Hi, I'm after accommodation for 1 person 30/01 - 03/02 Zell am See

Morning all, it's getting late in the day, I've booked a flight after tagging on late with some friends and I'm struggling to find accommodation in Zell am See. They are near the centre.

Does anyone know of anywhere with a room or just a bed free for 4 nights 30/01-03/02???

Email me on thicket72@hotmail.com if you do!

Happy skiing everyone!!!! Cheers, Andy

Hi there. Austrian resorts and Zell have a reasonable amount of good and budget accommodation which is accessible to a solo traveller.

It's not often the case that you find this is affordable in Europe, you quite often have to pay 65 pounds per night for the most basic 2 star place (often read: 1 star) in the mountains at winter time, sometimes the one of the cheapest double rates, sometimes actually the single rate, but not far from the rate for pairs.

But you should be O.K. in Zell.

I managed to find a 4 star mountain lodge as a solo skiier which is charging me around 53 U.K. pounds per night half board, breakfast, 4 course dinner and also an afternoon snack. It's in the hills above Zell, but easy to get to by the ski bus, and is also ski-in, ski-out from the Zell am See pistes. I think it's a quite basic 4 star hotel, nice and comfortable, and has a good wellness hot rooms and water bed area. Der Schmittenhof (www.schmittenhof.at). Prices are really good for doubles, with only a 10 Euro per night supplement for singles in a double room. But most of the hotel is appartments, with a lesser part made up of rooms, so the rooms might be hard to get. You could try them anyway. I think it's about a 35 minute walk uphill late at night if coming back from Zell, or 5 minute taxi ride. Other times, there's a stop right outside on the Zell ski bus for going into / returning from Zell am See.

Although that place is acutally budget priced for a 4 star place at a 4 course H.B. rate (Central Zell better 3 stars and 4 stars go away beyond budget rates mentioned here), there are lots of much cheaper options in Zell, some basic guest houses and hotels, in the centre or 10 or so minutes walk from there, and a number have saunas at a low accommodation price. For example, Pension Klothilde, which is not far on foot from the very centre of Zell.

Check:

www.zellamsee.at

Look at Guest Houses particularly.

This is only in German. So if you don't understand, go to
www.google.co.uk
and type the whole address, www.zellamsee.at, in the Google search bar

Then click on 'Translate This Page' when the results for that page come up.

There are pages of cheap 3 Star Hotels at 35 Euros per night and even a bit less, some guesthouses and inns.

Good luck.

I've just seen the question is from last winter.

I hope the answer helps for those coming this winter.

Update -
the 4 star hotel - Der Schmittenhof - in Zell am See (really more or less in Schmittental, away up the hill from Zell) is SERIOUSLY NOT RECOMMENDED.

It's a new place, and though it looks nice, and there is nice food in the restaurant, and though the wellness place is good, it's far worse than Fawlty Towers.

God, they take everything possible and spoil it. I can't recommend anyone goes to this place - the staff are assaultive. They seem only to have been trained, and trained hard, really hard, in how exactly and continuously to spoil a person's holiday. Even things like a really nice wellness centre - basically a complex of saunas & steam rooms with a ice bucket - it is good. There is a jacuzzi in a different room, but you pay per half hour for that, where the sauna is complimentary - so the jacuzzi might be booked, and I don't know what it's like - I wouldn't let any more of my money change hands with those rogues. It is good BUT they mess it up by closing it completely on Saturday. You can't know just how much I was looking forward to that sauna on the Saturday of arrival.

I left my home in The U.K. around 5 a.m. and was travelling for over 12 hours - arriving at the (wrong) hotel (that they wrongly, illegally transferred me to for a few days) after 7.30 p.m., to be told the sauna never opens on a Saturday. This is the day of arrival - I guess so many people, like me, who aren't skiing that day, would really like the dinner they have booked and some time in the sauna before a late evening walk, maybe for drinks in the town. But it's "no, no, no, **** off, you just can't, no reason". If you are skiing, there was little time to take a sauna, because the half board dinner had short times, in the middle of the sauna opening times, and the servers at dinner were so incredibly slow - as if they were making sure you couldn't get a sauna, each day.

The same goes for the other little hotel, owned and run by the same people, down the hill towards Zell a bit, Die Martha (Landhaus Martha hotel). They claim that is also a 4 star hotel, but that's a complete joke. It's a 2 star hotel with some 3 star elements sparsely shoved in and some food you will like as it's rather good but not great.

These really hostile, incredibly arrogant people, shoved me around between these hotels, because they gave my booking away to someone else - they say, I don't know. Perhaps they sensed the disbelief on my face, perhaps it's their usual way of lying and getting more money by changing pepople between hotels - but they sudeenty started telling me exactly about the people who "had got [my] room". Bizarre? It brings insult to a new level. "It's a Russian couple". I didn't actually believe them when they told me that, for some reason. And then I didn't give in - I refused.

I cheered up quite a lot after a day or two of suffering the awful 2 star Landhaus Martha hotel, because I was looking forward to moving completely to some little pension I hoped to find from the tourist office in Zell, even with no sauna, and getting a refund. I knew it would mnake me happy. Suddenly, after complaining more and insinuating that I was going to move, the original room I had booked in The Schmittenhof annexe became "available", apparently I was to be aware that "The Russian couple have cancelled", a few days into the "booked week" (not mine obviously, I knew mine asn't a figment anyway). I had to forfeit my hot coffee to move, though, true to form in this fascist places. I came with a few minutes left for a breakfast, had poured my hot coffee, and a member of staff marched up to me saying I had to go at once to reception. I replied that I'd just poured my coffee into my cuop and it would get cold, but I was told it just could not wait - I must leave it and go at once. I missed any more hote coffee, after being told the originally booked room had "become available".

. The sauna in Die Martha only opened between 4 and 7 p.m., while dinner was served ebtween 6 and 7.30 - meaning that after skiing - say from 5.45 - you had less than an hour, and that was it daily, in the sauna. And that's everything positive that can be said about that other Fawlty Towers establishment they run - it's an older place those people have had there for a long time. I find it really hard to beleive they can have claimed that is a four star hotel for a long time, I wonder if they only started claiming that recently.

However my holiday got a lot better after Zell am See. I'd booked 5 nights in a pension near Kitzbuehel. Penson Foidl in the little village of Gundhabing, a place with gorgeous views. Pension Foidl had a suana - it was lovely the whole stay was great (all night serve yourself bar too) and I cheered up a lot and never want to return to Zell am See. Kitzbeuhel skiing is so much better than Zell am See also, though while at Zell there is the option of making it to Saalbach Hinterglemm - 35 mins. on the bus, quite cheap, from Zell station.

The Zell-Kaprun, great Europa sport region claim is a more than just a mite of an over adverisement also - as it can take half the day to get between Zell and Kaprun, the low part of Kaprun is only OK, and the Kitzsteinhorn glacier takes a long time to get up to, further.