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  2 of 5, "Austria needs snow!" 03/03/2008 @ 21:40:05 |
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| 2 members have given this review an average rating of 4 of 5 |
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| Revision #2 (Last edited: 03/03/2008 @ 22:12:32) |
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| Price Paid |
| too much £460 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Last minute.com |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Just got back from Niederau, well what can I say???? Got there on Saturday 23rd and you might have thought it was mid summer. The temperature was in the mid teens and lovely.....just a bit warm for a Winter Sports Holiday. Didn’t board on the Saturday as we (me and 3 mates) had a 6 day lift pass from the Sunday. We were supposed to be staying in the Harfenwirt Hotel, but got there and we were moved to the Sonnschein Hotel, which was a result as it was an upgrade to a 4 star hotel with a pool! It turns out the guy who owned the first place almost owns the whole town, his name is Hans and he plays the Harp! Nice guy :)
So anyway the snow or lack of it was a big slush puppy! In the morning it was Ice as the temperatures managed to hit Zero or close to it over night. By mid morning it was turning to slush, a bit of blue food dye and you could have sold the stuff for a nice profit. The slopes/hill in Niederau itself were pretty poor but there was some fun to be had finding some nice little kickers on the edge of the slopes when avoiding the endless Conga lines of Ski Schools. The were only 2 half decent runs so there wasn’t much variation. The other slopes would have been better for grass boarding or down hill mountain biking. Oberau, the resort next to Niederau was terrible and had less snow than the Sahara......BUT!!!!! Auffach the third resort in the area, which could be accessed on the same lift pass, was ALOT better. A free bus runs between the three resorts and it’s about a 25 min bus trip from Niederau to Auffach (they can be VERY packed). So Auffach was a lot better lots more snow many more runs to be had and allot more fun. There was no difference in the snow/ice/slush quality but the piste was allot wider with many more features, like a small board park with a half decent kicker in it and a half pipe that would have been good if the sun hadn’t melted most of it. Because Auffach was a much bigger resort there are two tiers to the slopes unlike Niederau where the gondala went to the top and then it was back down to the gondola and up again. In Auffach the Gondola goes to a middle plateau and up to the higher slopes (Auffach highest peak is 1950m, where as Niederau is 1450m), so this made it a much better prospect all around. The only problem with this was it was very busy as everyone in the area went to Auffach.
My friends and I chose Niederau as we were desperate to do some more boarding as we had already been to Winter Park in Colorado in January, it was the cheapest holiday we found at the time which was at least half board. The resort is definitely for beginners to very low-end intermediates. There were no real challenging slopes (perhaps there would have been if there was more snow) but if you are going for you first boarding holiday it would be perfect. |
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| Strengths |
| Hmmmm good for begginers. Beautiful scenery. |
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| Hot Spots |
| Cave bar (so i'm told) |
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| Weaknesses |
| Gondalas are small, max 8 people. No challenging slopes. Was busy with no snow so I imagine it would be hectic if it did get some good weather. |
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 1.5 of 5 19/09/2003 @ 15:02:25 |
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| 1 member has given this review a rating of 4 of 5 |
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| Price Paid |
| £280 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| ??? Can't Remember |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
| Had a disaster of a holiday here. Booked a last minute deal to Austria with a couple of mates.
it was 3-4 years ago when there was a snow drought across europe.
We got there and it was green fields all around, pretty similar to the top of Niederau hill really.
The resort only has a couple of decent lifts and hardly any runs, not that we really got to try them as there was no snow all week.
The nearby resort of Oberau was a 10 min bus ride away, it had a little bit of snow with patches of ice and mud. It entertained us for a few days anyway.
We spent a lot of time getting p*ssed and sunbathing in our boxers on the balcony.
A bad year for a random european holiday, I still wouldnt recommend it as it is so small. We would have been bored even if there was snow.
The good day we had was when the Rep organised a trip to Innsbruck, that was much better. |
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| Strengths |
| Cheap red wine with bottle cap lids |
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| Weaknesses |
| Distinct lack of snow, few runs even if it snowed, low altitude |
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