Trip report Lofer 19-23 Jan

A snowHead

Having used the collective brain of the forum to solve some planning issues for rhe trip I thought I'd share what it was like. I've not written something like this for a while so hopefully it's useful!

We were a party of 4 and for me and Mrs B-H this is the first of two trips this season as we head back to Austria in early March for a week.

Me - intermediate
Mrs B-H - advance snowboarder
My sister - beginner skier who has skied maybe 2/3 times over the last decade
Sister's boyfriend - advance skier

Costs

BA flights to Salzburg - £140 return per couple (made use of avios points)
Accommodation - Christienhof Top 6 (£630) via booking.com
Transfers- 260 bus at €9.30 pp per journey
Lift pass €140 per person for 3 days
Ski hire around €100 per person (everyone hired different things but all in it was €400). We used https://www.skiverleih-lofer.at

We began with a very early alarm of 3 15am to get to Gatwick for our 6 35am flight to Salzburg. Quick breakfast and onto the plane, although we left a few minutes late as they were de-icing the plane we landed in Salzburg only 5 minutes late and were through passport control and baggage claim in 30 mins. Had time for a pretzel and cake purchase from the airport bakery!

260 bus all straightforward and I bought the tickets online using the SBG Verkehr app recommended on S-Hs. I'm actually writing this review on the bus back to Salzburg.

Accommodation - we were on the top floor of an apartment block that claims it would sleep six (bunk beds in one of the bedrooms plus a double) but we all agreed it would be a bit tight for space, especially in the living/dining room. Spotlessly clean when we arrived and they let us check in early on day 1, which after the early start was appreciated. Both bedrooms came with a ensuite. The kitchen had everything you need to cook as long as (a) you accept it won't be exactly like your kitchen at home and you might need to improvise (b) you don't need more than two hobs at once. We cooked twice (gnocchi and pasta bakes rather than anything more complicated) got take out pizza once and had a meal out. If we had wanted to we could have cooked every night.

Ski lesson - our beginner skier had a lesson on the first morning and was very impressed with Sturm ski school. It was a private 2 hour lesson and by the end she was able to move from snowplough turns to parallel and be in control. The lesson started with a brain fade moment of trying to put the skis on backwards- not sure what the instructor thought! It cost €130-140. Without the lesson she wouldn't have the confidence to trek round the mountain with us.

The skiing - We skied for three days having abandoned plans to ski on the first afternoon as we were all very tired. We got 2.5 days of snow and a morning of lovely clear sky. Runs are mainly blues served by three chairlifts once you travel up to main centre at the top of the gondola. Our favourite run was 7 followed by 15 and our beginner particularly liked 4. Other than our advance skier no one liked the look of the run down to the village which seemed to be a mix of icy paths(where working snow cannons were impeding visibility) and actual pistes. We downloaded each day. The red runs that there are were often accompanied by a blue cut around to allow those who wanted to to skip the steeper bits. Our beginner switched between these and the red depending on how confident/tired she was feeling. Final skiing point is that some runs were still not open because of the lack of snow earlier in the season - the resort was suggesting these would be open soon. I didn't think it really impacted our 3 days of skiing, which was about right for the size of resort if you don't mind looping runs.

Mountain food - we ate on the mountain each day and particularly enjoyed Ketchalm on route 15. We watched the second salom run from Kitzbuhel in there on our last day, which was fun. As with most places in Austria a mix of whether they take card or not. One tip is the Soderkaser has a large ski school reservation each day at Midday so tables would be limited then. We tend to ski through lunch and eat around 2 so it didn't impact us.

Lofer food - we had take out pizza from the Alm Platz on our first night which was ready within 15 minutes of ordering and was good. We then ate out at Hotel - Wirts’haus "Zum Schweizer" on the Saturday (having booked in advance) and the food was excellent - special mention for the venison and dumplings on the specials board. Cost minus tip was €105 for four mains, two beers, two apperol type drinks and a soup.

Amenities - there is a Spar in the town (which has a bottle return) and another supermarket a further 3-4 minutes walk on. Other than when we needed some throat lozenges on the Sunday evening they were well stocked and had what we needed. Pharmacy was open by 8am on the Monday though.

Apres- we went for a drink every evening after skiing at the Karussel bar at the bottom of the slopes. It played more classic rock than your Austrian apres but did the job for a beer post ski. Table service and bar service available. There was also a smaller bar Bobo's inside the intersport ski hire for those after a quieter drink.

Overall really enjoyed our trip (I suspect in part as I felt my intermediate skiing came on) but if you are a group of adults who want to stay in Lofer (as opposed to travel to other resorts) you might find the skiing a bit limited after more than a few days. I suspect for families with younger children the smaller ski area, dedicated central hub on the mountain and family friends runs would appeal for a longer trip.

I'll finish with some scores out of 10, although no real disappointments.

Transfers - 10/10
Accommodation- 8/10
Skiing - 8.5/10
Ski hire - 8/10
Ski lesson - 12(!)/10

A snowHead

@TomBH, thanks for the report. Not too much about Lofer on here so it’s good to have a bit of info. It’s on our list as a potential for a first trip with the kids, due to closeness to airport.
Sounds like it could be a good shout

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

@EdYarker, there were definitely plenty of kids about, especially on Saturday and Sunday from local ski clubs.

One thing you might want to consider if you haven't already is if your kids need lessons whether the ski school does group courses in English. The instructor who gave one of our party a lesson said she doesn't teach much in English. The ski school we used were very responsive on email and did have the option to select for a private lesson English when booking - I didnt check group lessons.

If you have any questions that come to mind do let me know and even if it's a "sorry don't know" I'll try to help.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

@TomBH, thanks. Will definitely check about the English speaking lessons if we go, but won’t be for at least a year anyway- the girls aren’t well enough behaved to warrant spending that much money in yet!

Help!!

Trip report Lofer 19-23 Jan

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