What would I expect the differences to be between 3 star and 4 star in Saalbach

slavedave

Fellow skiers, I wonder whether you could comment on the above for me. Last year, I went on a fabulous and extremely memorable trip to Meribel and stayed in a 3*** hotel which had top french food, good accomodation and great spa facilities (outdoor pool, steam room, sauna etc) and, to top it off it was a minutes walk to the central ski lift stations!
Now this thread sounds like a gloat but actually I am in a dilemma. the last trip was a generous gift and the guys I went with are all successful businessmen with lifestyles to match (at this point it is worth pointing out that I do not share their success financially :-) ). However, this year I offered to organise the trip as a thankyou but going online it is hard to get anything for less than 1500 euro that includes flights, transfers, skipass, boots n skis etc in Saalbach /Hinterglemm. The main hotels that tick the boxes are all 4 star jobs and they have tariffs to match their star ratings.
Has anyone got any suggestions as to how to keep the price down a bit without too much of a compromise on the standards these chaps are accustomed to? Is 4 star worth the extra?
We plan to fly into Salzberg on the 23rd Feb from Dublin, Bristol and Liverpool but we haven't booked flights as yet. The dates are inflexible though. All 5 of us are in our 40's, three of us are intermediates and two are beginners. Apres ski obviously doesn't mean "larging it" every night but we aren't quite ready for slippers and pipes yet either.
Are there better alternatives for location that I should look out for at this stage? Would catered chalets be cheaper or even possible? Is it worth booking flights and then waiting for special offers nearer the time?
Main criteria:
Good selection of slopes.
Good std of accomodation.
Good food (half board or B&B + gd selection of affordable restaurants)
Short airport transfers (less than 2 hours)
Good access to gondolas (either due to proximity or availability of hotel shuttle /taxi - talking minutes rather than half an hour)

Whatever tips you can give would be gladly received. We are still very flexible at this present moment. Thanks in advance for your tidbits of knowledge.

foamcutter

Dave,
I think its going to be difficult to it any cheaper unless you do compromise. The date you say is inflexible, this would have been a way of making it cheaper going later in the season but in the same hotel. You might get a cheaper hotel if you out of the village or rent an apartment (some of the family run hotels look good) but it's the hassle of getting buses and getting food etc.
We have looked at this ourselves, but ended up at around 1500 all in. We organised flights, taxi, hotel direct .......... no real saving just getting what we want with less hanging around (we hope). Some of the operators have deals to a different resorts, couldn't find anything for Saalbach though.
The rating system differs with some or the travel operators for the same hotel so it's hard to comment on this, the standard of the hotels looks to be quite high in our experience.
We found it hard to get a booking last October..... are you sure you can get availability where you want to stay?
If you book with snowacademy in Saalbach you get a good deal on ski hire and ski lessons in a package, it worked out cheaper than using Intersport.
In 2006 we went to Zellamsee (waldhof hotel) it was was cheaper and would have been cheaper this year compared with Saalbach. The hotel and food were excellent and you could ski virtually back to the door but it meant a bus trip in the morning to the gondolas and it was a bit of a walk to the town at night. The ski runs into the gondolas station (at the ski school) were all black runs so this did make it awkward compared to Saalbach. These negative points weren't that bad, we never had to wait more than 10 mins for a bus and it was only about 10 mins into the town centre, we just preferred the location in Saalbach and the better variety of runs. Heading there next week and can't wait, also trying to organise a second trip for March if I can find the money & time, we will definitely try the budget end or a cheaper country.

Imposter

As above you'll have to compromise if you can't afford what you want.

I'd suggest getting an apartment with a sauna. We were in one in Saalbach last year and it worked out about 40€ pp per night over the week for 5 of us. Bread could be ordered so fresh bread every morning. It was about a 10 min walk into Saalbach in shoes. The place where my group rented the skis allowed you to leave your shoes there during the day so we were hardly ever walking in skiboots.

As for restaurants etc ok the apartment doesn't have one or a bar but the town is 10mins away on foot and there are more than enough there. If you are really lazy in the mornings there's even the skibus to bring you into the town.

Shuttles from airport are also quite reasonable and it'ss basically a taxi (from Salzburg) - 35€ pp e/w.

If you want more info I can try and dig out the apartment info for you. PM me if you want it.

slavedave

Thanks for your replies. Really appreciated. Will have to bite the bullet and sell one of my kids!! If you get any more flashes of inspiration then let me know. Bring on the white stuff!!:D

foamcutter

Will have to bite the bullet and sell one of my kids

Unless you have a squad of them you best watch yourself, otherwise you'll have to start making replacements and you'll never be allowed to get away.

slavedave

Have four of the little darlings - could do a Buy One Get One Free offer if it will get me an upgrade!!

Can't wait until they are old enough (and the bank of Slavedave is flush enough) to take them all away to the slopes.:eek:

slavedave

Didn't have to sell the kids in the end. Found a hotel in Morzine (Portes de Soleil region) that sounded good albeit smaller scale than we were intending. Hopefully, simpler will mean nicer too. Significant price differences to Austria (but I did get a good price on Aer Lingus flights tonight - down from 280 euro to 124 each for some reason).
If anyone has been to Morzine, any tips for the trip (pistes to head for, places to avoid etc)
Thanks.