Christmas in Austria
The hotel I stayed in was a lovely 4 star property in Kirchberg. The food was plentiful, the spa was amazing with all sorts of saunas and chill out rooms. It had a great swimming pool and fitness room and I would highly recommend some time spent relaxing in the saunas.
A few minutes’ walk away from the hotel was a ski run and a toboggan run. We did some late night tobogganing on Boxing Day, whilst it was snowing, down a 2 mile natural ski run, absolutely hilarious and not crowded at all.
We visited the Christmas Market at Salzburg on Christmas Eve, there were endless stalls selling Christmas decorations, gifts and as usual plenty of mulled wine and snacks. They also had an outdoor skating rink, a fresh vegetable market and the narrow streets in the town full of shops made it feel very quaint.
From there we went to the village of Mondsee to visit the cathedral, where the wedding in the Sound of Music was filmed.
The cathedral was amazing, I have been to the Basilica in Venice and I have to say I was more impressed with this one. It was immaculate, there is no fee to enter and the paintings and the interior was stunning.
Every day there was an excursion included or you could add optional ones, taking a cable car ride 3 miles up a mountain is an experience!
Mayrhofen, we had a few hours in this ski resort and it was nice and bustling with plenty of shops and some great restaurants. I had one of the best meals here, King Prawns and spaghetti. There is plenty of skiing to be done here and you can pick and choose which activity you want to take part in.
Kitzbuhel is classed as an upmarket ski resort with its old town centre and medieval buildings. We watched some great skiing here and there were lots of ski classes happening, especially for the toddlers.
On Christmas Day we visited Zell am See which is a pretty town with plenty of shops and restaurants, yet another great ski resort with a beautiful lake with the mountains as a back drop.
As this was a coach holiday, I felt there was a lot of time spent inside a coach and not something I would personally repeat over Christmas. However the other coach passengers who had done it before loved the camaraderie, loved the fact the days are planned for you and you really don’t have to think about anything as everything is organised for you.
The prices are surprising low for a 7 day trip, especially over Christmas, so if you feel this would interest you at all, please give me a call and we can talk more.