Back from Niederau today

ParalyticSkiCrazie wrote:It was nice to see sun on the nursery slopes - there was none when I was there! Having just come back from St Martin in the 3V my husband has said that he will categorically NOT go anywhere else. Loads of on piste accommadation (cheap too if booked with tourist board or local Immobilier). Lovely village atmosphere, lots of sun during the day and access to the largest ski area in the world. Jerusalem Run (often cited as THE best run in 3V) on your doorstep...Paradise :lol:

Hi paralyticskicrazie, we are looking to go to this area beginning of April. Can you give me an idea of where you stayed and how much it costs? We have had 2 weeks in Austria already and thought we might like to try France for that week.

thx in anticipation

Hi All

I have just got back from Niederau,and had a excellent time.It was my forth time Skiinng,and my girlfriend 3.The ski school was very proffesional.There was enough runs there for both our experince,she ski reds by the end of the week and i did a few blacks.The queues were not to bad apart from very rude and badly behaved kids.There are not many if any nice smooth blues.And if your looking for miles and miles of different runs you wont find it in Niederau.But in my opinion its a very nice little village with nice people and good skiing.If its good enough the Austrian ski team to practice there its good enough for me.
Cheers Chris

thanks chris im heading there next sat looking forward to it

I have just thought of something else about the pistes. We had quite a bit of snow and in one day it dumped quite a bit. however, this had a massive impact on the runs and not in a good way. it made the run seem like i was skiing through moguls and on steep red i found it difficult to turn because the snow was so thick in places (which was made even worse when you add the volume of people). I dont think the piste bashers even touched the run because it was like that for a couple of days after that dump. Great if you like powder skiing but not so great if you are a bit nervouse down steep runs. I am not really sure why the runs werent groomed. I dont know if it is because they do it through the day and they couldnt access because of all the people or if it was done through the night but they couldnt keep on top of the amount of snow.

Niderau is just not a "cruise" around type of place but I am not going to bang on about it, just wanted to let you know. I just hope my post helps people to avoid the place at peak times, EDIT ON! "IE FEB HALF TERM AS ALREADY MENTIONED IN FIRST POSTS! "EDIT OFF! it sounds like it is ok other times in terms of lift queues.

I also thought it be useful to give you an idea of some prices for things

a pint of beer approx 3 euro
a plate of chips 2euro 50
a pizza (absolutely delish from the pizza place beside gondola - milanos?) 7 euros
a chicken burger 4 euro
a beef burger 4 euro
a glass of coke 2 euro


A basic frozen pizza from Adeg shop which was very nice 2 euro. In fact the Spar and the Adeg shop were very reasonable if you were self catering. we took a lot of stuff with us but it really wasnt necessary.

cost of keeping your skis, poles, boots and helmet at Margreiter shop overnight - priceless - no actually it was 2 euros per day, buy 5 days get 6th day free

taxi for 5 to Oberau was 16 euro from taxi place opposite Adeg shop. we gave the driver a 20 and said to keep the change and he was absolutely overwhelmed! bless him!
I cant remember how much the sledging was for 2 adults and 3 children in Oberau for 1 hour, I think it cost in total something like 36 euros, i cant remember, sorry if I have repeated this.

Hope this is helpful

karen72 wrote:Niderau is just not a "cruise" around type of place but I am not going to bang on about it, just wanted to let you know. I just hope my post helps people to avoid the place at peak times, it sounds like it is ok other times in terms of lift queues.

Hi Karen

I don't think it's right to discourage people as you have above. From what I've read I think your complaints are not niederau specific, they're feb half term specific and complaints that you'd have had in hundreds of resorts in the alps at that time of year. There are a couple of other people on here that went at half term and loved it.

On another note, the piste bashers were busy every night when I was there, I loved watching them from the Auhof. Never complain about too much snow :D :D :D

[for the record, I had a fab time in n and loved it. I wouldn't consider myself a niederau-ite though so don't think I'm being unreasonably over protective, just trying to counter the balance :mrgreen:]

that is why I have reiterated in every post that my quarms were feb half term specific. I am fully aware that had I gone the week before that it would have been a different case. This has also been a reason why I would never do half term again as I know that it is not just Niederau that would be busy, but all places.

There was noone off this forum that was in Niederau during the week that I was there, I know there were people there after and before, I guess we were just unlucky. even one of the ski school guys was saying how quite it had been the week before we arrived.

We still enjoyed our week looking back on it but there are definite changes I would make, but that is down to personal preference and I suppose we all have to find out one way or the other what we all like. If we were all the same and had the same opinion it would be boring

I accept that. I do find this hard to swallow though:

karen72 wrote:I just hope my post helps people to avoid the place at peak times, it sounds like it is ok other times in terms of lift queues.

We have a family run business and if someone was suggesting to people to go elsewhere on a monday (our busiest day) a lot of people would be very unhappy about it.

Covering the point about piste machine grooming. The machines start off up the mountain at 4.30pm/4.45pm. They work until about 1.00am, depending upon how much work needs carrying out.

When there are big dumps of snow, by morning, the snow lies deep over the prepared surface. The first skiers, (those staying in hotels at the top of the mountain), hit the slopes by 8.00am, followed by those on the first Gondola, at 9.00am.

By the time the 10.00am skiers arrive, there is a degree of choppy snow.

This is the same as in any other ski resort.

It would not be safe to put piste machines up the mountain during skiing time, at least on a regular basis. There may be a specific or technical needs to do so, on the odd occasion. I have seen this happen in some North American resorts, but the runs were closed during the process.