Why is Obertauern so popular in the beginning of the season? What to do, if you’re not skiing? We’ve got you covered here.
We visited Obertauern for the second time (in the meantime Jure went there for another day to shoot a few more clips for the vlog – you can find it at the end) and we were there already in summer. One is for sure – the mountain views here are breathtaking and there is something to do in every season.
But let’s start with winter and the soooo popular ski opening. Obertauern is extremely popular among Slovenian skiers (but also other nations), especially in the beginning of the season, for 2 reasons:
1. Usually it gets lots of snow early in the season, in Austria it’s also called a “Schneeloch” /snowhole/, which is a bit counterintuitive, since the lowest point of Obertauern is around 1700meters above sea level and in no means a hole. 🙂
And the 2nd reason is the distance from Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, as it’s just around 200km. So let’s discuss a few “good to knows”
Arriving:
Obertauern is on a pass, 1700 meters above sea level. If you plan to arrive by car, check the weather forecast. If snow is expected, bring snow chains for your car. The nearest airports are Salzburg and Graz, from where you can get a rental car. Public transport is best from Radstatt – you can arrive by train to here and then a bus or taxi for the remaining 20km. The Bus 280 will take you from the train station to Obertauern. The last station is Mauterndorf. So the bus 280 basically drives uo and down the mountain. If you want to arrive from the south (Villach or Klagenfurt), you can catch this bus in Mauterndorf.
If you arrive by car, there are several parking spaces at different lifts and all are free of charge.
Staying:
Obertauern is a village high up in the mountains, so it’s a good idea to stay up here if you plan to ski for several days. We stayed in Hotel Panorama, which we can only highly recommend as the rooms were beautiful, the spa impressive (with panorama saunas) and the food was exceptional. If you’re not their guest, I would still go there for dinner if you want a nice dining experience.
It actually doesn’t really matter were you stay in Obertauern, you’ll always have ski in/ski out, so very good connections to the ski lifts. And if you feel tired on the other side of the village at the last lift and don’t want to ski back, you can take the ski bus (which is included in the ski ticket).
Food:
There are numerous huts in the ski resort with local and international food. Some are more expensive than the others but you can still find cheap eats. If you’re staying in an apartment, there’s a Spar supermarket (maybe the most beautiful in the Alps?), smaller grocery shops, a bakery, a cake shop and numerous restaurants and fast food joints around the village.
As I already mentioned, if you like fine dining, we tried Hotel Panorama and the dinner is really good (3 or 4 course menus for around 50€).
A few prices from the ski huts:
Beer aprox 6,5€
Tea aprox 5€
Mulled wine aprox 7€
Veggieburger aprox 19€
Cheeseburger aprox 21€
Pasta from 12€
French fries 8€
Different soups 6-10€
Kaiserschmarren 13€
Applestrudel 6-9€
3 course lunch menu 18€ (at the Restaurant Talstation next to the Grünwaldkopfbahn)
Things to do if you’re not skiing:
This year I’m not skiing, since we’re expecting a baby ❤ So I was looking into activities to do apart from skiing.
Winter hiking: there are marked trails for different levels of fitness. If you plan to hike with a baby, use the pram only in the village, up on the mountains use a carrier. You can use the cable cars to go up and then hike down back to the village on a marked trail. You can get all the info and maps at the tourism office in the center of the village.
Cross country skiing: Yes, there’s numerous trails you can choose from. Some are in the village, others are a little outside, one (Taurach slope) connects Untertuern with Radstatt, another one (Gnadenalm) is for every one who wants to try biathlon and there’s even a world cup trail at the valley station of the Zehnerkarbahn.
Tobogganing: I was thinking of trying this, but since the weather wasn’t very nice, I didn’t go. But you can find 6,5 km of tobogganing slopes.
Ski touring: yes, because there’s so much snow, also next to the slopes, Obertauern is great for ski touring. There’s one easy tour, others are moderate to difficult, so if you’re not experienced or unsure, maybe hire a guide at one of the numerous ski schools in the village.
Snow kiting & snow biking: yes, you read right – these two extreme activities are offered in Obertauern. I’m really not an expert on this, so please visit the Obertauern website for more information.
Ok, all those activities are still for active people. But what if you’re in Obertauern on vacation with children or like me pregnant and shouldn’t do too much of the adrenaline activities?
Then you can visit the Wildlife & Leisure Park in Untertauern, where around 40 wild animals wander around an open enclosure.
Or you can do a horse-drawn carriage ride through the snow-covered landscape of Obertauern.
Since our visit was too short to do the above, but I manage to do:
Ride up with a cable car, go for a nice winter walk and enjoy the panorama with some warm drinks.
Enjoy some apres ski in the numerous huts and clubs in the center.
Go shopping, as Obertauern has many shops and also outlets.
Don’t miss the Beatles statue in the center in front of hotel Edelweis. It was errected, because they filmed winter and ski scenes for the movie HELP! in 1965. Fun fact: they couldn’t ski that well, so some locals did the scenes as their doubles. 🙂
The best option in my opinion if you’re there on a snowy weekend like we were: book a hotel with a nice spa area and enjoy the warm saunas, pools and just rest.
Bonus tip: if you’re here for the ski opening, so in December, besides all the events and concerts, there’s also a small Christmas market in the center.
And a few tips for all the skiers:
Start your day early on the sunny side.
Usually everyone is in the huts between 12pm and 2pm, so plan your break before or later and ski in this time frame, because you’ll have the slopes almost to yourselves.
Tauernrunde is a circular ski round you can do in both directions. It is well marked and you’ll need aprox half a day, or do it as Jure did – in one day in both directions.
A very special slope is the “Gamsleiten 2”, which takes you to the highest point of the resort but be aware that there are only black slopes to get down.
The best views are in our opinion from the top of Hundskogel, you can get there by Hundskogelbahn.
If you didn’t have enough during the day, Obertauern offers also night skiing on Monday and Thursday from 7pm to 10pm on the Edelweis chairlift. If you have a ski ticket for at least 1,5 days, you can just show up and ski, otherwise night skiing costs 18,50€ or 16,50€ after 8pm (kids 12€ or 10€).
Every Wednesday they offer early rides from 8:30.
Random good to know’s about Obertauern:
There’s no pharmacy in the village, but you can get medication from a doctor’s office in the center. Be aware that in the afternoon it might get pretty busy.
When ordering a beer in the huts on the slopes, be cautious of the amount – a large beer is sometimes “just” 4dcl (not 5dcl).
It’s the most snow secure ski resort in Austria (so they say 😉), with enough snow for skiing from end of November till beginning of May.
Ski tickets are cheaper than in other big Austrian ski resorts. A day pass will set you back 59€, prepare 2€ for the key card.
If you buy a ticket for at least 1,5 day, you can also ski at the “Grosseck-Speiereck” resort (15 km away in Mauterndorf).
Want to see more? Here’s our vlog (or better said Jure’s), so you can see the slopes, the lifts etc. 😊 For any additional information you can write us on social media (Instagram or YouTube) or visit the Obertauern website.
sLOVEnians travel 