We had the most wonderful time celebrating New Years during our week-long ski vacation in the small ski town of St. Anton in the Austrian alps!
We couldn’t have picked a more perfect place to stay while celebrating New Years in St. Anton than Hotel Grischuna. This cute boutique hotel is a quick walk to downtown St. Anton and main ski lift gondola. The rooms are bright and modern with views of the mountains and ski slopes. We loved the breakfast that was included every morning which had foamy cappuccinos, pastries, cheeses, charcuterie, granola, eggs to order and more, We stayed here for a week and loved eating a breakfast every morning before going skiing.
Our favorite thing about Hotel Grischuna was the heated outdoor pool, steam room and sauna! Perfect after a day on the slopes! We would come in at least once a day and soak our bones in the warm water while watching the skiers come down the mountain. It was really special be able to to go for a swim outside while it was snowing!
One of the most convenient things about staying at Hotel Grischuna is that inluded with your stay you get free ski and boot storage at shop steps away from the Galzigbahn. We could either take the complimentary shuttle from the hotel in the morning or walk 10 minutes through town to getthere. It was super easy and made it a breeze to ski everyday without lugging around your gear!
The main reason we visited St. Anton was to ski one of the best ski resorts in the world! It’s one of the largest inter-connected ski resorts in Europe and with five little Austrian villages that you can ski between - St. Anton, St. Christoph, Stuben, Lech, Zürs.
Ang had just switched from snowboarding to skiing and had a lot of fun skiing in Saint Anton. There are a lot of beginner, intermediate and advanced slopes for all ski levels. After a fresh snow storm Jeff was able to ski some fresh powder with new friends too! One of the best days of the trip was New Years Day when we decided to ski to all 5 villages! It took all day to get to the furthest point but we had a blast following the piste map, taking ski lifts, an stopping for beers along the way.
One of the best part about skiing in Europe is getting to explore and enjoy all the wonderful restaurants and bars you can find scattered throughout the mountain-side. With unreal views, delicious food and tasty beers these little mountain huts are incredible.
We loved stopping at all the mountain lodges throughout our ski day. We would either warm up by a cozy fire inside or bask in the sun on the deck admiring the views. We would sip on weissbeirs, and mulled wine, and filled our bellies with goulash before heading out for more skiing.
We came to this awesome little mountainside restaurant, Hospiz Alm, twice during our trip. First in the afternoon for lunch when we skied down into the small village of St. Christoph. The sunny outdoor deck is always packed with skiers drinking schnapps and having lunch in their ski boots.
Käsespätzle is Bavaria’s version of mac and cheese with homemade noodles oozing with cheese and topped with caramelized onions! The käsespätzle we had on the deck of Hospiz Alm was delicious!
We also made a reservation to have dinner at Hospiz Alm Restaurant and it was the best meal of the entire trip! At night you can dine inside Hospiz Alm’s rustic Tyrolean Farmhouse Parlor. The ambience is cozy with a large open fire in the middle of the restaurant. We ordered the duck for two which was two courses of mouthwatering duck dishes that blew us away. Another quirky thing about Hospiz Alm is that they have a built-in stone slide you can take downstairs to the bathroom. It was built to help skiers in their ski boots be whisked downstairs quickly. We had a great experience dining at Hospiz Alm and would highly recommend it!
No visit to Saint Anton would be complete without going to MooserWirt! This legendary ski-in après bar claims to sell more beer than any bar in Austria! Make sure to grab a seat on MooserWirt’s sundeck in the afternoon to enjoy one of the most fun après parties in Europe. We danced in our ski boots, drank jagerbombs, and had a blast. There is nothing quite like après-ski parties in Europe.
When the sun goes down everyone still has to ski down to the village and it’s funny to watch people ski after a few drinks, sometimes in the dark. On New Years Eve we got caught in the dark and skied down with our phone lights. Worth it!
One of the best places to eat fondue in Saint Anton is this cozy little restaurant called Fahrner Stub’n. This family-run restaurant is authentic and homey. We loved cheese fondue and this one really good!
This hidden ski hut is the perfect place for a fun après drink. This lively little pub serve warm holiday cocktails and gives away free shots of Schnapps during happy hour. Come to cozy up in a corner with a drink and listen to live piano music.
We had the best week celebrating New Years in Saint Anton, Austria. We can’t wait to explore more European ski destinations in the future!
The drive from Hallstatt to Innsbruck took us half of a day probably because we kept pulling over to take in the beautiful fall scenery. We've seen some amazing fall colors before in our lives but never like this, and never in Bavaria. The forest is so dense here and the colors are everywhere. Here are some photos we took on the way to Innsbruck.
We made it to Innsbruck, our last stop in Austria before we head over into the German Alps.
We got lost wandering the streets and dipped into different stores to try some local gelato and speck (from our friend Liana Weber's family stores) and also some schnapps. These "Speckerias" specialize in various meats from wild boar to venison and elk, all of the meats are air-cured or smoked.
Schnapps!
The streets of Innsbruck are adorable.
We walked over to the ski jump and were lucky enough to see a man practicing his skills. One thing we know for sure is that we will be coming back here in the winter. A perfect place for a ski trip.
See you again soon Innsbruck!
One of the places we were most excited to visit! We have seen pictures of this place starting to pop up all over the internet and knew we needed to get there soon. It definitely didn't disappoint. The main square (above) and the view of the church and lake are so beautiful.
Hallstatt is one of the oldest towns in Europe with relics dating back to the Celtic Ages of 800-450 BC. It also has the oldest salt mine in the world.
We felt like we were inside of a fairytale while walking along the cobblestone streets of Hallstatt.
Checking Hallstatt off our Bucket List!
It was during this early morning drive to St. Gilgen that we knew having a rental car was the smartest way to travel around this area. The roads meandered through the Bavarian countryside as the fall colors had just started to turn. It was a foggy crisp morning until we turned a large bend in the road and saw the sunlight shining down over St. Gilgen and Wolfgangsee Lake.
This is the small but beautiful Mozartplatz in the center of St. Gilgen. This small mountain retreat was where Mozart would come to enjoy peace and quiet.
These funny shops sold all your Bavarian style needs! Winter slippers to dirndls and lederhosen.
Jeff hanging off the balcony in our cute hotel.
The next day we went for a drive around the area to see all of the other lakes. We saw many of them but Attersee Lake impressed us the most with its turquoise water. We randomly saw this great dock and a few benches and hopped out of the car. We learned that Gustav Klimt was an artist who had painted many scenes of this lake and its churches. To get the view he wanted he needed to be on the other side of the lake, being a very big lake he would paint as he looked through a telescope. (Last picture is Klimt's paintingof the Church in Unterach on Lake Attersee)
We love our rental car which has been the best way to explore Bavaria.
Salzburg, home of Mozart, by day and by night.
For this trip to Europe we made some changes compared to our last visit trip. The two big changes were coming in the fall rather than summer, and also picking small mountain towns compared to larger cities. Every so often we still have planned medium and a a few large cities, Salzburg being the perfect medium sized city. We were both very surprised at how much fun we had here.
We always like when we learn about cool, hidden secrets while abroad. This statue of Mary is in the center of the square with her back turned to the church. When standing in a specific spot looking at the church, the two angles align perfectly on her solder while placing this golden crown on her head. (Picture above and below)
This ancient water wheel was used to flush out the dirty streets weekly. The dirty water would flow into the river and downstream, because of this it is thought that this was the reason that Salzburg never suffered during the Black Plague.
We stayed at the Stadtalm Cafe and Hostel which was located on top of this cliff. The best way to reach it was to take this elevator to the top. Worth the effort once you saw the view.
View of our hotel's cafe on the cliffs overlooking the castle and city from our window.
Lover's lock bridge in Salzburg. These bridges are becoming very popular all over the world. Sometimes we even see locks in random places.
Our favorite thing we did in Salzburg was visit the Augusteiner Beer Hall and Garden. We went both nights we were there. This place is giant and reminded us of a sports arena except the sport is... beer! They have a self service beer counter which is fun if you can figure out the steps. This doesn't seem that difficult, but when you are mixed in with the locals who have been doing this since they were 14 things get tricky.
1. Pay for beers at counter and receive ticket
2. Grab a stein (.5 liter or 1 liter)
3. Rinse stein in the fountain
4. Give steins and ticket to beer man
5. Receive large beer and have a drink! Prost!
Our favorite little snack here was the shaved black radish with course salt! For 1€ this giant plate of spicy/salty radish is the perfect snack to go with a beer.
