Rauris

A snowHead

I have a VERY limited amount of dosh, that I would like to spend on a 1 man ski trip at the end of January. I've looked at Nasfeld as a DIY, but I don't really fancy all of that driving, etc. Rauris could work- I can get a good 4* hotel, everything in for under £600 notes. Question is, would the limited skiing (looking at a piste map, I don't know from experience or anything) be too bad? I'm an average (no more) skiier.

A snowHead

Having been to Rauris once as a keen amateur/average skier I would say take a punt and go. Charming little town, good well maintained pistes. Usually very quiet, I didn't queue for a lift once. enough to keep you entertained for a week with a few challenging reds. Not much in the way of Apres, but a great family resort. I'm going again on the 9th of Jan, so take that as a further endorsement.

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Hi been to Rauris twice stayed both times at the rauriserhof hotel which is brilliant, great food and the owners are really lovely people the resort whilst not having miles of piste is really nice( my sons learnt to ski there) its very quiet but a very traditional town with very friendly people,worth a punt I'd say.

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Don't know about Rauris but I have done Nassfeld on the cheap. DIY flight to Ljubljana and hire car. It worked

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I enjoy skiing at Rauris. The area has two sections, the Waldalm and the Hochalm. The two areas are linked by tracks.

The Waldalm has one red piste, middle steep and great for carving. The section down to the valley has some steeper sections. The lift for the upper section of piste 1 is a T-bar (a gondola is planned but not built yet).

On the Hochalm side there is more variety. The runs above the first stage of the gondola aren't difficult. There are T-bars, the Gratbahn being pretty steep as T-bars go. However, the main lifts here are two gondolas. This is probably the best area to start. The valley run is black, partly a track, but you could download with the gondola if you don't fancy that.

If you want, you can see some photos of the area in my album here. Hope you enjoy it too.

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Or if on limited budget fly into Innsbruck and stay somewhere like Axams or even Gotzens with the full Innsbruck pass no need for car hire. You also have Stubai on the pass if snow conditions are poor.

Few snowheads live in the area so may be able to give you more specific hotels/pensions to stay. Shuttle bus from Innsbruck to all 9 areas hence no need for car hire. I looked at Axams as not too far from airport so at a push could get a taxi without breaking bank.
Been looking at this area myself for a week away in early March as a bit of a nostalgia trip as learnt to ski at Tulfes another resort above Innsbruck.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

It was about 4 years ago. No issues (apart from losing the hire car key whilst skiing - got taxi to accommodation, rang car hire company and met representative at car park next day with replacement key, had to pay quite a lot for this but now insure annually through one of the many companies that offer insurance to cover car hire excess and this covers lost keys). Although we are North England we flew from Stansted but can't remember whether it was Ryanair / Easyjet or someone else. Car hire arranged over internet. No problems apart from the lost keys. Straightforward drive from airport once we found the right road - we used SatNav on our phone but found this did not cover Slovenia but the road signs were straightforward. Ljubljana is at the end of Slovenia closest to Austria and the drive wasn't too long.
We stayed at http://www.chaletkammleitn.com/ and also looked at http://www.hotel-sonnleitn.at/index.php/en/ both of which were a short - about 5 minute - drive from the main gondola. When we lost the keys we used a taxi back to accommodation and next day used the ski bus both of which worked well. There is plenty of other accommodation available.
We quite often do this type of trip using hire cars and it works for us. We tend to use the car to make at least one trip to another local resort and we did go somewhere for the day but I can't remember which resort. The full area ski pass covers a huge area in Carinthia.
We found much of the skiing to be very "samey" - similar runs along similar gradients of a similar standard - but when you dug a little deeper there were plenty of options of varying standards, especially at the two ends of the ski area. We quite liked the area at the left (viewed facing up the mountain). You could (just) ski into Italy.
Prices were reasonable. Good facilities for ski hire and storage facilities at the base of the main gondola (hire lockers).
Apres ski isn't really our thing. There were options for a beer at the bottom of the slopes and I remember a good bar on the main run down just before the bottom.
Can't comment on the off piste as we are basically piste skiers - although we have been known to take short cuts close to the piste wher we found you can easily fall over and lose car keys.
Ski school - didn't use it so can't comment but I would think it ought to be OK as I know it is an area used by UK school groups (but not whilst we were there).
The area where we saw absolute beginners starting off seemed to be around the gondola mid station so probably decent snow as it is at some altitude.
I would go back, but I understand that a link is proposed to extend the area into Italy sometime in the next year or two and I will probably go back then

Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed reply John.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Wouldn't hold your breathe for link into Italy. We live just down the road from Nassfeld, its a lovely ski area. Not much of an apres-ski scene. Loads of other lovely smaller resorts within an hour's drive as well. We are currently working our way through all the ski resorts on our season pass (there are 31 in total) and reviewing them on our website.

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Rauris

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