Travel Report Schladming

Between Christmas and New Year 2011, we stayed in Austria's Schladming,  the host of the upcoming 2013 World Cup skiing.

Schladming isn't the exactly the best known resort in Austria. It lies past Salzburg in the Enss-valley and is easy to reach by car.

With just 5800 residents are Schladming isn't that large, but it does boast a rich and long history, which you see immediately upon entry to include the beautiful old city wall.

It's a charming town that, because it hosted the World Cup skiing in 2013, is on the move. Over the last year a total of 400 million euros (!) was invested. This is shown in among other things in additional lifts, new hotels, a new convention center and a new train station. 

There are plenty of pubs and restaurants in the village center. The apres-ski does not offer a lot of choices, although there are a few apres-ski bars immediately at the slopes and a big apres ski bar called the "Tenne" our favourite. Tenne offers the right mix of the necessary schnapps and apres-ski music. In the center you will also find the gondola taking you up to to the ski area.

Right next to Schladming lies the village of Rohrmoos, located slightly higher. This village is smaller and quieter, but does offer some nice family hotels. Rohrmoos can be easily accessed by bus from Schladming, this takes about fifteen minutes. Alternitavely you can also enjoy a beautiful walk through the mountains taking you about 20-30 minuten to go from Rohrmoos to Schladming.

Accommodation in Schladming

Schladming has 1700 hotels (26,000 beds), making the whole area more than ready for the Schladming World Cup in 2013. We slept in hotel Landgraf, which lies in the center. A simple but excellent hotel thanks to its central location just a few hundred meters from the ski lift. Its only downside is that its central location also has the effect that you sometimes wake up at night whenever people come out from the pub late at night. 

We also stayed in Rohrmoos a few nights in as a guest in Hotel Landauer. A comfortable hotel with a great wellness area. The free skibus stopped right in front of the hotel between 07:00-23:00.

The Ski Area

The ski area is part of "Ski Amade" which includes a total of five ski resorts. This means that with only one ski pass, this gives you access to as much as 860 km of slopes and 270 lifts. We stayed in the Schladming-Dachstein area which in itself is already a large ski area. One of the days we were accompanied by the director of the tourism bureau, Mr. Hermann Gruber, who took us around the area and showed us the most beautiful ski slopes.

Our favorite slope was descent number 8 on the mountain 'Hauser Kaibling. A slope that was added new this year, perhaps with relatively few people aware of its existence. The slopes on Schladming were not too crowded, making waiting times practically non-existent and enabling you to enjoy the complete slope without too much people in your way. The mostly red and blue slopes were wide and relatively easy, with even the black runs quite all right to enjoy even for non-expert skiers. A lot of parts of the slopes have free accessible wifi internet, making it easy to take a picture with your mobile and sending it to  family or friends.

What also stood out were the good restaurants on the slopes. Very reasonable prices for good food and service just about anywhere, especially the latter we found a big plus. The service in the restaurants immediately also gave a different atmosphere than the self-service restaurants you typically see in austria.

It's not for nothing that 45% of the 'tourists' in the Schladming-Dachstein region are Austrians themselves. Nice to know that during the World Cup, which only lasts 14 days, the slopes will still be opened as usual. The World Cup course takes only 15% of the slopes in area and the infrastructure of the ski liftsis so constructed, that you can still reach the remaining 85% from anywhere in the ski area.

Restaurants

As already mentioned, the restaurants on the slopes were very good. In the village we saw the same again. Very reasonable prices for good food. Schladming includes total of 40 restaurants in the village. This does no include michelin star dining, but lots of authentic restaurants with typical Austrian dishes. For fans of Arnold Schwarzenegger, try eating at the bottom of the gondola in Schladming at Charly Kahr. Arnold is friends with the owner so the place is filled with autographed pictures of him and he is even said to sometimes pay the place a visit in person. 

All in all, Schladming is a great destination to go on ski holiday. A very extensive ski area and great value for money.