Ski For 20% Less in Unknown Austria

International Living Postcards--your daily escape

Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Carinthia, Austria

 The mountain range here is called the Nockberg. "Nock" means a soft
fluffy dumpling, but I must say the steep floodlit descent down
the Kaiserburg doesn't look soft and dumpling-like to me.

Dear International Living Reader,

Think of Austrian ski resorts and the Tyrol usually springs to mind. But even fifteen years ago (the last time I went skiing in Austria) the Tyrol seemed to get too many winter tourists on ski packages, crowding slopes and causing too-long queues at the ski lifts.

Which is why I've come to Carinthia.

Known as "Kärnten" in the German language, this sunny, southern region shares borders with Slovenia and Italy…and is practically unknown to other foreign visitors.

Strange, because its breathtaking countryside of mountains, lakes, and unspoiled villages is the Austria most of us imagine. Cozy gasthofs…steepled churches…and ski resorts, too. And it's not hard to get to. I've come by train from Vienna (a four-hour journey to Villach, then a local bus) but the region has its own airport at Klagenfurt.

No great amounts of snow on the lower levels yet, but everywhere looks theatrically wintery. Waterfalls transformed into icy curtains…icicle daggers glittering from wooden eaves…a lone man skating figures-of-eight on a tiny frozen lake (Carinthia has 1,270 lakes and is known as the "Land of the Thousand Lakes".)

My resort village--Bad Kleinkirchheim--seems to have everything: alpine skiing with 27 lifts and 18 runs, cross-country skiing, skating, tobogganing and winter walks. Even more important, it has two sizable thermal spas--ideal for soothing away the aches and pains I expect to acquire!

And it's fairly good value. Even over the Christmas period, 455 euro ($580) rents an apartment big enough for two in Frau Prägant's pretty, rustic-style chalet for a week from Appartements Prägant (see below for contact details). It's only a couple of minutes walk from Dorfstrasse (Bad Kleinkirchheim's mile-long main street) and the Römerbad thermal spa.

Steenie Harvey
Roving Euro-editor, International Living

P.S. As both North America and Austria have so many ski resorts, it's difficult to do price comparisons. But this is how Bad Kleinkirchheim compares to Stowe, in Vermont.

* Three-day Lift Pass: Bad Kleinkirchheim--$117 (for $137 you also get entrance to the thermal spa I mentioned); Stowe--$151

* Ski School (3 hours): Bad Kleinkirchheim--$45; Stowe--$75

* Ski and Boot Hire (Basic): Bad Kleinkirchheim--$151 per week; Stowe--$168 per week

In other words, a week spent skiing in Stowe, Vermont, will cost you $620; in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, it costs $495…plus you get to recover in a thermal spa.

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