J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Dave Mac

Well done with the booking.

Ski School. Standard opinion among J2Skiers is strongly in favour of the Red ski school. I would make contact just now, although I don't know if they man the emails in summer. The email address is: ski.schule@tirol.com, tel no 05339 2200. You can let them know your requirements. The first day nursery area is normally all in one area, so the classes will normally be in one of three adjacent fields. As has been said before, you talk to the childrens' instructor, and make arrangements as to where they will be at lunch/finishing time.


Lift pass ~ the ski school or instructor will advise on your requirements. There is only one wildschoenau pass, but you are unlikely to go out of Niederau for skiing, unless there is a weather reason to go to Auffach.

Your accomodation should provide you with a visitor card and this will get you access to the ski-bus.

Why don't you ask the ski school if there is a combi price for school/pass/skihire?

Note, there is an Austrian tax of 1 Euro pp per day, although this may have been included in your apartment cost.

Go to Austria or Italy, not France or Switzerland. Daily living costs are much cheaper.
If approaching Senior age, go to Austria, lift pass reductions start 5 years earlier than France or Switzerland.
If going to a resort for 2 weeks or more, check out the season lift pass cost. Usually same or even cheaper.
Look for accomodation close to an outlying T bar, almost always cheaper.
Take an apple and a sandwich tucked into your jacket pocket. Eat on the gondola, cheaper, and you get more skiing in.
If you go to the same resort every year, leave your skis there.
Get accomodation with a balcony. Great for sitting out with Supermarket wine/nibbles.
If in classes check the joint class/hire/pass deals.
Don't buy red salopettes.
In fact, don't buy any ski clothes, unless what you have has too many holes in.
If you hire skis, check out SKI SET.
If you have unused airmiles, hire your car with them. Unlike flights, there are no additional charges.
If you hire a car twice a year or more, get your excess insurance through insurance4carhire.
Always check with Tony H if you are paying too much for your package holiday!

OK, ferries, think through the logistics. Think about timing, when do you all sleep. Is the ferry an overnight and can the main driver sleep?

We have driven from Scotland to Niederau, with the view that we drive and sleep, as required. That is a bit different with younger ones.

You might check the ferry cancellation policy. Can you book and cancel at no/low cost?

Snow chains. There are laws in Austria and some other alpine countries, that if you go into mountain areas, you must have snow tyres or be carrying snow chains. You might check the AA website for the precise wording. You can hire snow chains in the Uk or abroad.

When you enter the Austrian motorway system, you are required to buy a vignette, £12-ish for 10 days. It is possible to drive through on standard roads without too much hassle.

You should also check the other requirements such as carrying yellow vests and first aid kits.

You will have insurance and breakdown costs.

Be careful about the order you do things. If you have flights, then most times you can book somewhere. I do agree that the ferry/drive is a lengthy journey, but it can be done.

Certainly, do not get yourself into a tizz, stay cool. Just keep your enquiries moving, and stay objective.

Have you talked to the schools, is keeping the kids out of school for a week a possibility?

Re the Oberau thing, you could stay at Oberau, 3km from Niederau, and catch the skibus each day to Niederau. You just have to be better organised. But I think that you could more easily find somewhere to stay at the edge of Niederau.

You should perhaps use multimap or google and get familiar with Niederau's layout.

Karen, a senior moment on my part, I had the ages of your young ones as 4,7,13. At 8 and 10, they would both go to childrens beginners class. It is still planed by the ski school to be good fun.

As I mentioned on your other thread, Easyjet only offer flights about 5 months ahead, so you won't be able to address this until Septemberish.

This will be further complicated by the fuel situation, and my guess is that even Easyjet will not know the price just yet.

You could get say three choices of accomodation, that meet all your criteria. At the end of August, re-contact and check availability. When the Easyjet flights appear, telephone the accomodations and check on availability, book your flights, book the accomodation.

Re the cost, have you checked the Newcastle Ferry routes/cost? Count on 10 hours drive from the coastal ports to Niederau, (two drivers) You can play "I spy" in several different languages.

Karen,

I agree with Adele about Auffach, and while Oberau is a really interesting village, (the Kellerwirt is over a 1000 years old) it has very limited skiing. Auffach would be good when your family are up to early intermediate stage. even then, stay in Niederau, and catch the ski bus to Auffach.

Not sure if you mean your budget is £500 per week, or if that figure is out of your range.

We are heading for Niederau in just over three weeks, and have booked an old 5 bedroom, 10 person house for 90 Euros a night ~ that is the house price. The four of us will rattle. Its high season winter 07/08 price was 125Eu per night. There are a few houses dotted about Niederau like this, but they do take some finding.

On the subject of ski instruction, the red school in Niederau is very friendly and well organised. I would put each member of your family in their own appropriate group, but explain both to your own instructor, and to the childrens instructor(s) that you are "together" and that you want to meet at lunchtime and after ski school.

The youngest one will be in kindergarten. This is a terrific way for to have fun on skis, and the 7 year old may also be there, or in a childrens ski class. Your OH can go into a beginners class. You will be capability-tested during the first half hour(one or two runs down a gentle slope), and put in a similar standard group.

There will be heaps of mums and dads with kids in classes, and the red school is very well organised on this. No child is ever left on their own.

Leather gloves Pav. Wow!

TK Max for you my lad. Good old fashioned thinsulate. Wear them for 6/8 seasons, then just when the thumbs are poking through, fix them with gaffer tape, thus extending the life for an extra two seasons. (After the first of these, my OH did offer a divorce)

Now they are gardening gloves, soon to be reduced to stone wall building gloves.

What do you think the Mink Oil might do for my gloves?

Another visit to TK Max due at the back end of this year......