Wow it’s been A WHILE! At the start of the year, I made it my new year’s resolution to write about every single one of my trips in 2023. 6 months and 4 trips later, I have written absolutely nothing, which obviously needs to change haha π I have lots to catch you up on!
We are currently planning for our next ski trip, so I thought it would be fitting to write about our last ski trip (also the first trip we took in 2023!) in case any of you are planning to go skiing in Winter 2023. I know it is still early days and summer is on the horizon, but we have been looking at so many ski resorts in Europe lately and lots of them are already at full capacity for Christmas 2023! It would definitely be a good idea to start planning now for your next winter getaway π
At the start of the year, Peron, my brother Bryan and I went on a much anticipated ski trip in Austria – we spent 5 days in the Austrian Alps, did some sightseeing in Salzburg and Hallstatt for another 3 days, before ending our trip in Munich, Germany! π
We honestly had so much fun on the trip π Here is what we got up to (including our itinerary, hotel and transportation)!
Getting to our ski resort!
Peron and I flew to Frankfurt from Hong Kong, then took a train to Munich where we met up with Bryan who flew there from Edinburgh. From Munich we then took a train to a town in Austria called Kufstein, and from Kufstein we took a taxi to our ski resort – Scheffau am Wilden Kaiser!
The journey from Munich to Scheffau only took around 1.5 hours. There are also ski buses that take you directly from Munich to the Austrian Alps early in the morning and back after the ski resort closes for those who fancy a quick run on the slopes during the day!
Scheffau is part of the Skiwelt ski resort – I first came across it when we were doing our research on which ski resort to pick this time around! Since we are all beginners and Bryan has only ever snowboarded but never skied, we wanted to stick to resorts with lots of beginner friendly areas.
We went skiing in Wengen, Switzerland (you can read about it here!) a few years ago and while we found Wengen to be absolutely stunning and fell in love with the town, the slopes there weren’t too beginner friendly and we ended up going down a red slope which was a pretty scary experience for me – so I made sure we picked a ski resort with easier slopes this time to make sure everyone would have a good time!
Our hotel
We stayed at THE most incredible hotel called Hotel Leitenhof for 4 nights and it was a dream come true. The hotel offers both normal rooms and individual chalets but since there were 3 of us, I booked us a chalet (with half board included) and it was one of the most dreamy and comfortable stays I have ever had.
The hotel is situated up on the mountains (a little further away from the Scheffau main town centre) so you get incredible views of the Alps. The distance away from Scheffau town centre wasn’t a problem for us as there are frequent free shuttle buses operated by the Scheffau ski resort that stops right at the hotel and take you to the Scheffau town centre and then to the ski gondola stations every 15 to 30 mins or so. Everything was very convenient and hassle-free!
the beautiful main hotel building where the lobby, restaurants and spa are!
The beautiful chalets right outside the main hotel building π
And here it is – our beautiful chalet!
Our charming chalet has two floors: a living room, bathroom and two bedrooms on the ground floor, and a double bed on the upper floor – perfect for those who are travelling with families or friends. The patio outside is also perfect for chilling and admiring the beautiful views of Scheffau π
patio at our chalet
living room
the two bedrooms on the ground floor
double bed on the upper floor
Apart from the really comfortable rooms and our chalet, our favourite part of the hotel was the FOOD π
Breakfast was served every morning at their main restaurant which is stunning.
We would also find a little “newspaper” on our breakfast table every morning – the hotel’s way of informing us of the weather conditions and the activities they have arranged for the day! π
There is also a juicer at the breakfast buffet area with whole apples and carrots so you can make your own fresh juice π
As for dinner that came with our half-board package, we were served a 4-course meal every night (along with a really nice buffet salad bar) and every meal was different and DELICIOUS.
I was really impressed by how amazing the food was and we truly enjoyed all of our dinners at the hotel. Every morning during breakfast, we were given a menu to choose our starters, soups, mains and desserts for the evening and every night we were wowed by our food. There was also a lot of variety in our food as the menu (and salad bar offerings) change every day so we never got bored!
These bread dips were spectacular – Bryan said he dreamt about them in his sleep after our trip π
and the most amazing carrot dessert! π
Skiing!
We were super lucky with the snow condition when we went in late January as we learnt from chatting with hotel staff (and the news before we went!) that Austria and Switzerland were seriously lacking in snow throughout December and January.
Just a week before we arrived, it finally started snowing heavily in Scheffau and we were able to enjoy fresh powder and had some really good times skiing π We rented all our ski gear from Hansis Sportshop – a megastore right by the ski gondolas which was super convenient!
We booked 3 hours of ski lessons for 3 days in a row with Ski School Ingrid Salvenmoser and our instructors Michael and Chris were really fantastic, super friendly, clear with their instructions and helped us learn really quickly.
3 hours of ski lessons every day sounded a lot but when we were on the slopes the time just flew by!
We stopped for lunch every day at Tanzbodenalm, a really good restaurant recommended by Michael that you can get to by skiing down a gentle blue slope. I tried their currywurst, kaiserschmarrn (an Austrian shredded pancake) and of course had a hot chocolate hehe!
I found skiing in Scheffau to be fantastic for beginners as our ski instructors took us down so many wide blue slopes, compared to when we skied in Wengen where there was only really one or two slopes you can go down as a beginner. There are plenty of reds that are good for intermediates in Scheffau as well so it is definitely not a place just for beginners!
Scheffau is a quiet town and there is not much après-ski. We were far too tired to go out after skiing on most days so that did not bother us at all.
Plus our hotel has an amazing wellness area with saunas, stone beds, steam rooms etc. so every afternoon after we finished skiing, we would head back to the hotel to enjoy the wellness facilities until dinner time π
After we finished skiing on the first day, we missed the ski shuttle bus so we decided to walk from the gondola station to the Scheffau town centre before heading on the shuttle bus there to get back to our hotel.
Scheffau is a pretty town with some shops, a church (we saw online that it has a STUNNING interior but it was unfortunately closed when we went) and a forest area where you can take a stroll. It is not the most happening place, but we found it to be perfect for a relaxing ski holiday!
And that was it! A wonderful first time skiing in Austria and a trip to remember π Definitely a place we would come back to in the future π
I have a lotttt of travel posts to catch up on and I will try to do them one at a time! Stay tuned for the next one! π
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