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This year, I have spent my skiing holidays at Schladming, a town in the Styria region, situated approx. 90 km from Salzburg and approx. 300 km from Vienna, Munich and Innsbruck.
Schladming has been voted by the Daily Mail to be Europe's best developed skiing resort. You will find a lot ... Read review
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Advantages: one of the best ski resorts in Europe Disadvantages: none that I am aware of
...and Innsbruck.
Schladming has been voted by the Daily Mail to be Europe's best developed skiing resort. You will find a lot of information on the Internet. Have a look at www.schladming.com!
ACCOMMODATION
You will find all types of accommodation in Schladming and in various price ranges, from first-class hotels to private rooms and self-catering appartments. Prices vary depending on the type of ... ...of the many ATMs in Schladming which accept Maestro, Cirrus, VISA, MasterCard) because unfortunately in this part of Austria, the acceptance of credit cards is not very widespread.
YOUR LICENSE TO SKI
Skiing vacations are not cheap. One element of costs is the ticket for the ski lifts in the region, which will cost you about 148 Euro (GBP 92) for six days, children pay 74 Euro (GBP 46). Credit cards are accepted ... more
I know that many people from the UK like to come skiing to Austria, most of them are going to famous places like St. Anton, Lech, Zurs or Kitzbuhel. There are, however, other and less crowded places which you might want to consider as well.
This year, I have spent my skiing holidays at Schladming, a town in the Styria region, situated approx. 90 km from Salzburg and approx. 300 km from Vienna, Munich and Innsbruck.
Schladming has been voted by the Daily Mail to be Europe's best developed skiing resort. You will find a lot of information on the Internet. Have a look at www.schladming.com!
ACCOMMODATION
You will find all types of accommodation in Schladming and in various price ranges, from first-class hotels to private rooms and self-catering appartments. Prices vary depending on the type of accommodation and on the season. We have actually chosen an appartment (for 4) this year, and we had to pay approx. 100 Euro per night (which is approx. GBP 62).
When you plan not to stay at one of the best hotels, then make sure you have enough cash with you (or get cash from one of the many ATMs in Schladming which accept Maestro, Cirrus, VISA, MasterCard) because unfortunately in this part of Austria, the acceptance of credit cards is not very widespread.
YOUR LICENSE TO SKI
Skiing vacations are not cheap. One element of costs is the ticket for the ski lifts in the region, which will cost you about 148 Euro (GBP 92) for six days, children pay 74 Euro (GBP 46). Credit cards are accepted for payment there.
With this ski pass, you have unlimited access to all the 90 ski lifts in the region inlcuding some cable railways and many chairlifts (for 2, 4 and - most recently - for 6).
The area is quite large, and it is also called the Four-mountains-Ski-Swing because you can actually go by ski from one mountain to the next without having to take the bus in between. These four mountains are: Planai, Hochwurzen, Reiteralm and Hauser Kaibling.
From being on those mountains, you can enjoy a magnificent view of the Dachstein massif, one of the highest mountains in Austria.
EQUIPMENT AND COURSES
Of course, you can rent your ski equipment (including ski boots) in one of the many sport shops in Schladming. For a week, you have to pay approx. 100 Euro (GBP 62), and this could be for the conventional skiing equipment, for carving skis, as well as for snowboarding equipment.
If you need some professional help, you may choose to have your own private lectures (this will cost approx. 138 Euro per day (GBP 86), or you simply join one of the courses in one of the ski or snowboard schools. Prices for a five-day course are approx. 109 Euro (GBP 68) respectively 116 Euro (GBP 72) for a snowboard course.
As I said already, it's not cheap.
EVENTS
They offer a lot of different events in Schladming for all the guests. First of all, you should attend the welcome show on Sunday night in the olympic stadium in Schladming (they had special olympics here a few years ago, but Schladming is also well-known for the annual world cup night slalom).
At this show, you will see demonstrations of the ski & snowboard schools, enjoy some music, and watch special events like a mountain biker going downhill on the snow, or a motocross racer moving the ski run upwards. At the end, the have nice fireworks.
For the famous Apres Ski at night, they also offer a lot in Schladming - good restaurants, pubs, bars, discos, night clubs etc.
SNOW GUARANTEE
Schladming give a 'guarantee' for snow to their guests, because they did install quite a number of those modern snowing machines along all the main runs on those four mountains, so that even in times with less natural snow (like this season), there is always enough snow to ski.
Or course, there are certain limitation depending on the temperature (these snowing machines will not work at temperatures of more than +8 degrees celcius).
There are 160 km of skiing runs in the area, so this is plenty of space, and you don't have to go the same route every day, it will never get boaring.
For those of you who really are Ciao addicts, there is a Web cafe on the top of the Planai mountain, where you can actually surf the internet or send e-mails if you wish.
There are also a number of toboggan runs (available at night as well) in the area, and you can ski & snowboard in Schladming at night (with floodlight).
SUMMARY
Schladming is a nice place to go for skiing and it may be considered to be an alternative to better known and more crowded places.
I will certainly come here again next year for my skiing vacation.
Thanks a lot for reading. And if you have any specific questions, just let me know.
Advantages: great atmosphere, good runs, Disadvantages: accommodation can be tight
...and something that has won Schladming a lot of plaudits. The night slalom is spectacular, as I witnessed in 1998, and the atmoshpere is great.
The skiing in the Planai is excellent, with the lifts going upto about 1900m, the village of Schladming itself being at 750m above sealevel. There are over 100km of pistes, which are served by approximately 50 lifts. Of course if there is an exceptional mild winter, the snow can be not as good as if say you ... ...not for a weekend.
Schladming is very easy to get to, with regular train services either from Salzburg (sometimes direct, sometimes having to change at Bischofshofen) or from Wien and Graz, having to change in St Michael. Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) have a special ticket for skiiers, which includes discounts on skipasses, called Wedelweiss. This is typical of the cooperation between the railways and ski resorts, and a further initiative has ...
Morgenhund 19.01.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Schladming
Advantages: Great high-mileage skiing with Amade liftpass Disadvantages: Quiet nightlife on non world-cup weeks
We went to Schladming twice already, once in 2001 and again in 2003.
The town is in upper Styria (Obersteiermark), but is actually nearer to the well-known resorts of Salzburg (Zell Am See, Abtenau, etc.) than the provincial capital of Steiermark which is Graz in the south. Schlamding (or Schladders as my friends now call it) is about a.5 hours from Salazburg airport, and you can make this journey by train or car, but the best option is the planaibus, ... ...airport direct to the town.
This town really has a life outside skiing, ther eis some industry, and numerous businesses unrelated to tourism, so you don't get the contrived feeling that you can in some ski resorts. It's not a typical Austrian village though, it's definitely a town in terms of size and character, although it's by no means big.
The skiing is on 4 mountains, the Planai, which is reached fmro the centre of town, the Hochwurzen, where ...
DeliaS 15.10.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Schladming
Advantages: Good food, good skiing for beginers and intermediates. Disadvantages: quite low altitude
My first ever skiing holiday was two weeks in Schladming. Although 14 years ago I still have some great memories. This may be a case of rose tinted spectacles and the fact that the snow conditions were amazing but I remember that the ski school was excellent with some very exciting skiing even for novices (like sampling off piste and through the woods!). Being a budget holiday the accomadation was a basic B&B pension with not much choice for breakfast. ... ...night and sample a variety of the local restaurants which by and large were excellent. One memorable night was spent at Uncle Willies Hut. This mountain restaurant organises a weekly Austrian evening, which is not part of the tour operastors events so is more representative of true Austrian hospitality: loads of saur kraut, half a pigs leg and plenty of schnaps (but the head in the morning!) ...
BigCheese 07.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Schladming
Advantages: Very pretty traditional resort Disadvantages: Possibly a bit too quiet
...month we went skiing to Schladming and were really lucky with the snow, lots and lots of it.
The resort basically offers four linked mountain areas with north facing slopes. When we visited there were no real lift queues anywhere, partly due to the fact that we had missed the school half term holidays and partly due the efficient network and operation of the ski lift system.
The village of Schladming dates from 1322 and is a real working town with ... ...ski run. Apparently the great Alberto Tomba and Hermann Maier are regual visitors.
Schladming was about an hour and a half transfer from Salzburg (well worth visiting in its own right). There is plenty of skiing available for beginners and intermediates but real experts might be a bit disappointed. ...
Mikew79 03.04.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Schladming
Value for Money
Sightseeing
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around
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