Accomodation - In Austria - for unusual dates

A snowHead

Hello Snowheads,

Flying to Munich from Dublin on Thurs., Jan 2 - departing in Tues. Jan 7. Dates fixed due to daughters work holidays.

Prefer to take train to a village, but will drive if no other option possible. On a tight(ish) budget,

Due to the dates accommodation is very understandably hard to find.
Booking.com and airbnb - what is available is super expensive.
I have gone to the tourist board sites for Skiwelt, Kitzbuheler Alps, Zillertal, FissLadisSerfaus, Solden - very little there but will stay trying.
Gone to googlemaps and difectly browsed ski villages and then approached the pensions, apartments etc directly (waiting on replies)

Have I missed a trick? Or is it a matter of renting a car, and taking accommodation slightly outside but close to somewhere like the Skiwelt?

Míle buíochas

A snowHead

@ado, you haven't missed a trick, you want to book odd dates in the busiest week of the season...and it's bound to be expensive. As you say,try staying up to a 30 minute drive away

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

@ado, for odd dates you will likely find nothing in advance because the owners want to let for both of those weeks, not just 4-5 days out of 14 with 7 of those being the busiest and most expensive week of the season. You may be able to find something a day or two before via the tourist office, but almost all places will be fully booked for at least the first week.

As you've suggested, staying outside of a ski area is much more likely to work for you, or going somewhere which has other types of visitors e.g. Innsbruck is worth a go. It's a different type of trip, but can be done and you may not have to hire a car if you choose carefully.

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@ado, You have picked the busiest week of the year and Monday 6th is a public holiday - Three Kings / Epiphany (back to work day is the 7th). Train & budget also restricts choice as not so many places. If you are really fixed on using the train look at a valley place - eg Kufstein, Wörgl, Jenbach, Landeck even Innsbruck but not sure that is ideal for a ski holiday.

I just checked the St Anton site and surprisingly there are still some reasonable accommodation options there (€1000ish or less), best train option in Austria (express trains stop in the middle of the village) but it is hardly a budget location and will be heaving.

You can try the German hotel website https://www.hrs.com/ they might have spots others dont, you could also try calling the various tourist offices to see what they suggest, suspect they will just say look at their site but you never know.

Also try splitting your stay over the Saturday night you might find rooms until the Saturday in one place and the rest in another.

Perhaps widen search to include Salzburgerland places like Saalbach Hinterglemm, or Ski Amade (both of which are reachable by train from Munich though a bit of a trek)

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Many thanks. I will look at splitting stay over 2 locations/accomodations.
I will look at driving.
Thanks all. Food fir thought.

The 6th isn't a holiday here as such but forgot it's a thing in Europe.
Might stretch the budget.
Will check Ski Amade and SH, and throw an eye over StA.

Are any car rental companies "better" or are they all prone to post return forensics and associated charges?

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@ski_free, "since most travel insurance policies will take care of the excess."... are you sure?

After all it is free

@ski_free, I can assure you that "most" travel insurance covers no such thing, which is why separate car rental excess insurance is a thing, e.g. https://www.questor-insurance.co.uk/insurance-products/car-hire-excess-insurance

And I have avoided Sixt as a company since they charged me the full €1500 for some surface scratches on the roof of a car which already had scratches or dents in 4 panels, where a decent repair company could have polished them out for €200. It was clear that they had no intention of repairing the car, and would simply sell it on as-is for someone else to fix at trade rates.

Megadrive, Buchbinder and Europcar have all been good for me in Munich.

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Look to stay somewhere in valley like Landeck or Jenbach with rail/ bus connections to resort maybe?

But yeah a cheap hire car would facilitate commuter skiing better.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@ado, for a short break I like Nauders. It's a relatively small ski area but it's got a decent variety of runs and some lovely mountain restaurants. We were there during the February peak season and while the main gondola from the base up was busy all the other lifts were fine.

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I have used Sixt for years with no problems (except years ago when they rented me a car without winter tyres in a blizzard, Police not impressed with them at all!) they are not the cheapest but are reliable. The insurance thing can trip you up and best get proper excess insurance or be prepared to pay their expensive daily fee (the excess was €1500 a few weeks back on a BMW X5). Buchbinder would avoid as only had poor quality vehicles from them so didnt go back but might have changed.

@ado, have you considered staying in Innsbruck and using the buses to local resorts, rather than basing yourself in a bigger/more popular resort?

You know it makes sense.

Thanks all. Great support. Did look at Innsbruck as one of the travelling daughters lived there for a year of "college" aka ski Austria.

As a result of direct email have been offered a place in Kelchsau. So can train to Hopfgatrten from Munich.

I think the SkiWelt ski bus runs from Kelchsau to Hopfgarten... so easy access to SkiWelt?

My daughters just crash each evening so apres not important.

Any opinions on Kelchsau?

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

@ado, never been to Kelchsau, but looks like there's a busto Hopfgarten that only takes 15 minutes. Not sure if there's more buses run in the winter, but currently shows as 07:00, 08:58 and 10:04 options, so you'll just need to make sure you're ready for which one of those suits best. Coming back in the afternoon you've got 16:14 or 16:27, so again you need to be on it with timings.

That's the info from OBB, but worth looking checking out winter ski busses also via Skiwelt to see if there's anything additional.

A snowHead

@ado, Are you banged to rights to fly to Munich??....because you could fly to Zurich and get the train literally from the airport directly to St Anton and walk to your accommodation.

Done it loads of times...it's great.

A snowHead

Not locked in yet. Was waiting on accom... lemme do a sweep on flights to ZCH and accommodation for StA

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

@ado, We did Zurich to St.Anton the last couple of years from Dublin.
The Arlberg Express bus transfer is better suited to the Dublin flights and is very Reliable.
Also would recommend the Garni Hotel Dr. Otto Murr for accommodation and has a lovely pool and very close to the ski lifts.
Also the Garni Hotel Senn across the Rd is really good value and is right beside the lift station.

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@Chick, I've never done the Arlberg Express...any use?

If they're flying odd days they can get the 07:05 Aer Lingus out and the 13:35 back with Swiss Air and be in perfect time to get the train.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@dazman, I prefer the Arlberg Express as it drops and collects you outside of your Hotel.It works perfect for Sat to Sat bookings as they don't run the 6.30 am bus midweek.

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@dazman, I prefer the Arlberg Express as it drops and collects you outside of your Hotel.It works perfect for Sat to Sat bookings as they don't run the 6.30 am bus midweek.

Help!!

Accomodation - In Austria - for unusual dates

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