Driving to Kappl for 1/2 term, whats the weather like in Germany/Aus

A snowHead

Just a quick post. We are driving to ski in Kappl over half term, ferry across to Rotterdam on thurs night, stopover in Karlsruhe, and arrive Kappl saturday.

I have heard reports that Germny has had, and maybe forecast to have bad weather for the next week or so.

Anyone driven there, or is planning to do a similar trip to Austria, and knows whether they keep the roads clear over there, or whether the place grinds to a halt like the UK does?

I have snow-chains in anticipation of having to use them in resort, but I'd rather not need them any other time!

A snowHead

Drove from Munich airport on 2nd Jan. Can you not drive in a oner from Rotterdam? I did from Kaprun a few summers ago. On my 3 times driving the Authobans, they can get seriously rammed. Took us 5 hours from Munich to Kappl alone this year due to horrednous jams (should have taken 3). It is motorway the whole way until you reach Landeck, then around 20-25 mins up the Panznaun valley to Kappl - only at that point would I imagine that you would need the chains as the main routes were spotless even though snowing reasonably heavilly on or way there.
What hotel are you staying at? We really loved Kappl. I would be tempted to buy the local pass only as the skiing is so good in Kappl for the family. It's around €50 per head cheaper.

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Sollophonic,
We are going the same week though driving from Munich and have been for the last three years.
I don't know the route from Karlsruhe though most of the routes are big roads and kept clear. The Fernpass is highish but busy and has never required snowchains in our visits. The road up form Landeck has never been a problem on our visits inspite of some snow. The resort is rather spread out or at least the accommodation that is marketed by Kappl their are quite a few outlying hamlets some of them up steep roads. We have got by wioth snow tyres on our rental car but chains may well be useful if it snows in the resort.
It is the big Dutch holiday as well as Fasching for the Germans the roads will be VERY busy expect lots of queues.
There will also be big queues for lift passes in Ischgl on the saturday morning if you are going there, Kappl is not so bad. Galtur is even quieter but if as the forecat suggests it is cold this is the coldest spot.
Have a great holiday.

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We drove to soll for our hols last week. Got the ferry on Thursday and drove all day Friday on traffic free roads eventually got to soll at 3pm. On our return the following Saturday at about 4 pm those same traffic free roads seemed to be clogged all the way from Munich to the alps. It was all skiing traffic as every other car had a roof box. That traffic would of added a good few hours to anyones journey. Stopping at karlshrue on Friday will still leave a lot of driving on the Saturday so be aware of the potential traffic.

As for snow, on the whole the roads were kept clear and we saw many snowploughs. A few sections of motorway did sometimes get snowed over and down to one lane but luckily for us they soon cleared up. I had snow tyres fitted and am so glad that I did. I would not consider this journey without them.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Sollophonic, this coming weekend is the beginning of the Half Term holidays for Bavaria and Saarland, none of the other German states have the week off. However, a lot of Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and the Scandinavians are also on holiday. Couple that with the increasing number of eastern French who are turning to Austria and Switzerland for their skiing, the roads will be busy. The traffic problems will start from mid-day on Friday as the schools finish then and many families will set off then. The second wave will start clogging up the roads here in Bavaria on Saturday morning.

There will not be the weather problems that you have had in the UK unless we get some very bad snow storms, but the sheer volume of traffic could cause hold-ups. Due to roadworks I would not advise you to drive down as far as Karlsruhe but to turn on to the A6 (Mannheim - Heilbronn) and then link across on to the A7. To be honest you should do everything to avoid the A8 (Karlsruhe - Munich) on a transfer day as it is mostly 2-lanes once you pass Pforzheim and has numerous roadworks where they are gradually widening it to 3-lanes.

I would then play it by ear as to whether to stay on the A7 right down to Füssen and use the Fern Pass route, or to use the A96 to Bregenz and get to Landeck via the St Anton tunnel. Although a longer route if the weather is poor, it is more likely to be kept flowing. The A7/Fern Pass route is frequently clogged in bad weather and the hold ups can be considerable.

Are you using a Sat-Nav with TMC? If you are then maybe weigh up the odds accordingly. Otherwise on the hour and half-hour SWR3 and Bayern 3/Antenne Bayern give fairly accurate traffic reports. Listen for the place names if your German is a bit weak. The important words are STAU (traffic jam) RICHTUNG (followed by the name of a town) mean in the direction of .

Have a good trip wink

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Does anyone think it might be worth be worth heading towards the Luxembourg direction and coming via the west? Sounds like the German routes will be pretty busy. IME the problem seems to lie with the fact that there only seems a couple of major routes into Austria from Germany and they get extremely busy with all the Dutch and Germans

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

boabski, Not coming down from Rotterdam it isn't as the route is not that good. Far better to get into Germany and on to their motorway network. For all its problems with volume of traffic, it is still better than the Belgium system and drivers! Toofy Grin

It is a good idea if coming from Calais/Boulogne/Dunkirk as you can avoid paying for motorways in France that way. Once in Germany you will, if you only stick to the autobahns, probably end up in a traffic jam if it is a change-over day and/or bad weather. There are only 3 motorway routes really going south into Austria and they are major trans-European routes for freight as well.

wink

After all it is free

Weve got an apartment in Kappl, for the week, on a street called Mehren near a church, and apparently just a quick ski down to the gondola. So were looking forward to it. We have to pick up some skis on the Saturday, and probably get our lift passes at the same time.

Doing the journey in two stages, because we have two kids with us, who tolerate long journeys, but not too much. We picked Karlsruhe as on the map it seemed to be a good halfway-ish stop and after overnighting on the ferry on Thursday, we will have another break there. If were going to get caught in traffic, to me its better to have a break, than try to do it in one slog. I'd rather have two days of 4 hour journeys taking 6 hours, than a single stretch 7 hour journey taking 12 hours or so.

We also like our stopovers and the motel were stopping at is cheap enough.

My sister in law is doing it in one slog, 4 in a car, with one driver only!!! Shocked

Think I might take that advice about avoiding the A8, but we have booked a room in Karlsruhe, and I doubt we'd find another one at this short notice. When we leave Karlsruhe we'll get over to the A7 if it looks packed.

I dont have a fancy sat nav, just a TomTom. If it snows here in the Uk over the next few days, I might try and get a bit of practice in driving with the chains too. We dont have winter tyres on our car, (though if our winters get harsher, I will likely be getting a couple of spare wheels with winter tyres on).

Thanks for the tips, guys, I'll print this page out before I go.

Karlsruhe can be variable. I've seen jams and I've sailed straight through many times.
Since you're staying over there, my main recommendation is that when you get on to the A8 (Karlsruhe-Pforzheim-Stuttgart), then get in fast lane asap. It's 2 lane around Pforzheim, with trucks clogging up the slow lane, especially on the many hills. Fast lane will not be 200kmh Porsches and Mercs along that section. Be careful when it opens up to 3 lanes, because the trucks want to overtake uphill in the middle lane at 0.0001km/h faster than those in the slow lane.
Once on A7 (and A96?), it should be foot-down time.

As for weather... I just drove Frankfurt-Munich in snow, with one section at 70kph behind a snowplough. Then I drove back and it was totally clear, but stuck to about 110-120kph in fog. No snow here at the moment, but that may change.

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Sollophonic, You can buy your lift passes in sports shops, or certainly Toms (?) Sports Shop - might save you waiting in the queues on Sunday morning for passes. You'll love Kappl - great ski area with fun park etc on upper half of hill to keep your 13 year old amused.
Wee tip - the Sunny Mountain restaurant gets absolutely crammed at lunchtime. A short ski down the hill is the Bockalm (?) which is more rustic and queiter. To avoid using the Tbar back up the hill (if some of teh ski party are not great on them), you simply ski down a little and take the covered magic carpet back up the hill to the chair lift.
Think you'll be quite close to the Schaffstahl which is a good wee apres ski venue and the kids favoured hot chocolate. The apres ski bar at the foot of the slopes beside the gondola is better though, although will involve a walk back up the hill/taxi/bus to get back to your appartment.

PS You might want to check out other threads in here about winter tyres in Austria before you head off. Serious business not having the correct tyres in Austria Exclamation

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Boabski. I was hoping that having a set of chains would be sufficient. Ihavent got the time (or the cash) to fit a set of winter tyres to my car at this late stage. A set of winter tyres for my car would set me back almost the cost of flying there!

Mind you the tyres on my car are useless in any kind of snow, so I may use the chains more on this trip than I thought

Ive practiced fitting them, so its no problem with that, I could do with a go at driving in them I suppose.

snow reports

We drove this past Saturday from Ischgl to MUC - no probs....They had just received about 12 - 13 cm of snow that evening. Got up at 6:00 AM and the roads were pretty clear. The Highways were just wet and the valley area was plowed and salted even at the time of the day.

It took our bus 7 1/2 hours to get to Munich from Ischgl on Sat Jan 31st.We Missed our flights at Memmingen as did most of the Passengers so everyone had to reebook flights in Munich later that night.We still dont know what happened.We were told one of the lanes in the German side of the tunnel was closed and caused 5 hour tailbacks.The journey from memmingen to Ischgl the previous week only took 2 1/2 hours.

You know it makes sense.

Chick, We flew back from Memmingem on 9th Jan and took 2.5 hours but would imagine that the problem would have been at Bregenz (?) as the AFAIK is the tunnel that links Germany and Austria and is only one lane each way and was held up there for around 20/30 mins when we were there. Looks like they are doing work to the tunnel but is a complete pain in the ar5e, as I've been caught with the same tunnel coming from Friedrichshafen to St Anton.
Innsbruck is without doubt the best airport for western Austria - I've never had any traffic issues when using it (around 7/8 times). Just a pity I'be got to pay nearly £300 for flight from Scotland to get there Crying or Very sad

Are you listening Stellios?

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

BOABSKI, There are no flights to Innsbruck from Ireland so i think the next time we go to western Austria we will fly to Salzburg even if it is longer.Ischgl is by far best all-round resort ive skied. Must do a trip report soon before the memory goes.

A snowHead

Chick, Friends of mine left Zell am See on the 30th at 08:00am to catch a flight from Munich at 13:30 - they missed it! It was a nightmare in every direction that particular day due to heavy snow and idiots trying to push through. Loads of accidents all over the place. As far as I could see and hear ALL the major routes out of Tirol and Salzburgerland were snarled up badly that day. From what I remember of the reports that day it was sheer volume of traffic in both directions combined with snowfall and some accidents. The Fender Tunnel is always a problem in those conditions. They probably closed the section where the accident took place and used what they call "Blockanfertigung" - means they use one tunnel and alternate blocks of traffic through that tunnel.

I was monitoring the radio and on-line reports for my friends and trying to help them get round some of the worse ones. For example I saw very early on (06:00) that the Saalfelden/Lofer/Bad Reichenhall road was closed due to avalanche risk on the German side which would cause no end of problems on a road with few options to overtake or turn around at the closed section. I directed them on to the A10 Tauernautobahn and they took 4 hours to get from St Johann im Pongau to Hallein, a distance of about 30kms. The Inntal autobahn was also backed up in both directions from Rosenheim to Kufstein and beyond most of the day as well (it was again this past weekend and will be for sure this coming one).

When it messes up here it messes up big time - that's why we locals have loads of back routes we use in the major holiday periods so we can avoid our autobahns but still manage to drive from A to B without spending the whole day looking at the bumper of some tourist trying to cope on summer tyres! rolling eyes

Sue

A snowHead

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

Does anyone think that it might be easier (less traffic) coming from Dunkerque to Obertauern by travelling down on Friday night and arriving early Saturday morning.

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griffterski, yes you could be lucky and you get an extra day's skiing as well if you are up to it!

There will still be quite a lot of traffic on the roads though. Use the Belgium (Dunkirk to Lille, then Tournai - Mons - Charleroi - Namur - Luxembourg) route as it is well lit and relatively quiet at night. In Luxembourg you can fill up at the Service Stations at a cheaper price than any where else on route. I now use the signposted route towards Germany (Saarbrücken) as it avoids all the tolls between Metz and Strasbourg. There is a small section of ordinary road towards Metzig but it is a fast road and you rejoin the A8 very quickly, especially at night. Once in Austria no problems as the Austrians have banned all HGV transits between 22:00 and 06:00.

I always fill up at the Tesco near Ashford then by driving steadily rather than flat out, I only need to top up at Luxembourg in order to get me down to the Austrian border (where I live) without needing to top up at German prices. If you do feel the need then try and drop off the motorway and go to one of the Autohofs (they are signposted off the autobahns). They are mainly truck stop type places where the prices are not as high as the motorway service areas. They are mostly very close to the autobahns as well.

I and my family use this route several times a year in all seasons without any headaches and usually over night during the week. We rarely if ever travel at weekends and if we have to we always choose to drive overnight.

Sue wink

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Departure date coming soon, snow forecast in resort looks good.

Cant wait.

Just treated the car to some new full strength screenwash!!!!

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Samerberg Sue, That's a great help, thanks. I'll try your route though slightly different to the michelin guide it always helps if someone has actually done it. 1'st time skiing in Austria for 25 years, I can't wait.

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

After all it is free

pam w, nothing grim at all about the trip at all - I do it alone several times a year as does my sister. The problem is as with all the Alpine areas is that the original poster is travelling this weekend. Travelling to and from any of the major Alpine areas in February is the pits at the weekend. Combine that with the possibility of bad weather, it does not matter where you are going, there are likely to be hold-ups. We are due snow today through to Friday, but currently they are saying that Saturday will be clear! Schau ma' mal!

Normally Kappl is dead easy to reach as the Austrians are excellent at keeping roads clear and moving.

griffterski, enjoy Obertauern, the snow currently is fantastic. Once you return to Austria, every where else will dim in comparison in terms of the welcome you receive and the services provided. Take it easy on the roads and obey the speed limits displayed, there are no laws about having speed cameras visible in Germany and the Belgiums can be fussy about their 130kmh limit. Both countries can ask you to pay on the spot as do the Austrians, especially with tourists. rolling eyes

Mind you the Belgium Strassenwacht (motorway police) tend to be tucked up in their beds by about 02:00am and I've often belted through at way over the limit with no worries in the wee small hours! Laughing

Samerberg Sue, We are heading down from Dunkerque to Zillertal overnight Friday night/Saturday morning. I hope to get past Munich before the traffic snarls up too much, but if it grinds to halt is there a sensible alternative to sitting stationary on the A93/A12? What is the minor road along the Inntal like? (Fully kitted up with winter tyres and chains, and very familiarwith driving in snow so promise not to cause problems for the locals Toofy Grin

)

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RobinS,

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RobinS, if it is snarled up drop off the A8 at Bad Aibling/Bad Feilnbach (Junction AFTER the Irschenberg) and follow the signs to Brannenburg via Bad Feilenbach (i.e turn right at the exit road) to Brannenburg.

From Brannenburg follow signs to Nußdorf (on the opposite side of the River Inn and the autobahn). You can then follow the road south on the eastern bank of the river which is used mostly by locals. The ordinary road on the other side (Brannenburg to Keifersfelden) is a real rat-run and clogs up easily if the A93 is full. The eastern side route goes through some lovely villages (Nußdorf, Erl, Neideraudorf and on to Kufstein) where you could stop for a break if you wanted to or to pick up some brekkies!

At Kufstein you can choose if you want to return to the A12 (you'll need a Vignette - 7.90€ for 10 days) or stay on the B171. That is rather slow going to be honest and if the A12 is clear why not use it to get to Zillertal earlier and with less hassle.

Good luck

Just seen that Sara has posted another alternative - to be honest at night I would not choose that route, plus being the start of the Bavarian Half Term it will fill with locals looking to ski at Christlalm for the day quite early on and there are few opportunities to overtake any coaches etc.

If you are over the Irschenberg by about 08:00 you probably won't have any problems. Forecast is currently giving a 70% chance of light snowfall over Friday/Saturday night. Most Munich skiers leave between 06:00 and 08:00 if they are going for a day trip. The weekenders/10-dayers will be have already set out on Friday afternoon/evening.

Sue

snow reports

Inntal autobahn from Innsbruck to Kufstein was totally jammed for virtually the entire length last Saturday. Plus of course the usual jam near Irchenberg. Never ever stop there for fuel imho, unless you want to pay €0.30 per litre more than the Austrian side of the border and wait in a queue of 5+ cars to get to the pump.
We (Talltone + I) tried the B171, but of course it was jammed at Wörgl too. Once past that it was steady driving to Kufstein, and although we could see traffic moving on autobahn, the moment we turned back on it was stopped again. And for some reason the extra hard shoulder lane was not operational either on the German section.

edit: maybe someone might know the answer to this... On the overhead gantries in Austria with the (usually 100kmh speedlimit signs), what does "IG-L" mean?

You know it makes sense.

Sollophonic,

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

A snowHead

Samerberg Sue, SaraJ, Thanks for the info - have looked at the map and filed away the alternatives for use if needed!

A snowHead

Help!!

Driving to Kappl for 1/2 term, whats the weather like in Germany/Aus

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