Kitzbuhel Advice

A snowHead

Hi

Two 40 year old tight Yorkshire men have managed to bag a last minute deal at hotel edelweiss on 15/1/22. I have never experienced Kitzbuhel before so would appreciate any wise words on the area. If anyone could help me in with the following it would be of great help

Current Conditions : Is there lots of snow or is it a bit thin, apologies not been looking

Eating on the slopes : We see lunch more as a fuel refill than an experience in itself, is there anywhere that does burgers or something easy that wont cost the earth

Booze : How much is pint of local beer or house red

Apres : We like to go at the end of the skiing for 2 or 3 drinks, where is good for rock music such as queen, imagine dragon, phonics, ezra, bon jovi and of course a bit of sweet Caroline. We will probably venture out 1 or 2 nights more heavily, where is good?

Eating out : we are half board 6 nights but with one evening where we need to eat out : where is good for steak or ribs or dare I mention a curry

Any

A snowHead

@alan_utchi, You are going to the Tyrol, it is compulsory to have Gröstl for lunch at least once a week, you can have burgers at home.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

that looks good, where is best for it

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It's Austria. Food is good value and filling. I'd recommend dumplings (Knödel) in all their many forms (spinat = spinach; leber = liver; semmel = bread) and Käsespätzle (a bit like macaroni cheese but much better). You'll get a selection of these plus Gröstl in most mountain restaurants. There are also usually delicious soups and some great puddings, e.g. Kaiserschmarrn.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

There are lots of self service places dotted around the area, all serve the usual fare, spaghetti mit fleischsauce (usually veggie version too), wurst or schnitzel mit pommes (German for chips), the aforementioned gröstl (meat hash with fried egg on top) etc. Burgers not so common though from memory there is a McDs in town if you get withdrawal symptoms.

Look at https://www.kitzski.at/en/ for up to date conditions, which lifts are open etc.

Half litre of beer likely to be around €4 - €4.50 though will vary from place to place. Worth trying the local chasers of a Fliegende Hirsch or a Willi, ideal as a livener from a piste side hut on the last run of the day. If you are feeling a bit chilly ask for a Jägertee to warm you up.

Apres is largely off this year, table service with background music only though apparently a few places are pushing it a bit with low key live music and some singing. Dont expect any choruses of Sweet Caroline or Jonny Däpp.

Germans, especially the more southern ones dont go for spicy food so dont expect a decent curry on your night out. Likely to be more chicken tikka marsala rather than lamb madras

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@alan_utchi, only been to Kitzbuhel the once (maybe 5ish yrs ago), but stayed at the same hotel you are booked in to. Lots of British guests.
It was full of repeat customers when we were there. Which is always a plus, but with the danger of being cliquey, as they all went on the same week and had known each other for years. Thankfully that wasn’t the case, we were made to feel very welcome. We skied a bit with a few of them they were eager to pass on their experience of the area. One aged bloke, that looked a bit like Wurzel Gummage, described it as “The place where old skiers come to roost” Laughing

We were there last week of the season and the evening meals had a distinct ‘empty the freezer’ vibe. The house wine was a fraction of the price of any bottled offering and perfectly drinkable. At breakfast they did encourage you to fill some rolls and take a drink for a picnic lunch, which you don’t see so often I’ve.
Just a short walk along the rail track to the lift.

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I've also stayed in the Edelweiss and really liked it. Food and beer were good and it's very conveniently situated for the Hahnenkahnbahn. The owners were really nice and helpful
He speaks excellent English and is a mine of information regarding the skiing area.

After all it is free

I am not sure on the idea of liver dumplings, I will give the others a go

no sweet caroline chorus, its hard to imagine

Any recommendations for ribs or a steak

Liver dumplings are atrocious.

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Kasekrainer with horseradish, mustard, rye bread, various pickles and a bit of salad garnish. Washed down with a large beer. Fabulous.

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I found that the further from Kitzbuhel you got, the better the food and skiing. The Panorama Alm towards Mittersill was excellent for lunch and the skiing over the is great and very quiet.

You know it makes sense.

Cheese….don’t forget the cheese Laughing

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Possibly a contraversial view here, but I'm not a big fan of Kitzbuhel. I've only spent a couple of day trips there, so may not have given it a fair chance, but wouldn't rush back (particularly not with a boarder in tow - there are a lot of flat bits!). I found it quite badly linked, with a lot of young, "cool" people who didn't understand queuing. I'd suggest that to make the best of it, you make sure you probably need to make use of the bus system. For e.g. catch a bus up to the far end of the ski area in the morning and then make your way back during the day. I preferred the Ski Welt, which is well worth a day out if you have the extended ski pass.

A snowHead

I really don't want to sound negative, especially after what's happened over the last couple of years, but I wasn't too impressed by Kitzbuhel either.

We ended up getting the (free with ski pass) train to other resorts for 3 of our days that week. Was impressed with the resorts we went to. I know Brixen and Fieberbrunn were 2 of them.

You might love it, but thought I'd offer a suggestion in case you don't.

A snowHead

Some great advice. We have done skiwelt before and enjoy it so might see if we can upgrade the pass.

All this food talk is making me hungry.

Any must do runs or places to experience

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

If you have time and wish to get away from the main crowd for a time get the bus across to Kitzbuhel Horn area.
Not a big area in itself but emptyish when we were there with a couple of great runs going down on the left into a bowl area (?) which we great fun.
The chair lift up to the top was a bit kranky but ok on a sunny day.
I recall there’s a nice hut at the top on the left where we enjoyed a beer with an impromptu performance by a small group of musicians with squeeze box etc on a beautiful sunny day.

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The Streif will be closed for the WC all week, training runs on Tue/Wed/Thu and a race on the Friday. Don't know whether spectators will be allowed this year.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You are very lucky as your trip coincides with the Hehnenkamm WC races from 17-23 Jan if you are still there. It will be frantic but great opportunity to take it the atmosphere. There will be beer everywhere and recommend you try to get to the Londoner bar one evening - suggest you go early in the day to get an entry stamp and come back on the evening.

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Pop over to Westendorf via Kirchberg (and a 5 minute bus) and come home via Ki West - a really lovely long run. There's a nice cosy restaurant about half way down red 110 down to Westendorf which is nice for lunch or hot drinks!

We did it the other way from Westendorf, with a day add on to our ski pass.

After all it is free

I like Kitzbühel, I think it is a better area than SkiWelt. Not sure what sort of skiing you are after. If straight forward piste bashing then it is worth going over to SkiWelt too, either using the shuttle bus from the bottom of the Penglestein lift to KiWest (takes about 5 mins) or a valley bus (covered on lift pass) to the main lifts at Brixen. If a bit more adventurous then the Greissalm bowl has a mixture of blacks and ski routes (there are warning signs up about how steep some of it is, it isnt really that crazy); there is a long ski route from the top of Pengelstein to Jochberg, in good conditions not difficult at all; the runs under the Zweitausender chair (ski route, black & a steep lumpy red) are good usually decent snow (off piste is that area too). My favourite is the Ochsalm black (steep in parts) through the trees back towards Kirchberg but no snow canons so needs plenty of snow.

@Judwin, the run down to Aschau is number 56, an itinerary, not a normal piste, and on a powder day it's great with many many side piste variants! There are usually taxis waiting at the bottom and you can usually find a couple of people to share the ride with, so no need to wait for hours... but yes the restaurant is nice!
I always find it hard to understand why people think Kitz is just a beginner's resort; it isn't. It has something for all levels, with huge possibilities for lift served off piste as well as an enormous range of piste skiing. In fact, even though I've been going there for years, I don't think I've covered everything over on the Pass Thurn side of the resort yet.

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@Klamm Franzer, funnily enough the Panorama Alm was my only duff meal of that trip.

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Seeing as Apres is off the menu, go for a swim in the indoor water park there and if history is your thing do go have a look at the church and the graveyard, its very interesting and still has some Nazi gravestones and plaques.

https://dannyashkenasi.com/2017/10/06/nazi-legacy-alive-and-well-in-an-austrian-cemetery/

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I think we went to that farmhouse restaurant a couple of summers ago, food was awesome. We’re hopefully in St Johann in 4 weeks time and having had a summer holiday in kitz I’m hoping to get the train over and ski it for a day

So much great advice, thanks all. Does anyone know if you are able to use the lift pass from 3pm for free before the first full day. When we stayed in soll a few years ago that was an option

You know it makes sense.

@alan_utchi, so did you go Kitzbuhel?
we'll be there over Xmas and new year next season. I'll be more interested in off piste, tree sking and blacks/itineraries than mile munching blues and reds. Will I find plenty? I don't mind lapping for good snow and interesting terrain

Help!!

Kitzbuhel Advice

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