www.kitzbueheler-alpen.com/en/pillerseetal/winter/holiday.html

I hope this helps.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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JayDub, Lots of routes around the black spots, just ask! I commute this way on a daily basis wink
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Samerberg Sue, have PM'ed you. Thanks in advance.

JayDub, I'll have another look at Fieberbrunn and for me, SC would win every time, but I have a slight issue in that Mrs M likes a touch of luxury / pampering when we ski, so I'm afraid it's normally really good 3* or even 4* hotels we stay at, which is totally contrary to me being from Yorkshire, which is no doubt why I've wasted too much time trying to find something that fits...
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Samerberg Sue, Brilliant stuff. I will be in touch, thank you very much indeed.
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Consider that Faschingswoche maybe a really hell as regards as the traffic.
A couple of years ago i made 12 hours from Stuttgart to Kaunertal. With normal conditions someone need approx. 4 hours.

PS sorry for my bad Englisch
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I'm heading to St. johann in Tirol that Saturday from The channel tunnel. Is there a route that misses Munich? I did the same drive last February half term. We had some delays getting round Munich, but it wasn't too bad after. Maybe we came after the queues, at about 7pm.
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what do you mean by misses Munich? usually i go round munich and dont get through town.
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Drammeister, Yes there are many that we locals know about as we have to - many times during the year where we cannot use the A8/A99 because of the sheer number of people trying to pass through our region.

A lot depends on when you anticipate passing around Munich and along the A8 - from about 10.00am onwards to around 17.00 the traffic is either stop-go or parked! Before that or later in the day, you will probably have a better chance of a straight run through.

turms, The A8 junction with the A99 is a nightmare on really busy days (Allachertunnel where they all meet for example). Then there is the bottleneck at the junction of the A9/A99 where all the traffic from the north and north-east meets all the tourist traffic coming from west and north-west. From the Brunnthal junction (München-Süd) it can be stop go on all the big transfer days to each of the border crossings (Walserberg and Kufstein). I have to commute to work along this access, so yes I have lots of Schleichwege that are not official Umleitung routes.
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Hm...i guess you know the area better than me. I am on the other side of South Germany so i dont use the road around Munich. I did so, years ago in order to go from Munich Airport to Austria, but my flight times are so scheduled that i usually drove after 21.00 or before 06.00. So i didnt have problems with traffic.
On the other hand , at present, my way to Austria go through Fernpass which is much much worst.
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turms, it is actually worse in the summer rather than winter. On a Saturday it sometimes pays to drive through Munich from the Obermenzing side, go round the Mittler Ring towards Garmisch, then on round out of town via the Giesinger (A995) to Brunnthal to pick up the A8. I've also driven into Munich from the airport to avoid the hold-ups around the A99.

The Fern Tunnels are a nightmare - I'd switch to using the Zirler Berg if I were you - carry on to the B17 at Augsburg, down to Schonau and Oberammergau before picking up the B2 at Oberau. Then you have the choice of either the Mittenwald route or the Berwang/Ehrwald route out of Garmisch which avoids the Blockanfertigung that causes the B179 to back up to Füssen on bad days. wink Go through Biberwier on the L71 and you rejoin the Fern Pass route after the second tunnel at Weißensee. wink I used to live in Starnberg and used these routes to by-pass the hold ups quite often.
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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.
Elizabeth B, Crystal go to Silvretta Montafon... Not sure how many beds they have though.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
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Thanks for the tipps Sue...you mean go throug Seefeld if i understand it wright...i will try it....but i am thinking this winter to try Vorlarlberg....in order to avoid Fernpass and explore the area...
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