 Poster: A snowHead
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Hello all,
Recently asked a few questions on this and got some welcome replies.
Just a few days to go and getting excited for my first trip of the year. Unlike other trips in the past this won't be a 5-day bender as I'm taking my 11-yo son and my pal with his 14-yo is coming along now as well.
Will be picking up a car at Munich and driving to Soll. It looks like the weather is turning in our favour in the next few days so whilst having the car gives us the option of going elsewhere, I'm keen to keep to the original plan and go to Soll this year.
Accomodation is not sorted, but I dont have a problem with that. The tourist office has provided some late room offers that I will phone later, but if I can't find anything I'll wait until we get there and look around the tourist offices in Soll, or other nearby resorts like Westendorf. Prefer Soll due to the night skiing and tobogganing for the kids.
So my questions to you Skiwelt locals and lovers are
1) Anyone have any recommendations for hidden accomodation that may not have appeared through the tourist office and that might have some rooms?
2) Recommendations on things to do with the kids apart from the daily skiing/boarding that they will enjoy?
3) Good places to eat for adults and kids?
4) My main concern (which I enquired about previously) - getting back to Munich from Soll on Sunday afternoon - I'm a bit worried about the traffic heading back to Munich and don't want to miss our 9pm flight! (Samerberg Sue on this one?!)
Thank you all!
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Tue 1-03-11 15:58; edited 4 times in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Gilbern74, re 4) I came back from Zell on a sunday night two weeks ago and the traffic was terrible - the taxi driver had to do a mother-and-father of all detours as the motorway was solid. I think there might have been a accident though - but it took us 3.75 hours.
In Scheffau I like the Gasthof Wilder Kaiser - handy for the gondola, not so handy for the nightlife, but as you've got a car...
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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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Gilbern74, I think Samerburg Sue is away on a paragliding jaunt to South Africa. You may wish to PM some of the local SkiWelt SnowHeads such as heidiky. I'm sure they'll help you out.......
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Also, meant to say........it might be worth checking direct with the Hotel Gansleit - I stayed there a few years ago and it's run by a wonderful Anglo-Austrian family.....
http://www.gansleit.com
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Timberwolf, Good idea, Gansleit is lovely
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heidiky, whoops 
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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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Timberwolf, Arrgh christ, bloody slow internet always posting twice. Sorry guys!!
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Hey thanks for the replies. Very interesting.
As red 27 mentioned, I'm certainly put off by the reports of long delays driving back. Its not the traffic that bothers me as I intend to leave Soll around 17:00 for a 21:30 flight back from Munich, which realistically gives me 3.5 hrs to get there including check-in (although we have hand-luggage only) which I don't think is too bad considering Red had delays and took 3.75 hrs.
But I do have a plan B now - since my compadre doesn't fly back until monday, I could leave him the car and get the train back myself - priced at a paultry €19 for both myself and my son one-way from Kafstein to Munich airport. Even so, the train for that departs at 17:24. But with the added benefit of arriving in plenty of time (at 18:55!). I'll leave that decision until nearer the time I think, and maybe ask in the resort.
I've fired off an email to the Gansleit - thanks for the nod - it certainly is top of the reviews, and as such I dont expect it to have any rooms but I'll keep my fingers crossed!
heidiky, Can you recommend any routes that will be good for 2 kids, one a skier and one a boarder, both with a couple of weeks basic training under their belts? We'd like to cover as much terrain as possible with them, starting on the nursery slopes on Thursday until they get their wings, and then heading out to the wilds with them (blue runs!). I have downloaded and printed the skiwelt map but it looks too messy to be able to plan anything now. Maybe you have somewhere we could head for on the first/second day with some good easy runs (for the boys!) back to town?
Thanks again for all your advice!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Gilbern74, If you have the car, head to Ellmau or maybe Scheffau. There's much more blue/easyier red terrain up the top of these than there is in Soll. Once they feel good up there then getting in and out of Soll will be a doddle. The piste map can be very confusing, not the greatest I'm afraid. If you're out and about just use the yellow signs to guide you round. The best blue run in Soll is on the Salvenmoos chair (no.47) then onto the 46(rinner) and 44 (stockl). The boarder will probably find the nursery slope too flat, as will the skier if they've got a week or two behind them 
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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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I use Google map to home in a place in Ski Welt and then type B&B or hotel or pension. That works for just about everywhere in the Alps for staying in Austria, Italy, Switzrerland and France for me in the last 5 years. Same for skiing in USA. You check out the facilities of the hotels but the first port of call is Google Map as you know how close the accommodation to the chairlifts.
My brother after learning my experience has done several trips flying to Munich, hire a car and ski the AUstria and Italy this way. He is now in SKi Amade with the family. He stayed near Westendorf and I stayed in Ellmau when we skied Ski Welt in different years.
In our experience we have opted to leave the evening of the last skiing day and stay overnight in Munich. It is a more relaxing trip this way. Munich has been pretty bad in recent years but I was told nearly all the road work has completed. I passed it about a month ago, driving from Amsterdam to Stubai Glacier, and no jam at all but it was around 8:30pm though.
For my money I would leave Ski Welt at about 3pm for a 9pm flight. The weather, road acciodents etc cannot be planned.
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You know it makes sense.
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| saikee wrote: |
| For my money I would leave Ski Welt at about 3pm for a 9pm flight. The weather, road acciodents etc cannot be planned. |
Also bear in mind that Munich airport is a relatively pleasant place to pass a couple of hours with a couple of nice restaurants - not like being stuck in Grenoble or some such pit of hell
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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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4)
Leave Söll at 3:30pm and you will avoid a lot of the traffic. I have not had more than an hour delay in about 20 trips back to Munich from this region on Sunday evenings though.
Hopfgarten Berglift railway station is just across the car park from the cable car station at Hopfgarten if that helps.
Terminal 2 at Munich airport is much better than Terminal 1 (where Easyjet fly from). Better choice of places to sit and eat and a supermarket too.
I've stayed in Hopfgarten, last minute, on the far side of the village which is less popular because of the distance to the cable car.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Gansleit is a great place.... I'm heading there again on Saturday via the Munich/Kufstein train route.... Can't Wait.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Gansleit is a great place.... I'm heading there again on Saturday via the Munich/Kufstein train route.... Can't Wait.
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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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findmeinthetara, welcome to snowheads, both times 
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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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findmeinthetara, snow's going to be perfect for you! Been dumping for days
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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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findmeinthetara, snow's going to be perfect for you! Been dumping for days
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Have a good time Gilbern74, if you do end up in Ellmau try this place to eat http://www.sporthotel-ellmau.com/en/hotel/ellmauer-alm.html the food was great.
I think the lads will be able to ski/board most of the area early in the week. There aren't many super tough runs, lots of enjoyable ones though. Myself and Jnr coped fine both having only one week under our belts (Jnr was in lessons all week, I had some private tuition).
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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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Gilbern74,
I don't know if you've sorted the details of your drive back, but I'd like to re-iterate the point about traffic.
Last year, we left Kitzbuhel at 5pm for a flight at 21.55. and I arrived at the terminal with only 5 min to spare before check-in closure. My friend lived in munich, i was his car. If I'd had to drop a hire car off, I would have missed the flight.
Traffic was just terribly heavy, no accident..
So with kids in tow, I'd leave earlier if I were you.
Good luck with the accommodation. With the new snow the skiwelt will be awesome. 
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Thanks Heidiky. Good to hear, been checking out a few Websites, starting to sound good...! We're all getting a bit giddy about coming out now...
Anyone know if the England v France game will be shown in any of the bars Sat afternoon?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Thanks once again to everyone who responded to my post above!
We had a great time start to finish. So glad we hired a car from Munich, I'll certainly be doing that again in the future. Hertz sorted us out (with an upgrade to the car I booked too) with an (almost) brand new Hyundai. Before I left the UK I bought the TomTom Western Europe app for my iPhone and all I can say is - how great are these things?!! I'd already done a Google map directions and printed that off, but we would never have followed it without getting lost somewhere along the way!
So we got from Munich to Soll last Thursday without any problems and in about 1hr 20m without stopping.
First thing to do was find accomodation. Result in the first place we went to!! This was the hotel 'Rubin' almost directly opposite the Gondola. Ernest sorted us out.
It had the Red Horse bar beneath it and the guys and girls there were fantastic, as well as spoiling us for sports coverage on the multitude of TVs in there (Many thanks to Greg, Lisa, Kerry John etc... for making us feel welcome and the supply of Jagermeister!)
We next got our skis/boards and passes sorted out. Another result - I got brand new Saloman Mission boots, and an upgrade on my skis to brand new Kastle MX78's (160) - a fantastic pair of skis that suited me down to the ground.
So we got a few runs in on the first afternoon, keeping to the blues taking us back down to Soll just to give the boys some confidence as they hadn't been on snow for about 3 years. They soon got their wings and had few problems making it down.
The first evening we went for some night skiing. A bit tougher for th boys as these were a bit steeper reds. Nevertheless they showed some courage and did fantastic getting all the way down a couple of times. In at the deep end for them really but it paid dividends as they just got better throughout the trip. So great to see this when both kids had only ever skied/boarded for one week before!
The next day we drove to Scheffau and skiied most of the blues and some reds between there and Ellmau. Blue 80 was a favourite with the boys and we must have done that 5 or 6 times, getting the train back up which made it very speedy! That evening we discovered the tabogganing in Soll - what a great laugh! I admit to having had a few beers beforehand which heightened my competitiveness! It was so unexpectedly fast, bordering on dangerous (my friend 'took off' over one of the sides and hit a tree), but we raced and raced until we got cramp in our forearms (from trying to power-slide the corners!). We did this every day after that with insistance from the boys who were just as competitive as us dads!
The third and fourth day we skiied over the Brixen/Westendorf side. Very beautiful, sunny and warm over there and there was very little snow apart from on the well-kept pistes which were a little slushy nearing the end of the day. The pistes over there are nice and wide in most places.
Overall the weather was perfect. With the snowfall days before we got some decent powder to star with. Clear blue skies and sunshine for the first 3 days, with some small light flurries on Sunday, but not enough to top it up very well.
Getting back on Sunday was a doddle. I asked a few people we met there what they thought the traffic might be going back to Munich. I got mixed messages - some saying no problem, some saying leave early. In the end we departed just after 5pm and got to Munich airport just after 6.30pm with loads of time to spare before the 9.30pm flight back.
All-in-all a great trip!
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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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sounds like you had an OK time
Isn't the Ski Welt a brilliant area - one of my favs too. As for the journey, you made mighty good time to do it in an hour and 20!
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wow sounds like you had a wonderful trip.
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FAQ
most pubs do some food, pub austria has a decent menu.
