As per the title really, recomend me a good resort in Austria with a fun nightlife and a good spread of runs from blue to black as we are a group of mixed abilities!

So far I’m thinking St Anton or Mayrhofen

Cheers

Austrian nightlife is generally pretty good but St Anton takes it to the next level. Best Apres ski anywhere. Its a good ski/boarding resort, too. A great mix of runs. TBH any of the bigger Austrian resorts would fit the bill but St Anton is great

The ‘Hof is a good bet if you are after good Apres Ski. Very common to end up doing the conga round the bar with 30 pissed Germans, all still in full ski gear at midnight. IME. 🙂

Its got to be St Anton really! The Moosewirt is the ultimate in Apres!

Another option though is Saalbach-Hinterglemm. Some really good apres places there and a good mix of terrain. A little quieter and probably cheaper than St Anton too.

St anton is good Mayrhofen is better, masses of terrain at both but with the added bonus of being able to go to hintertux from the Hof is well worth it.

Austria is probably my favourite country to ride in everywhere I have been has been great.]

Bad Gastein is sick.

It’s not unusual to see folk trudging home in skiboots as the lifts are OPENING in the morning in St Anton. Yeah I guess you could call that “fun nightlife”.

St Anton is maybe a bit poor for less able skiers. If they’re only up to blues then they might be a bit limited for choice. Quite a bit of the easy stuff if basically just pisted doubletrack. More capable skiers will love it though.
There’s a saying about the resorts in that area that goes something like “You take your wife to Lech, your mistress to Zürs and your skis to St Anton”

Mayrhofen might fit the needs of a mixed ability group better. Its still got plenty of nightlife.

Ischgl is about as good as it gets IMHO though, for striking a good balance to suit everybody.

Kitzbuhel should be on your shortlist too.

St Johann in Tirol is not bad either but maybe a bit quieter at night… depends just how ‘ardcore you want your nightlife.

Bad Gastein is sick.

yes very funny… apologies for using skateboarder talk.

I shall stick to the queens English from now on. 😉

I shall stick to the queens English from now on.

Queen’s English dear boy. 😉

I like Saalbach near Zell Am See. Love area, and good night life, went twice this year staying in Pension Enzian, which I can highly reccomend.

+1 for Zell forgot how rad, er… jolly good, that place is.

Austrian resort nightlife generally pisses all over any other resorts in Europe (although, that’s not saying much).

I’m a fan of Mayerhofen and St Anton.

If you want awesome nightlife though………don’t expect it on a skiing holiday 😀

Zell was great both for nightlife and being just so damn pretty. The frozen lake is a thing of wonder. Will always have happy memories from there as it’s the place I ditched skis and finally “got” snowboarding. 🙂

Mayrhofen – definitely no problem for nightlife. Didn’t really like it the last time I was there though – but yep, it’s certainly lively.

Cheers guys, not after a mad mad nightlife, just somthing that is a bit lively! Its still very much a skiing holiday first and foremost! Went to La Plangne last year and where we awere there was practically no night life.

Its looking very much like a choice between St Anton, Mayrhofen and Zell, looked at Kitzbul but didn’t seem to have the same number of runs as elsewhere.

St Anton again

Great night life and great skiing.

This is the place I always stay. It’s ski in/ski out, though it is on the black run….

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g608663-d595095-Reviews-Pension_Enzian-Saalbach_Hinterglemm_Austrian_Alps.html

The reviews are justified. Been there 5 times now, twice in teh wonter, and 3 times in the summer. If your lucky they might have a room free.

I absolutely HATED the queues at Mayrhofen.

St Anton had great skiing, lots of bars and clubs if you like that sort of thing. The number of people who just stop skiing at 330pm, start drinking, then ski down the final slope (pissed, in the dark)to the town is staggering. As were they.

happy memories from there as it’s the place I ditched skis and finally “got” snowboarding.

good lad 😉

I absolutely HATED the queues at Mayrhofen.

Kinda how I felt about it – but didn’t want to be too “anti” 🙂

Well, apart from the bloody queues for every lift, I got lost on a mountain, my wife broke her wrist and I missed the bus and had to walk miles carrying my board. So I haven’t got the fondest memories of the place!

Another +1 for Zell am See/Kaprun.

More than enough bars and restaurants in Zell to keep you going to different ones for a week if you want, snow-sure glacier skiing in neighbouring Kaprun, which is on a linked lift pass, spectacular views out over the lake from everywhere.

Hmm interesting about Mayrhofen, begining to lean St Anton way, guessing you can also ski Lech etc around there for a day as well.

I absolutely HATED the queues at Mayrhofen.

Queue like a German. Everyone else does.

We were there before they sorted out the line and barriers at the Penkenbahn. It’s much more British civilised now.

It used to just be a huge free-for-all scrum of several hundred people trying to squeeze through one door. We were in a fairly large group so our preferred technique was to form a phalanx, women and children in the middle, big guys on the outside with boards held vertically to form the shield wall. 😀

Had a great time in March at Kaprun

St Anton is great. When we were there though, we tended to ride at the outlying areas (Stuben, Rendl, Zurs) rather than in St Anton itself. Nightlife was great, but slopes were very busy and, to be honest, not great – a bit broken-up and bitty. The other areas we rode at were awesome though, one of my best snowboard trips ever.

Am I right in thinking that the Arlberg ski pass gives you access to all those? Is it a bus ride there rather than a ski over? If so roughly how long?

Sorry for all the questions!

Cheers

Tracey – nice ‘deodorant advert pose’ 😉

I’ve loved Austria on the last 2 holidays but found Kaprun very quiet and I think the skiing boarding would be a bit limited/unexciting if there isn’t lots of good snow.Also enjoyed Kirchberg but again, quiet.

Haven’t been to either of the OP’s choices – how do apres prices compare to other Austrian areas?

Getting a bit excited at the prospect of going already. 🙂

cardiff – yes, you can get an Arlberg pass which covers all the areas. You can ski (or walk!) over to Rendl from St Anton – depends which end of town you’re staying. For the other areas, you need to get a bus. These are very cheap (free with ski pass?) and easy enough to use.

Spent most of our time on the Kitzsteinhorn glacier

Ellmau is also nice.

Austria is always my first choice for Europe.

I guess we should have asked you a few questions before jumping into recommendations as the answers might change what fits best:

1. When are you going and for how long?
2. How are you travelling? Will you have cars?
3. Do you need to hire gear?
4. Do you want lessons?
5. Mixed abilities… from-to and where in-between do the majority lie?
6. Any boarders? (That are beyond redemption)

Only problem with mayerhofen queue’s is if you dont beat the tourist bus influx, other than that no real queue problems

problem with mayerhofen queues

can usually be avoided if you have the option of using access points other than the main Penkenbahn gondola. Finkenburg for example does not suffer the same crowds IMHO. Penkenbahn is a bottleneck, the capacity on the rest of the resort is pretty good once you’re past it or can avoid it.

[edit] main objective in any resort is to be on the first gondola in the morning and on the last gondola at night. Maximum utilisation 😀 If you snooze… you lose [/edit]

On the negative side, Mayrhofen in peak season is crawling with Brits, something I’d rather avoid where possible. 🙁

main objective in any resort is to be on the first gondola in the morning and on the last gondola at night still on the mountain when the last lift shuts but the bars are still open. Maximum utilisation If you snooze… you lose

Fixed 🙂

nickjb, ^^^^ I can’t argue with that. 😀

nickjb, Ecky-Thump, I always aim to be on the last lift to the highest point I can ski home from ensuring maximum snow time. I would then ideally ski home to a large vin chaud and possibly something cheese based.

But then I go on a skiing holiday to ski all hours I can rather than party.

Never been to St Anton, so can’t give a comparison. But I can say that Maryhofen is excellent.

“You can ski (or walk!) over to Rendl from St Anton”

The new Rendl gondola starts in the centre.

Been to ST Anton, TBH it did not live upto my expectations. its ok but there are places i would rather go back to 1st. I found the pistes to be pretty uninspiring. The off piste iteneray routes were very good though. Much prefer Val disere over ST Anton as far as big resorts go.

A cracking resort in Austria for mixed group abilities is Obertauern. Big enough for a week, plenty of varied terrain for all standards of skiers (also there blues are a little easyer than the St Anton counterparts for poorer skiers in the group) Nightlife is there if you want it, but again its not all out party everywhere like ST Anton can be. The partys there if you want it, but in select places (luzer Alm for e.g) as opposed to all over the town. St anton just felt a bit too 18-30 for me. I like a beer and a sing along etc but i am mainley there to ski. So partying from 3pm to 1am aint for me, a few apres ski pints and shots at 4-7pm s enough for me…..im getting old now at 35 😆

Obertauren is also not really on the radar of the brits (mainley Germans and locals go there)So you do feel as your in Austria as opposed to a ski version of Blackpool