soll vs mayrhofen

There are some big differences between Mayrhofen and Soll.
In fact the only similarities I can think of are that they are both full of Brits (mostly men) and have an abundance of on mountain restaurants.
The Ski Welt is low and has a short season. Best time is January.
Zillertal is great late season, particularly Kaltenbach which is off piste heaven.
Ski Welt has lots of short runs, most of those that go all the way down to the valley floor have some south facing element and are only good in january.
Best skiing in Ski Welt by far is Westendorf, though you are better off staying there than skiing there and back each day. Plus you can ski right back into the village which has a more traditional type of Apres Ski and is full of Dutch visitors. After that Scheffau has better snow than Soll and a great home run.
A really modern lift system means that the runs get incredibly crowded and the man made snow deteriates quickly on busy days.This plus a lot of gung ho skiers on the hill means that the red run back to the village after 3.00pm can be icy, crowded and not for the faint hearted.
There is some great off pist from the top of the gondola on the Hohe Salve, but this is steep and for advanced skiers only.
Nightlife basically comprises of 4 Pub type bars which can be boisterous and crowded but lack the gemutlichkeit found in other resorts with less of a British ex-pat type contingent.
Apart from that there is little in the way of restaurants or coffee shops.
If you want great nightlife and comparable skiing to Zillertal I would recommend Saalbach.
Hope some of this helps.

I've always found mayrhofen seems to be full of German and Dutch men. The Germans seem to go up the mountain, drink heavily all day, and then ski back to the gondola and have it off big style in the ice bar, where the Dutch have been all day.

Thanks for all the info folks but we have now changed our minds and are heading to st anton instead 2nd of feb , Got our flights booked with monarch to friedrichshafen.
Hoping to sort out accomodation in next couple of days as it seems to be selling out quickly for that week.
Anyone had any dealings with sidney reilly who runs a good website on st anton and offers apartments for rent ??

Nope. Only been to st Anton with package deals. Great skiing but busy on the st Anton side.

.... after all that you decide to go somewhere else :x

Still an interesting debate and highlights the very different perspectives that people have about their favourite resorts, often based on a small number of visits. While Soll is certainly low, it really manages the snow well and I have never had a problem apart from the final stretch of the home run on occasions. As somebody highlighted, the home run at peak descent time can be a real mess with difficult conditions and too many people, many of whom should not be on the run at all :twisted: We usually avoid the rush by leaving it as late as possible.

As for St Anton,, it is a great resort but accommodation tends to be pretty expensive. You also have to be a bit careful where the accommodation is located. It is a big resort and some of the accommodation can be a bit out of the way and not very convenient.

Very interesting. I've had 2 weeks in st Anton and both were very reasonably priced. The first was £500 chalet board a coule of years ago and 5 mins walk to the rendlbahn. This march we stayed in st christoph which was ski in ski out and easy to get into town by bus or taxi. And lift linked directly into the main area.


Nasserein is a good area to stay.

You won't get bored in Soll and if you haven't tried it do it. As mentioned the Ski Welt is huge an accessed far easier that the Zillertall.

The lift passes streches from Ellmau to Kitzbuhl (short bus journey to Kitzbuhl from Westdorff) and you will struggle to go from one end and back in a day. we tired it once and ran out of time.

see below to compare Mayrhofen and Soll/Skiwelt piste maps.

www.apsleyski.com/Services/lift-passes.html

Hot tip: Check out the Kitzbuhler All Star Card which will give you even more access to Ski Welt and surrounding resorts for pretty much the same price €211 and about 1000km of piste

www.allstarcard.at/en/default.asp

Dunk, St Anton, now you are talking. If you had asked Soll versus Mayrhofen versus St Anton then there is only one winner in my book and that is St Anton. However, I don't like to go to the same place every year altough I am currently lucky enough to do 15 weeks a season, so there will always be a place in my ski time for the Ski Welt and the Zillertal although when it comes to the Zillertal I don't like to ski much in Mayrhofen itself as it is a poor ski area IMHO and anywhere where you have to queue to get up the mountain and have to get a lift down is not worth the effort. However, for those of you who like to ski in Mayrhofen itself then you are best to get up the mountain at Finkenberg where there is no queue.
Other places in Austria which are certainly worth going are Ischgl, Saalbach Hinterglem, Schladming, Obergurgl, Lech, Obertauern, Bad Hofgastein and I am sure a few others that I can't think of at the moment.