Holiday Weather

this was a surprise birthday treat from my partner and we really enjoyed it,apart from the landing at salzburg very bumpy scary long transfer than normal due to traffic and storms,snow was bad at lower slopes and busy with ski school,best higher up.at time a lot of walking between lifts (run 18 especially)best runs 19,23,24b,20.a great place for beginners families,very freindly and scenery village etc,i got bored with runs quickly but they where well maintained and i enjoyed skiing them,very good resturants,clean, good food.

Recommended Places
for more experienced skiiers auffach is good i skied there on the thurs knee deep powder plenty off piste,my partner enjoyed the mid station slopes.longer runs than niederau.we stayed in a b&b in niederau (sonnewend)great couple so friendly,she even stiched my partners ski pants up as she ripped them,very comfortable rooms.apres ski is relaxed we liked the stadltreff gd music younger people angie loves to get u pissed great jaegimeister and redbull.hotel austria food is great local cuisine try the venison.pizza ferrari does excellent pizzas,sport bar has a good atmosphere,lots of oooompah music,great.we will go back but hire car and ski other areas,all in all a very friendly place.our reps where useless no enthusiasm and not very helpful,they didnt know where we where staying 3 times we moved and leaving they informed guests of wrong departure times,also didnt speak any german

I stayed at Thomson's Club Hotel Vicky in Niederau 3-10 March 2007. This was my second visit to the Wilschonau Valley as I had learnt to ski in Oberau several years earlier.

The staff at the Vicky were welcoming & helpful. The room was clean & comfortable but basic. Evening meals were superb with a healthy & appetising vegetarian option. Breakfasts were not nearly as good. Waiting times for a cooked breakfast were long, even if ordered when the kitchen first opened. Coffee was weak & deteriorated as the week passed by. I can recommend The Hotel Austria for a decent coffee.

The Vicky generally offers good value for money & is a great base for those travelling with children. It is fairly centrally located in the compact village of Niederau. It takes about 5 minutes to walk to the gondola accross the field or just under 10 minutes by the road in normal shoes. The Margarite Hire Shop, at the bottom gondola station, offers ski storage for 10 Euros per person per week, but their boot racks are not heated.

Red ski school offers a very good standard of teaching & a fun, end of week slalom race. Ladies, be warned; Toni (an instructor) is very, very friendly!

There is a regular bus service to Oberau & Auffach but buses can be packed early in the mornings & after ski school ends in the afternoons. There were long queues at the bottom gondola station in Auffach most mornings.

Snow conditions up the mountain in Niederau & Auffach were satisfactory but snow was absent in the villages. Red 19 was open for most of the week, making it possible to ski back to the bottom gondola station in Niederau.

I have had two great holidays in the Wildschonau Valley & would recommend Niederau to those learning to ski & to early intermediates. I would have been a bit bored, this year, if red 19 had not been open. Next year, I am going in search of a wider variety of red runs.

2 couples stayed at the Hotel Simmerlwirt in Niederau, Austria on 13th January 07. We booked our holiday through Thomas Cook and Nielsen. The week before our flight our hotel got cancelled. we should have been in Hotel Alpenland but got moved to Hotel Simmerwirt. I was actually pleased about this, as although we were marginally further from the slopes (not ski to door) we had a swimming pool and sauna. On the whole the hotel is pretty good. It is described as having an indoor/outdoor pool. This is not true. All of the pool is outdoors aprt from the first 2 square feet. This is actually quite refreshing and ou do get a wonderful view of the mountains. The sauna, steam and sanaraium rooms are a welcome facility. Austrians don't wear clothes in them though, so if you do like seeing naked flesh stay away. Although most people did wear their swimclothes or a towel most of the time.
The food is very tasty but basic at the same time. Breakfast was pretty poor. We went half board. Breakfast consisted of a selection of cereals, bread rolls, toast, jams and cold meats/cheeses. This was tasty but a bit boring everyday. There was also some hot food available such as scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage. However, this didn't seem th be there everyday and was never topped up. Once it was gone it was gone. I personally think if breakfast is from 8am-10am it should be re-filled at all times. At breakfast you have to choose what you want to eat for dinner. Starters were always soups and mains were normally a meat dish, a fish dish and a veg dish. We also had past one night. The dinners were very nice and you got a small pudding too. One of the worst things I found about Austria was ther smoke. The bar in our hotel was constantly filled with disgusting smoke and had no windows open. There was no smoking in the restaurant but you couldn't enjoy a meal in the bar at lunch time if you were a non smoker. This was a problem at all eateries and bars in Austria.
The food in Hotel Austria was excellent and we ate their twice at night. 140 euros for for people and 3 courses each inc drinks. Defiantely order the panckaes for pudding! You get two with loads of chocalte sauce and ice cream!
Unfortunatley we didn't have much snow (the least in 9 or more years according to one local) so we only skied in Niederau once (one the first day). The nursery slope was icy and it wasn't much better up the top with a lot of lifts closed, but I could imagine it would have been terrific for beginners and easy intermediates with a big dump of snow on it. But we didn't let the lack of snow get us down, after all we hadn't gone all that way just to talk about it.
We got a free bus pass from our Nielsen rep and skied at Auffach which is about 20mins on a bus (catch it opposite the ski hire shop). Auffach is a bigger ski area and has some good looking runs. Unfortunately it was a bit tricky for us beginners as the red runs were very icy (watch out for Red 2 and 2a - they get dangerous when icy!).
If you book any trips do so at the shop in between the bank and Spar. They charge 7 euros for tobagonning, 12euros for a horse pulled sleigh ride and 32 euros for a trip to Salzburg. Nielson charged 20euros, 20euros and 37euros respectively.
The toboganning is really good fun and not just for kids. Sleigh ride was very scenic but lasted a bit too long for me. 35mins one way, 1hour stop at a small bar and 35mins back on the sleigh. Worth doing for 12euros but wrap up as it gets cold just sitting there! The trip to Salzburg is very interesting and you get a 2hour guided tour and then about 3 hours to do your own thing. You get to see the castle (from Sound Of Music) and Mozarts birth place.
Niederau is a beautiful place and as long as you get some snow you'll have a great time. The hotel and most of the food/nightlife is basic but good quality. I don't go back to the same place twice as there are so many other places in the worlld to see but I would definatley recommend this hotel and resort if you want something clean, comfortable and a good time in general.

A good resort to lern to ski grate biue runs

Recommended Places
A good place to visit is Auffach lot's of red run's and onley 15 mins on the free ski bus