Visiting Austria early 2022

Hi fellow skiers.
Just back from spending Xmas in Austrian Alps, so some advice if you manage to navigate all the rip off covid tests etc to get into Austria, then get back into the uk. All of which I have to say seem totally rediculous given that France and other EU countries now have higher covid transmissions than the UK, and within Schengen you can more or less travel freely.
Anyway, rant over. What we found though was the vast majority of places (but not all) will no longer accept credit or debit card payments for anything under 40 euros, instead insisting on cash. You can draw your own conclusions on the reason for this, but I would advise that you take plenty of cash as it's costly to draw cash once across there. Also prices have gone up considerably in bars and restaurants, I guess this is to make up for the missed season in 2021.
Most places relating to skiing insist on evidence of 3 jabs as a condition of entry and bars etc are currently either closed or close by 10pm, so apre is VERY quiet. FFP2 masks are compulsory in gondolas and anywhere indoors. Slopes were very quiet though, so skiing was fab.
If you do manage to make it you will enjoy the skiing.

Hi DougR,lovely to hear you had a skiing holiday in. I'd like to rant about testing for returning back to UK but will have to accept it is what is... We had fantastic 2 weeks skiing in Lech, 13-27 Dec & that's all what matters.

Great weather & snow conditions and quiet slopes until Christmas Eve. It was raining in the village then! (& little new snow higher up). It was getting busier from Christmas Day onwards and our hotel filled up with mainly the German tourists by 26th.

We too noticed that the prices had gone up but thought that is what to expect in Lech (always been more expensive compared to some other Austrian resorts). Had no problem paying with card except one mountain hut/restaurant above Stuben but even they started to take card payments after the 24th.
Suppose it depends on the area if they accept cards for a smaller amounts.

They were very strict about wearing a right type of face masks on the lifts, saw quite a few people being told off by the lift operators.


We had easy entry to the country on 13th Dec but understand Austria has tightened their entry rules since.

Getting back from Innsbruck to UK was ok. They checked that you had filled in Passenger locator form, had your pre-travel 48h test certificate & Covid vaccination pass in the queue waiting to be checked-in.
Coming through Manchester airport via e-gates on 27th Dec nobody checked anything, thought day 2 PCR testing is widely open to fraud. Was thinking that if you knew the commercial test provider's booking reference format could easily put that in the Passenger locator form.

We are self-isolating now at home waiting for the PCR test result. It's raining outside and I'm missing snow, skiing, sunshine.

Happy New Year and a new ski season to all... hopefully the things will get better in 2022!

We were thinking to drive to Austria in January but with all the new rules and restrictions in France, Holland and Germany I'm not sure if it is possible. Can anybody share their experience please

Sorry, can't help you with driving advice. We live in NE England, so driving to Austria is not really an economical option for us.
Only thing I would say is that we have found booking a package has given us the best protection in the current climate. We were able to transfer all of last seasons bookings to this season with a discount and if it gets really bad again we can cancel and get a full refund.
Wish we had the option of driving though.
Good luck.

merry wrote:We were thinking to drive to Austria in January but with all the new rules and restrictions in France, Holland and Germany I'm not sure if it is possible. Can anybody share their experience please

Hi merry, we are supposed to be driving to Austria first week of Feb and I have to say I am getting a little nervous about it right now. If France stays the same, our only alternate would be the Harwich - Hook of Holland ferry, but that is only two departures a day and the times don't really work for a decent arrival in resort. Currently cannot stop overnight in Germany as we had planned, and I have read elsewhere that the Austrians are checking people on the borders, which will also make getting a valid 48 PCR awkward. Looks like we would have to pay top rates to get one just as we depart in order to still be valid on arrival.

I am seriously looking at the possibility of flying right now.

Would love to hear what you decide and if you go ahead how it works out please. Good luck.

The news is Germany is lifting the travel band on 4th of Jan.
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-12-30/germany-to-lift-uk-travel-ban
Let's see if France will change the rules. I am not so hopeful that Austria will remove the requirement for a PCR test soon. Let's wait and see.

I'm in a large party going to Solden, Austria at the end of Jan. The current requirement is a negative PCR within 48 hours. Does anyone know whether that means 48 hours at the time we land, or get to the resort?

copper809 wrote:I'm in a large party going to Solden, Austria at the end of Jan. The current requirement is a negative PCR within 48 hours. Does anyone know whether that means 48 hours at the time we land, or get to the resort?

"a negative PCR test taken less than 48h before the time of entry to Austria."
https://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/austrian-embassy-london/travelling-to-austria/coronavirus-covid-19-and-travel-abroad/