DeeSki
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@Cantabrigienne, your analysis matches exactly what I experienced in Austria. Most hotels are family run and they‘ve often been in operation a long time. The hotel I stayed in in Austria this year opened in the late 19th century, was destroyed by an avalanche in the 1930s and then rebuilt on a different site. However, it’s not a mom and pop operation. They also owned holiday apartments, a chain of ski stores and I think they had a stake in the ski school! Last year in a different resort, my hotel was smaller but still one of a family owned chain of three or four. They also owned a farm and served their own delicious beef and cheese in the restaurant! These villages were attracting visitors in the summer to “take the air” long before skiing was an attraction to most people. They also do steady year round business with hikers, mountain bikers and families. A ski instructor in Oberstdorf in the German Alps told me that their lifts are busier now in summer the in winter.
I don’t think that language is the reason hotels offer half board. If you are flying from the UK or Ireland you can buy a package through a travel agent that will include flights, transfers, half board, ski hire and lift tickets. This is quite hard to find in Germany, although I saw a statistic recently that Germans spend a greater proportion of their income on package tourism than any other European country. I suspect half board is the part of the package that Germans want because most people seem to drive to the Alps. Germans also go to the mountains for what they describe as a “winter vacation” which doesn’t have to include skiing. People go cross-country skiing, hiking, snow-shoeing and sledding at the ski area. @Cantabrigienne younare absolutely right about the variety of food - there is none! It’s Austrian style all the way. Compared to the US, most Europeans are really conservative in their eating habits, so I don’t think this bothers people as long as the food is of a quality appropriate to the price and there is lots of it! Personally, I like eating a wide variety of cuisines and last year was the first time I did full board because I was worried I wouldn’t like it, but I discovered I quite enjoy eating hearty mountain food every night when I know it’s only for a week!
I also think the ski culture in Austria/Germany is quite different to the US. Almost all skiing is on piste and it’s much more about relaxing than pushing yourself. People take long lunches, with beer and wine. There are definitely on-mountain lunch destinations - in Oberstdorf my ski instructor brought the group to a cheese-maker’s hut! In Obergurgl some of the apres-ski is on-mountain and the runs down to the village are floodlit. It took me a while to realise that the people skiing down long after the lifts had closed had been for drinks in the meantime!
Ski schools in the Alps definitely attract ski bums from all over Europe - gap year Dutch girls taught my kids last year, this year my son’s instructor was on a break from working on trade fairs in Munich. Higher level instructors are often local, although sometimes they’re from other parts of the Alps. Hotel and service staff are from all over, but mostly Eastern European. However, all Europeans look the same when they’re dressed in Lederhosen and Dirndl!
I don’t think that language is the reason hotels offer half board. If you are flying from the UK or Ireland you can buy a package through a travel agent that will include flights, transfers, half board, ski hire and lift tickets. This is quite hard to find in Germany, although I saw a statistic recently that Germans spend a greater proportion of their income on package tourism than any other European country. I suspect half board is the part of the package that Germans want because most people seem to drive to the Alps. Germans also go to the mountains for what they describe as a “winter vacation” which doesn’t have to include skiing. People go cross-country skiing, hiking, snow-shoeing and sledding at the ski area. @Cantabrigienne younare absolutely right about the variety of food - there is none! It’s Austrian style all the way. Compared to the US, most Europeans are really conservative in their eating habits, so I don’t think this bothers people as long as the food is of a quality appropriate to the price and there is lots of it! Personally, I like eating a wide variety of cuisines and last year was the first time I did full board because I was worried I wouldn’t like it, but I discovered I quite enjoy eating hearty mountain food every night when I know it’s only for a week!
I also think the ski culture in Austria/Germany is quite different to the US. Almost all skiing is on piste and it’s much more about relaxing than pushing yourself. People take long lunches, with beer and wine. There are definitely on-mountain lunch destinations - in Oberstdorf my ski instructor brought the group to a cheese-maker’s hut! In Obergurgl some of the apres-ski is on-mountain and the runs down to the village are floodlit. It took me a while to realise that the people skiing down long after the lifts had closed had been for drinks in the meantime!
Ski schools in the Alps definitely attract ski bums from all over Europe - gap year Dutch girls taught my kids last year, this year my son’s instructor was on a break from working on trade fairs in Munich. Higher level instructors are often local, although sometimes they’re from other parts of the Alps. Hotel and service staff are from all over, but mostly Eastern European. However, all Europeans look the same when they’re dressed in Lederhosen and Dirndl!
