I live in Vienna, Austria, and I enjoy travelling (especially to England and Scotland). --> See ...
I live in Vienna, Austria, and I enjoy travelling (especially to England and Scotland). --> See my detailed profile for more <--
Member since:16.02.2001
Reviews:39
Members who trust:72
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-cateringappartments. 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.
Michael
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Mar 18th, 2001
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