Went to St Johann skiing this winter and really enjoyed it – was pleasantly surprised by the prices too. Just wondering if there are any good resorts for biking with uplift and marked trails etc or would you be better going for a guided operation?

Can anyone recommend anywhere?

A few years back we went to Kaprun on a mtn biking & walking holiday, and whilst it was OK for biking (in a very Germanic fireroad-ish way), I think we really needed a guide to find the best trails. During our second week, we hired a car and toured about a bit, and on the last day (& without bikes of course!), found Saalbach Hinterglemm, which looked very nice.

http://www.saalbach.com/en/summer/the-valley-of-games/biking.html

If you’re into more gnarly stuff, I think there’s also a well established ‘bikepark’ type resort nearby (can’t remember name), and it has proper lift assisted freeride type runs. Oh…edit, the resort is Leogang.

(I’d taken my XC race bike with me and when I asked in the LBS about trails at the latter resort, I was told that ‘your bike iss too veak for here, Ja?!’ 😀 )

st johann in tirol?

there are plenty of parks in the Eastern Reich. what do you want to ride? park? trails?

leogang/saalbach/hinterglemm (three areas joined up via lifts to make one big area) is good and offers lots of man-made stuff as well as natural trails.

Ischgl is another good spot. more trailsy than park, but lots of lift assisted riding and you can drop over the border into CH for a ride.

there is a small park, recently opened, near Innsbruck. also Wagrain, albeit also more of a day trip than a holiday destination

generally the Austrians have a pretty good attitude towards MTBing.

how about a trans Austria ride? set off from one spot and ride to another taking in all the best bits and using the lifts where possible?

Been to a few Austrian places like St Johann which market themselves as mountain biking areas. Nice enough `tourist’ ambles through the valley, but if you are expecting Morzine thrills or VVT type marked singletrack up in the mountains i’m not so sure.

(I’d taken my XC race bike with me and when I asked in the LBS about trails at the latter resort, I was told that ‘your bike iss too veak for here, Ja?!’ )

lol, thanks I’ll check that out. Wow Salbaach looks great from the pics on that site.

st johann in tirol?

there are plenty of parks in the Eastern Reich. what do you want to ride? park? trails?

Yeah was in St Johann in Tirol – quote liked the area but it doesn’t have to be around there. I seem to remember Kitzbuhel touted itself as a biking place but I couldn’t find much info on it.

Ischgl is another good spot. more trailsy than park, but lots of lift assisted riding and you can drop over the border into CH for a ride.

Yeah that sounds good.

Would ideally like a nice mixture of some bike park/uplift stuff with some nice flowy xc singletrack, all either waymarked or with decent guide books available. Moon on a stick would be nice too. 🙂

how about a trans Austria ride? set off from one spot and ride to another taking in all the best bits and using the lifts where possible?

Sounds awesome but I don’t think I’m fit enough really – road trip might be good though.

if you’re not that fit then use the lifts/don’t ride so far each day.

50km ride – up 1000hm (2 hours), down, back up and down. bed.

That does sound quite appealing – sort me out a route please. 😉

Anyone else got any experience of Austrian resorts for biking?

I went to Kitzbuhel a couple of years back. There’s plenty to go at, but not in a P-d-S waymarked kind of way. This means you’ll have nice quiet trails and no lift queues, but you’ll need a map.

I was in St Johann in Tyrol for a cheap package holiday week in the summer a couple of years back.

I did two days guided bike hire, one with a UK-led company operating out of Kitzbuhel, who I think I got the details about on here, and another that I booked through a tourist office in St Johann, run by locals, that operated out of the nearby resort of Going.

In both cases I ended up being led in mixed-ability groups of middle-aged Swiss and Germans who were happy just pootling up and down fire roads and tame, tarmacked cycle trails along the valley floor.

The one in Kitzbuhel was OK, the one in Going was crap. The guide from the place in Kitzbuhel took us on a bit of what you’d consider “proper” Alpine off-road trails.

Felt very short-changed by the company from Going, who never showed me anything I couldn’t have found myself from tourist maps and signposts.

So beware of what you’re signing up for if you arrange any local guiding ad hoc upon arrival.

I have been to Leogang many times. Excellent downhill/freeride trails. Cross country is there in abundance. small village great people.

Thanks again folks. Seems like Leogang could be a winner. Quite fancy dong some hiking too which I assume there must be plenty of round there?

Is there actually anything to do in Leogang, apres-ride? When I visited, there didn’t appear to be anything there at all.

I can recommend staying at Spielberghaus. Amazing place, cheap, friendly, great food. Good local knowledge on the trails and can sort you out with the lift pass too.

http://www.spielberghaus.at/

I started mtb’ing properly in Kitz with Mountain Edge, and been going there for a week for the intervening 3 years. But now feel i need more challenging stuff so Ischgl seems the next step and it’s marketing itself as a bike-friendly place (Kitz is more elderly-rambler orientated imho).
Check out… Ischgl bikesite

Have ridden in Saalbach Hinterglemm quite a bit. Superb. A lovely ride over down into Leogang too. Some true great trails round there with some wonderful “downhill single track” to be had. When I ride there I tend to enjoy the “off piste” trails quite a bit. I started just looking for routes up to mountain peaks having to sometimes carry the bike quite a bit…i nearly always find a fun route down….
There are the more classic wide DH routes and trails in Saalbach, Hinterglemm and Leogang..there is even some small but interesting “n.shore” runs not far from Saalbach(ask locals), swell as all the big Leogang runs

Ah managed to miss these replies, cheers. Saalbach looks really nice actually.

Stayed in Pension Enzian in Saalbach in March, nice comfy place with decent food run by English couple. Definitely want to go back to ride and the chap who ran it Kevin was raving about the biking there. Seems linking Saalbach/Hinterglemm and Leogang would give you a pretty big area to go at. World Champs up the road in leogang this year too.