Hi folks
Well I made it safely from Niederau and I will be writing my report shortly, when the ferry in my head has stopped swaying!
I am a bit nervous writing this report because it will be full of contradictions because of the nature of what we wanted out of the holiday so I will try to do it in sections rather than one big splurge.
I am also worried that my negatives will have me shot down in flames, but hey ho we cant all have the same opinion as what would be the point of a forum.
anyway just thought I would stick my head in and let you know reports to follow
Karen
Back from Niederau today
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Started by Karen72 in Austria 23-Feb-2009 - 133 Replies
Karen72 posted Feb-2009
Edited 1 time. Last update at 23-Feb-2009
AJ
reply to 'Back from Niederau today' posted Feb-2009
Karen just tell it how it was for you and your family.We all have our like`s and dislike`s.Look`s like you had some cracking weather.
AJ Adele
AJ Adele
Karen72
reply to 'Back from Niederau today' posted Feb-2009
ok I will start with the ski school
Please bear in mind that this was during HALF TERM!
We got a place with ski school with no trouble. First day was very hectic and seemed very disorganised and was absolutely jam packed with kids. After half a day both kids were crying saying they hated it, youngest (8) didnt want to ski the rest of the holiday and the oldest was crying because he had a heaache and hated it and "this is the worst holiday ever"!!
By the afternoon when I persuaded them to go back to the ski school the instructors took the kids on to the slope itsleves using the side step up the mountain (so no ski lift pass needed on day one) By the end of the afternoon they had had a great time and were converts!!! kids.....how fickle!!lol
Hubby was also in ski school and had a good day (also did not need a lift pass on day one).
So rather than drone on I will tell you what the positives and negatives were:
Positives: kids instructor was very very patient (they couldnt pay enough to do that job! - must have the patience of a saint!)
was very knowledgeable.
Kids loved the race (this cost an extra 5 euro per child to enter) and jack won gold and luke won silver, although everyone got a medal and was made to feel special.
Negatives: (again this problaby only applies somewhat becuase of half term) - kids spent a long time at the top of button lifts or tbars waiting for the rest of the group and the teacher to arrive. There was no other teachers so they were not supervised and at one point they were throwing themseves on top of each other from the tbar at the top of 23 while the teacher was at the bottom waiting for the rest of the group. They were also left to their own devices whilst going up on the gondala for the first time. My sons went up with no adult in the gondala and he said the other boys in the group were trying to open the doors and trying to swing the gondala and jumping up and down in it!
Because of the length of the button lifts at the bottom on the nursery slopes most of the time was wasted queing for the lift than was actually spent being taught doing anything. at one point I counted 11 people wide by 10 people deep at the button lift. It took antyhing from about 10 ,mins to about 25 mins to wait for the button lift, I think that the children in ski school should be able to jump the queue. Some schools did it (espcially the ones with the orange jumpers and the kids with the yellow bibs on) but the reds just seemed to use the queing system, which as I pointed out meant that the ones who like to shove in get on first while the more polite ones end up at the back, which makes everyone else have to wait at the top unsupervised.
If this was not during term time, I would have no hesitation in putting them with the red ski school. My main complaint was down to sheer volume of people, although I do think that the issue of children being unsupervised going up on the gondala needs adressing, along with being able to q jump when lifts are busy.
Please bear in mind that this was during HALF TERM!
We got a place with ski school with no trouble. First day was very hectic and seemed very disorganised and was absolutely jam packed with kids. After half a day both kids were crying saying they hated it, youngest (8) didnt want to ski the rest of the holiday and the oldest was crying because he had a heaache and hated it and "this is the worst holiday ever"!!
By the afternoon when I persuaded them to go back to the ski school the instructors took the kids on to the slope itsleves using the side step up the mountain (so no ski lift pass needed on day one) By the end of the afternoon they had had a great time and were converts!!! kids.....how fickle!!lol
Hubby was also in ski school and had a good day (also did not need a lift pass on day one).
So rather than drone on I will tell you what the positives and negatives were:
Positives: kids instructor was very very patient (they couldnt pay enough to do that job! - must have the patience of a saint!)
was very knowledgeable.
Kids loved the race (this cost an extra 5 euro per child to enter) and jack won gold and luke won silver, although everyone got a medal and was made to feel special.
Negatives: (again this problaby only applies somewhat becuase of half term) - kids spent a long time at the top of button lifts or tbars waiting for the rest of the group and the teacher to arrive. There was no other teachers so they were not supervised and at one point they were throwing themseves on top of each other from the tbar at the top of 23 while the teacher was at the bottom waiting for the rest of the group. They were also left to their own devices whilst going up on the gondala for the first time. My sons went up with no adult in the gondala and he said the other boys in the group were trying to open the doors and trying to swing the gondala and jumping up and down in it!
Because of the length of the button lifts at the bottom on the nursery slopes most of the time was wasted queing for the lift than was actually spent being taught doing anything. at one point I counted 11 people wide by 10 people deep at the button lift. It took antyhing from about 10 ,mins to about 25 mins to wait for the button lift, I think that the children in ski school should be able to jump the queue. Some schools did it (espcially the ones with the orange jumpers and the kids with the yellow bibs on) but the reds just seemed to use the queing system, which as I pointed out meant that the ones who like to shove in get on first while the more polite ones end up at the back, which makes everyone else have to wait at the top unsupervised.
If this was not during term time, I would have no hesitation in putting them with the red ski school. My main complaint was down to sheer volume of people, although I do think that the issue of children being unsupervised going up on the gondala needs adressing, along with being able to q jump when lifts are busy.
Karen72
reply to 'Back from Niederau today' posted Feb-2009
From my perspective as an intermediate skier.
I found it very limiting. I would say that this is more a resort for good intermediates definitley not for beginners. I took my nephew (who was one week out of ski school who could snow plough turn and nearly paralell turn) down red 24 and then down onto 19 (so from top to bottom) and it took him over 45 mins to get past the bit which merges with the black (where if you look up the slope it is black and down the slope it is red). I myself found this very scary and the conditions were very good. I personally like an area where I can cruise nice easy routes without too much effort and just keep skiing from one different lift to another, but with Niederau you are limited to a couple of lifts and after we had a massive dump of snow red 24 (or was it 23) became more like mogul city because of all the powder and I found it hard to turn. Also again because of the volume of people it made it harder for to come down as you could identify a place to turn then a ski school overtake you and swamp the area.
I also found the resort itself very hard work. there seemed to be a lot of areas where you had to shove and push yourself to almost like a cross country ski. especailly at the top of the gondala and even the run to the gondala from thetop of red 24 (or 23 I cant remember) even with the best racing stance, you ended up having to push and heave yourself back along.
I would have loved to ski the long blue run to the right of the gondala but the only way down I could see was down a steep red run which run into rd 19 (unless you clip you skis off and heave yourself about 50 metres back up to the gondala)
On saying that for our first holiday, for the requirements we wanted out of our holiday (a place for kids and hubby to see if they liked skiing and for me to get back into it - which I felt was like riding a bike!) it was ideal. Mainly for the locaton of the button lifts (I could keep an eye on the kids if I needed to - whcih by the way I didnt, I had complete faith in the instructor which is good news for me as I am a bit of a control freak.
The only thing that let it down was the amount of people. They say they are expecting the same amount of people this week too.
If we go skiing again (whcih I think this could be a yearly thing for us now) I would pick a big area like the ski welt, or somewhere that covers a vast area of tree lined easy blues for crusing and I would definitly not go in shcool holidays.
I found it very limiting. I would say that this is more a resort for good intermediates definitley not for beginners. I took my nephew (who was one week out of ski school who could snow plough turn and nearly paralell turn) down red 24 and then down onto 19 (so from top to bottom) and it took him over 45 mins to get past the bit which merges with the black (where if you look up the slope it is black and down the slope it is red). I myself found this very scary and the conditions were very good. I personally like an area where I can cruise nice easy routes without too much effort and just keep skiing from one different lift to another, but with Niederau you are limited to a couple of lifts and after we had a massive dump of snow red 24 (or was it 23) became more like mogul city because of all the powder and I found it hard to turn. Also again because of the volume of people it made it harder for to come down as you could identify a place to turn then a ski school overtake you and swamp the area.
I also found the resort itself very hard work. there seemed to be a lot of areas where you had to shove and push yourself to almost like a cross country ski. especailly at the top of the gondala and even the run to the gondala from thetop of red 24 (or 23 I cant remember) even with the best racing stance, you ended up having to push and heave yourself back along.
I would have loved to ski the long blue run to the right of the gondala but the only way down I could see was down a steep red run which run into rd 19 (unless you clip you skis off and heave yourself about 50 metres back up to the gondala)
On saying that for our first holiday, for the requirements we wanted out of our holiday (a place for kids and hubby to see if they liked skiing and for me to get back into it - which I felt was like riding a bike!) it was ideal. Mainly for the locaton of the button lifts (I could keep an eye on the kids if I needed to - whcih by the way I didnt, I had complete faith in the instructor which is good news for me as I am a bit of a control freak.
The only thing that let it down was the amount of people. They say they are expecting the same amount of people this week too.
If we go skiing again (whcih I think this could be a yearly thing for us now) I would pick a big area like the ski welt, or somewhere that covers a vast area of tree lined easy blues for crusing and I would definitly not go in shcool holidays.
Karen72
reply to 'Back from Niederau today' posted Feb-2009
Nightlife.
Cant really say anything about nightlife as we didnt experience any (we werent looking for it)
Ski Hire
We used ski set and I could kick myself!
I went for the intermediate level for everyone (apart from the 2 kids). This cost more money. I wish I hadnt bothered as this was not even taken in to consideration. ONline I filled out a form with weight height etc and none of this information was given to Margareiter (or if it was they didnt use it, I had to fill out more forms)(inlcuding the fact I had paid more for intermediate skis) If I was hiring again from margareieter through ski set, even if I was advanced I would put down beginner skis and beginner boots as I had to fill out all the information again when I got there, which was handed to the ski man!. there was no difference made if you had ordered intermdeiate boots! I ended up with the tattiest pair in the shop which were the most comfortable ever! the people in Margareiter were very helpful.
They will keep your skis and boots and helmet overnight for 2 euro per person per day.
Cant really say anything about nightlife as we didnt experience any (we werent looking for it)
Ski Hire
We used ski set and I could kick myself!
I went for the intermediate level for everyone (apart from the 2 kids). This cost more money. I wish I hadnt bothered as this was not even taken in to consideration. ONline I filled out a form with weight height etc and none of this information was given to Margareiter (or if it was they didnt use it, I had to fill out more forms)(inlcuding the fact I had paid more for intermediate skis) If I was hiring again from margareieter through ski set, even if I was advanced I would put down beginner skis and beginner boots as I had to fill out all the information again when I got there, which was handed to the ski man!. there was no difference made if you had ordered intermdeiate boots! I ended up with the tattiest pair in the shop which were the most comfortable ever! the people in Margareiter were very helpful.
They will keep your skis and boots and helmet overnight for 2 euro per person per day.
Edited 1 time. Last update at 23-Feb-2009
Karen72
reply to 'Back from Niederau today' posted Feb-2009
Snow Chains.
I know some of you will remember the debate that was stirred up with snow chains. Well just to let you know that my £20 snow chains from ebay worked a treat and had we not had them we would not have made it up the hill to Niederau! or out of the car park of the apartments!.
I know some of you will remember the debate that was stirred up with snow chains. Well just to let you know that my £20 snow chains from ebay worked a treat and had we not had them we would not have made it up the hill to Niederau! or out of the car park of the apartments!.
Karen72
reply to 'Back from Niederau today' posted Feb-2009
I cant think of anything else but thought I would receommend the aparments that we stayed at.
They were called the Alpenhof. They were in a great location and were spotless. They were brilliant.
Here is the link if you want to take a look
http://www.tirol.at/at/guide/146619sy,en,SCH1/objectId,ACC852075at,_area,771572,_lang,en,curr,EUR,season,at2,selectedEntry,home/home.html
I have told the owner Lisa that she must come onto this website so she might join us.
karen
They were called the Alpenhof. They were in a great location and were spotless. They were brilliant.
Here is the link if you want to take a look
http://www.tirol.at/at/guide/146619sy,en,SCH1/objectId,ACC852075at,_area,771572,_lang,en,curr,EUR,season,at2,selectedEntry,home/home.html
I have told the owner Lisa that she must come onto this website so she might join us.
karen
AJ
reply to 'Back from Niederau today' posted Feb-2009
So overall karen it sounds like you all had a fab weeks skiing, Will you be doing it all over again ? I BET YOU WILL BE.
AJ Adele
AJ Adele
Topic last updated on 11-March-2009 at 09:23