Mayerhofen - possible first visit - help please!

A snowHead

Hi,

Our ski group for a good few years has been 8 - 10 adults and in the last few years a couple of little uns. This year a few people are having a year off and there are only 4 of us and no children.

We have favoured France for the last few years and been to Morzine the last 2 years and prior to that Chatel and Morillon. Prior to that we stayed in several of the Sella Ronda resorts.

We need to go the first week of March this year which puts France out of the picture so are thinking about Mayerhofen. We are lazy cruisy intermediates (and 1 boarder!) and like an easy day on the piste with the odd challenge followed by dinner and a few drinks and a couple of late nights thrown in. We are all around the 40ish mark age wise.

Would Mayerhofen suit us??

We've previously preferred DIY to TO so this would be my preference. Whats the easiest way to get there, flights to Innesbruck and than transfers from there? We need either 1 triple and 1 single room or 1 twin and 2 singles (3 girls and 1 guy going) so thinking an apartment would be best to avoid single supplements, any suggestions on accomodation?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks Smile

A snowHead

TO would be flights to Innsbruck, then the bus (although every time I've been, they get you out of the airport real quick, then sort you on to another bus for each specific resort).
DIY is probably best by getting local bus to Innsbruck Station, then train to Jenbach, then change on to Zillertalbahn railway.

Pretty decent size area, and don't forget that there's also Zillertal Arena and Hochzillertal areas, both of which are comparable in size, and also Hintertux, all on the same pass, and accessible by train/bus.

Only stayed at Neuhaus, which is right near the station. Almost certainly single supplements though, and probably booked out by TO's.

It's my choice of place to go to if/when I drive down for a weekend.

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

You can get a direct bus from Innsbruck to Mayrhofen.

By the sounds of it (lots of crusiy pistes and a few beers after) you would also love Saalbach, which is an easy bus from Salzburg airport. I've never skied in Mayrhofen (yet) though so can't compare the two.

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If location is important, and in Mayrhofen it is, then I can reccomend an apartment right beside the Penkenbahn with a triple and a double, both en suite. The price is good as well. PM me if you want put in touch.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Mayrhofen's great, but some people moan about getting the gondola in the morning - not sure why. The lifts start running at 8am so its easy to avoid the 15 minute queue if you don't mind an early start, or you can get the bus to the Horbergerbahn if it is bad.
Lots of cruisy reds with the odd steep bit - search for posts on here about the Harikiri.
It's a great base to explore the other resorts in the Zillertal - all covered by the lift pass and on public transport.
If flights are expensive to Insbruck, its an easy journey from Munich - 2 changes by train or there's 4 seasons taxi which is quite reasonable if there's a group of you.
Consider using one of the many B & Bs - might be cheaper than an apartment.

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To avoid the gondola queues at the end of the day, there's a ski route down to Finkenburg to get the bus.

When I was there a couple of years ago I stayed in a lovely little apartment right by the Ahorn lift (admittedly this is less convenient for the main Penkenbahn jobbie). It was owned by the sweetest old lady in the world who had a massive friendly St Bernard, made us home made lemonade and strudels, and gave me and Mrs. Technique some kind of "magic love stones" when we left.

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

I've been to Mayrhofen a couple of times now and can thoroughly recommend it, I think its a brilliant resort, especially if you're intermediates looking for cruisey runs. Be aware though that there's very few blue runs throughout the resort, it's mostly reds with a few blacks. I will temper that by noting that the reds are almost all wide, motorway type runs that are enormously enjoyable, but thought it best mentioning if "lazy" intermediates means you're looking for a lot of very easy runs.

In terms of the village Mayrhofen is pretty big in terms of ski resort size, so from the apres ski bars to night clubs you'll find plenty to keep you occupied. I've only stayed in the Strass hotel, which is right next to the Penken lift and is pretty huge, they had single, twin and triple rooms to choose from. Not sure where you'd start at looking for an apartment I'm afraid.

After all it is free

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We have stayed here on many occasions, central and reasonably priced.

http://www.tiscover.com/at/portal/accommodation/5,en,SCH1/objectId,ACC775391at,season,at1,selectedEntry,room/room.html

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George06, Top right, click on Send/Receive Messages. Then click on New Post and off you go. snowHead

You know it makes sense.

The other option is Munich - more choice of airlines. From there you can get to Mayrhofen fairly easily by train - though a change is needed (at Jenbach)
onto the little railway that runs up the Ziler Valley to Mayrhofen.

Alternatively, car hire would be fairly economical between four - and give you the flexibility of exploring the different ski areas of the valley without
hanging about for public transport.

We visited the Ziller Valley last March - you're spoiled for choice for ski areas and we were lucky enough to have powder every day on our 3 days
there.

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

Hi, For booking accommodation you might want to try Christophorus Reisen based in Mayrhofen. They act as agents for a number of the smaller hoteliers so could be worth a try
The Villa Strass right next door to the Penken is part of the hotel strass complex and provides a cheaper option than staying in the main part of the hotel. Other wise if you want a cheaper quieter village with good access into the lift system and close to the hintertux glacier then Finkenberg might be worth looking at.
Innsbruck definitely the best place to fly into and certain tour operatosrs can do transfer onlys which might be an option rather than hiring a car.

A snowHead

Just wondering, why does the first week in March put France out of the question? Not that I would ever try to dissuade you from going the Hof, one of my favourite places to drink, I mean ski Toofy Grin

A snowHead

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

Ghost Dog, maybe because he does not like paying an arm and a leg to stand in queues with loads of French and British half termers? Toofy Grin

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Half term is in February tho?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Ghost Dog, it doesn't put France out of the question, but in many French resorts the big majority of the skiers are French, so it's the French holidays, not the British ones, which you need to watch out for. The peak French school holiday period is staggered over four weeks , usually the last three weeks in February and the first in March (and on the week which coincides with the british half term, Britpack resorts are particularly busy, as are the roads down). I have an apartment in a French resort but I tend to leave for those 4 weeks. It's not ghastly - just not anything like as good as it is the rest of the time, where a lift queue is encountered about once every 3 days.

I think the same might go for Fasching in Austrian resorts - but I only know what I've read here. Until I had an apartment I only ever went skiing on the heapo cheapo first week of January. wink

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

Just booked a week in Mayrhofen (literally 10 mins ago) unfortunately its going to be from sat 19 feb so half term week, due to me doing an electrical course, its the only week i can go, so will expect it to be busy. However im really looking forward to it.

After all it is free

from what you have said mayrhofen sounds ideal for you- have a jaegerbomb in the ice bar for me Toofy Grin

daveqpr, I've been twice at New Year when it is at its busiest and when a couple of runs aren't open due to lack of snow, and although the Penken gondola queue was as bad as ever if you decided to arrive at 9am with all the rest of the sheep, Finkenberg had a 5 minute queue for 15 minutes, and outside of the peak time it was 30 seconds for all of the valley stations.

Once you are on the hill, there's more than enough space to fit in the number of people, and the maximum I ever had to queue for a standard lift was 2 minutes. The exception is the Tux150 cable car up from the main Penken area, where because of the design you have to wait for 5 minutes while the car travels, and at very busy times you may not get into the first car when you are queuing so it ends up being a 10 minute wait. However, you can avoid this completely, or if you do decide to use it, it's a once a day trip rather than at the end of every run.

Where you do need to be careful is with beginners - most of the tuition has moved to the Ahorn in recent years, as the amount of easy terrain on Penken is severely limited, and of the 3 blue runs, one is short and busy, and the others are long, busy, and narrow roadways which can turn into mini halfpipes at times.

Remember that Austria isn't as popular with UK skiers as it was, so the fact that it is half-term in the UK isn't really that relevant - sure, Crystal, Neilson & co all go to Mayrhofen, but you'll find that maybe 50% of the people on the hill are German or Austrian, 25% are Dutch, 15% are Polish or Russian, and most of the rest are from the UK. Weekends are busier as well, as a lot of people drive for a long weekend or as day trippers, so Mondays are generally the quietest day on the hill before the beginner ski schools are allowed out to play. Fasching is early March in 2011, so that's probably the second busiest time for them after New Year.

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Booked a nice little wedding anniversary long weekend trip to Mayrhofen next March (honeymooned there in June '95, always promised we'd go back in the winter). As MrsB is fairly new to skiing I was keen to make sure there were sufficient blues available. A swift search found the Mayrhofner-Bergbahnen website, and if you check on the skiing pages it actually gives some suggested circular piste routes for differing abilities of skier on both the Ahorn and Penken side (eg. for Penken follow this link: http://winter.mayrhofner-bergbahnen.com/en/100304/100316/rundenvorschlaege_penken_actionberg.html).

A circuit or 2 together, stop for a coffee and schnapps, then something a bit more demanding for me whilst my better half enjoys a second cup and soaks up the sun and the views (don't worry, I've already booked the weather: heavy snow week before and each night, waking to blue skies etc etc.); perhaps a bite to eat, and then repeat until we run out of time and have to go home.

No kids for 4 days...heaven! Aren't grandparents great??!

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Blunty, we did the XXL tour on our last day in Mayrhofen last year, it's a great way to see the whole ski area in a relatively short time. We didn't know how long it would take so headed off at first lifts but, even having stopped for a mid-morning coffee, we were all done by around 1 to 1.30ish to meet up with the rest of our friends for a spot of lunch.

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Remember to ski in Gerlos & Konigsleiten while you are there.

You know it makes sense.

Vogelnest's Tiroler Grostl, yum. 2 eggs please Smile

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

A snowHead

I recall skiing Red 5 late in the season and it turned into a green field half way down. Had to hop between patches of snow and grass.

But definitely remember it most for the Grostl mit Speigelei.

A snowHead

We were there in 2007, late Jan andone of our party sat in a cow pat. I had taken my skis off by then as they were mine.

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Mayerhofen - possible first visit - help please!

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