 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi folks,
Have searched around but not found much, please point me in the right direction or can anyone give me some advice on this resort. I have only ever done France and Italy but trying to go on the cheap this year so thought i would have a go at Austria. Am i likely to be disapointed?
I would like a self catering apartment or chalet, if anyone knows of any? I did have a great chaletfinder website i found on here but have forgotten it now 
Finaly, what is the best way to get from the airport to the resort (just me and my g/f)
Thanks in advance,
Pete
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Saalbach-Hinterglemm is great for intermediates. It is poor for beginners and experts. Lots of steepish blues and reds, but little else beyond that.
The two villages are moderately pretty. The ski area is mostly gladed and attractive.
Nightlife is above-average for the Alps. It always gets busy. But it is cheesy and dated. Too much Europop. Many losers dancing on tables.
SH is only 60 - 90 mins from Salzburg Airport. Very easy to get to, by bus or car.
Check the neige before you go. SH has seen limited natural snowfall this season.
Overall, SH comes highly recommended, if you are a low-mid- to upper-mid-level rider.
Otherwise, there are better options.
Try Zell am See or Kitzbuehel if you are a newbie. St Anton if your skills are topnotch.
Good luck.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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duncansarmy, Saalbach offical web site used to have an excellent section for searching accommodation based on various criteria. This year they 'updated' this section, still usable, but the old version was much better. If you do not want to bother with searching their database, just send an e-mail to the tourist office, and they reply immediately with of list of apartments. Their customer service is excellent.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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duncansarmy, Packages in Saalbach aren't cheap... better to do it independently. Transfers from Salzburg in a taxi about 125 euros each way if you don;t want to drive although it is an easy drive as the airport is on the right side of town. Pre-book your taxi via email The apres ski is "banging" and "germanic". Good restuarants, 200k of pistes.... check the snow before you go... The villages are in a long valley with skiing on both sides... in a poor snow year or sunny weather, skiing is often only possible on one side due to the south facing runs not holding snow. This makes the area far more limited. It has a fairly short vertical drop so the runs are generally guite short..... 2000m max down to 1000m. Runs mainly intermediate. Overall a good Austrian resort in my opinion.
There is a website called "chaletfinders.com" which lists all the tour operater run chalets. Wouldn't know where to start looking for an independently run one but in any event I reckon B&B is th ebest option in Austria as every resort is full of small pensions which are usually cheapish... 45-60 Euros pppn depending on location and quality. Quality is generally goos with only a handful of exceptions.
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duncansarmy, I've been to Saalbach twice and it's a great resort and ski area. It's ideal for intermediates with some good long reds and about 200km of pistes. Saalbach offers very good access to the slopes with 3 lifts from the town centre. The town isn't that big so if you stay somewhere central it's possible to walk to these lifts within a few minutes.
There isn't a huge choice of restaurants but the larger hotels provide restaurant facilities to non-guests. That said, I'd probably go half board and I recommend the Hotel Bauer. The Chalet thing isn't that common in Austria.
I love the cheesy apres ski! Bauers Ski alm and the Hinterhagalm are the best in Saalbach.
To get from Salzburg airport, you can take a train to Zell am See and then a bus or taxi onto Saalbach.
Saalbach isn't particuarly cheap. The mountain food is good value and beer costs are ok, but the packages are fairly expensive. Some of the best package deals I've been on in terms of value for money and good skiing was Mayrhofen. There is plenty of cheesy apres ski there too!
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Wow, some really useful info here people. I think this is the most informative and friendly forum of which i lurk!
We are both intermediate riders with my g/f only really reaching that level last year in Les Arc where she enjoyed the motorway blues. This place then sounds right up our street and one of the reasons i warmed to it was the short transfer time, transfers of 4 hours drives me mad!
We will be doing this independantly, so i guess it's just snow i need now!
Should i be worried about the lack of snow at this rate? We will be looking at the 3rd March!
Cheers,
Pete
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duncansarmy, Both of my visits were late Feb/early March and the snow was fine. They seem to be recovering slowly from the poor season this year and they don't need that much snow as virtually all the runs are on pasture land as opposed to rocky terrain etc. Plus it's a fairly large ski area so I'm sure there will be some snow somewhere!
Some Snowheads have just returned from there so it might be worth asking them about the conditions.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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duncansarmy, I take it you are a fellow blue with a monikor like that?
Just came back from Saalbach 10 days ago. Can be done cheap on a DIY basis, either flying from Liverpool with Ryanair or Manchester via Thomsonfly (which we did). Lovely little place, and cheap as chips when yer there. We went thru the tourist information office and found a picturesque little doghole called Haus Augsburg (we were a group of 6 lads so it was only a bed) at E28.50 per night. There was some really nice accomodation at around E50 a night. We also used a private transfer at 99 Euros each way (PM me for the link) for upto 8 people.
Apres ski was really good, lots of cheesy euro stuff, and some good English tunes in a place called Spitz Bab (opposite the afforementioned Bauers). Plenty of nice easy intermediate skiing, the runs towards Leogang in particular and the runs on the Schattburg side of Hinterglemm. Plenty of nice mountain restaurants and bars, including one which sold a pint for E2.50!!! Happy Days 
Put it this way, we are planning on returning to Saalbach next winter! Photographic evidence of our travels can be found here: http://www.snowmediazone.com/the_zone/showgallery.php/cat/659
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Thanks again folks, excellent stuff!
Charlatanefc, you'd better beleive it, 'born not manufactured' unlike the majority of those houston redskins lot...arf.
Seriously this is what i wanted to hear, i will PM you for the Private Transfer link and also if you have the details for the tourist office that would be grand.
Saalbach, look out....more mickey mousers on the way...
P.S. love the hat mate, love the hat
P.P.S Were you over there for the derby then?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Whitegold,
Is that really possible??? 
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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.
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| duncansarmy wrote: |
| P.P.S Were you over there for the derby then? |
Yes he was, although we'd moved on to Zell am Zee by then and he wussed out of a day's skiing to watch it!!
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| FenlandSkier wrote: |
| duncansarmy wrote: |
| P.P.S Were you over there for the derby then? |
Yes he was, although we'd moved on to Zell am Zee by then and he wussed out of a day's skiing to watch it!! |
Sounds like a fair trade off to me 
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You know it makes sense.
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The rednoses really appreciated his choice of ringtone while he was watching it as well, each text from home came with a rendition of Z Cars 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Have been 3 times to the area in the last 5 years & enjoyed every visit
Don't know how to do this links business, so : Saalbach website is www.saalbach.com. If you go to 'accomodation' then
'holiday shuttle' you'll find a transfer service Salzburg airport/Saalbach return for euro 65.00 a head. I've not used this one, but in previous years have used a coach company www.vorderegger.at which also runs transfers to & from the airport for euro 45.00 return though the times might not be as convenient.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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There's an accomodation search at Tiscover
It wasn't much help for me but then I was looking for effectively a long weekend that would split 2 weeks' bookings up, more conventional dates might get a better result.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Richie, these "small club" fans feel the need to stick together
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I'll tell you what Elizabeth B, it's hard skiing with someone that won't ski red runs "on principle"
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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FenlandSkier,
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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duncansarmy,
Did you book anything for Saalbach-Hinterglemm in the end?
There's a few of us from the northend of our fine city going on Saturday 10.03.2007. We got a deal with MyTravel / Airtours £470.00 half-board for the week.
Like you we normally go to France every year but the lads were on my case to try somewhere different!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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duncansarmy, see my post above. 99 Euro's between the lot of you each way in a private minibus www.transferservice.at
You think it's been cheap now, wait till yer get there! Oh, as long as conditions are decent it will dump all over france from a great height!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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duncansarmy, where you staying? There are a group of 7 of us heading out on the 3rd. We're at the hotel Reigler (spelling) just out of town. Will keep an eye out for some Scousers in the bars - COME ON YOU REDS!!!
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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.
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Charlatanefc, Just booked that transfer service, never had someone hold a board with my surname on at the airport before...wish i'd have told them my name was 'bond'! So is it cheap out there or expensive? You could read into your comment either way and was thinking of buying some boots out there...is this wise?
Just the 3 for us at the weekend eh
Richie, will do my best to avoid you....another red south eh *sighs*
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duncansarmy,
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You know it makes sense.
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Richie, looks like snow mate 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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duncansarmy, it's cheap as chips matey! There's a bar on the mountain where it's 2E50 for a pint. Most we paid all week was about 3E50 I think!
Food was ridiculously cheap on the mountain as well, about 5E50 for Sausage and Chips, Burger and Chips, Spag Bol etc....
The places were selling ski's at stupidly cheap prices due to the crap season they've had. Not sure about the boots, but don't forget if they don't fit very well, you can't just "nip" back there!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Have a think about Ski Amade. We are 45 mins from Salzburg - transfers cost €40 return.
I went to Salbach yesterday and half of it was green and the pistes were in poor condition. It might be different now as snow was due last night. Ski Amade has had very good snow and skiing all season. the pistes have been well maintained and we have just had a large snowfall.
Thompsonfly have very cheap flights at the mo too!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Charlatanefc, happy days blueblood. Lookin forward to this, any recomendations on bars or restaurants?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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flangesax, 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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duncansarmy,
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Apres ski was really good, lots of cheesy euro stuff, and some good English tunes in a place called Spitz Bab (opposite the afforementioned Bauers).
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as mentioned above. There's only one bar there that has Sky Sports, go in there only if you must watch the footy, as the service and the beer was awful. Otzi's was supposed to be good (never made it in there).
Best restaurant we found (again can't remember the name), was by the Spar in the town centre (went there 3 times). Most of the restaurants there tend to belong to whichever hotel they are underneath
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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'twas called Del Rossi and does mighty fine ice cream as well.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Cheers fellas, keep it comin. Looks like there's been a bit of snow too so things could be good. I'll be sure to post some pics of our jaunt in Saalbach.
One more question if i may; where in said resort can one purchase a pass of the ski variety from?
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duncansarmy, From the bottom of just about any lift (other than the small pomas) that leaves the valley. They accept almost all credit cards, which isn't always the case in some other Austrian resorts.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thank you so much kamikaze,
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duncansarmy, looks like rain now though
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FAQ
