Last week was spent skiing down the slopes in Soll, Austria and I can tell you I’m absolutely wrecked!😂 I didn’t share the trip on Instagram, but seeing as I’ve now been lucky enough to go to this particular ski village five times, I felt I should write about it! Love sharing all my tips and tricks in case you are planning a ski trip yourself!
Why Do We Keep Going Back?
We have three reasons why we keep going back skiing to Soll. The first is that the live music is better here than any other skiing town we’ve been to. Most other places have DJ’s playing dance music and German Europop. While it can be funny for a night, it’s just not something I want to listen to for a whole week! In Soll, there is almost always at least one live band playing music somewhere!
The second reason is because the skiing is fantastic! Ski passes are expensive (more on that later), but each time we come back, we can see the money has been pumped into improving the chairlifts, facilities etc. The ski area is huge and varied. It’s a good spot for all levels.
Finally, Austrian skiing has the best value for money. While we have noticed the price for food and drink has gone up this year (where hasn’t?!) eating and drinking out for the week is much cheaper than I’ve seen in other ski resorts. We once paid €10 for a pint in France! And if you if you feel like grabbing lunch on the mountain in Switzerland, you better be prepared to drop a hundred euro! (I haven’t been to Switzerland, but we were talking to people who had skied there recently. Crazy prices!)
Where To Stay
Over the years, we have stayed in many different spots in Soll. Usually it’s in a pension (Austria’s version of a B&B). We feel like skiing is an expensive enough holiday and you don’t spend enough time in the hotel room to justify spending the big bucks! Soll is a pretty, small town. It’s handy because most accommodation is within a ten minute walk to the main crossroads in the centre of the town. (Hotel Feldwebel is on a corner of these crossroads). From here, all the bars and restaurants are within a stone’s throw away!
As I mentioned, we’ve stayed at loads of different pensions and to be honest, they’re all pretty much the same. When we return (cause we probably/hopefully will!) we’re just going to go with whichever is the cheapest option. If I was pushed to name one pension in particular, it would be Pension Raffeiner. We were once, by accident, upgraded to Hotel Feldwebel, which is a four start hotel in the most perfect location. I was so excited leaving for our trip but to be honest, it was just a slightly nicer pension. Certainly wouldn’t have been worth the extra money, if had we had to pay for it! Four star hotels in Ireland are, a lot of the time, above and beyond what they are in other countries.
Food and Drink
This year, there was a new restaurant in town, the Schulhaus and wow, the food was UNREAL!!! We ended up eating here twice and basically dreaming about it for the other five nights!🤤 Maybe the best burger I’ve ever had!
Auf da Muhle has been around for years and the food has always been really good! Solid choice.
The Mill is an Irish bar next to the Auf da Muhle. I normally avoid Irish bars at all costs when we go away, but this one is an exception. Love the hammer and nails game they have and they have live music everyday. The food is just ok here, but handy if you’re caught up in the apres atmosphere and don’t want to leave!
The Umbrella bar is the perfect one to stop off at on your way down from the slopes. It’s always buzzing for apres, even more so when there is live music, though it’s not every day.
S’Austria bar is another good choice and they have live music a lot during the week.
The best band that plays in Soll is The Frog on the Tyne, so if you get a chance to see them, take it! We usually check the Facebook/Instagram page of the three main bars and see where the live music is that day!
A Few Tips and Tricks
- Make sure to rent a spot in the ski garage at the very bottom of the slopes. For a tenner a week, you ski down, take off your boots and skis and you’re immediately ready for a comfortable apres! Possibly more importantly, you don’t have to carry your skis and boots across town in the morning. It’s a one minute bus ride from there to the gondola and there are constantly buses passing. I don’t think you can book ahead of time. We always just pay the tenner when we get there!
- If you want to grab a bus from the town to/from the gondola, most hotels and pensions have the timetables up in the lobby. The buses are free with a valid ski pass…though if you are in your ski gear you will never get asked! 😂
- To make life easy, we hire our ski equipment from the Ski Centre Stoll, which is connected to the garage I mentioned above. This means when you are collecting/dropping off your skis at the end of the week, your shoes are ready and waiting for you. Sounds like such a simple thing, but when you’re tired after a day of skiing, it’s amazing!
- If you arrive to Soll early enough on your first day, make sure to collect your rented ski equipment for your first day of skiing the following day. The queues in the morning, of people collecting their rented gear, are crazy. We were waiting an hour, and that was when it was a little quieter!!
- Most places, including up on the mountain, do not take card as payment. Make sure you bring plenty of cash with you!
- Make sure you visit the igloo on the slopes! It’s one of my favourite spots! There is nothing better, on a sunny day, than sitting on one of the deck chairs with a beer and an igloo behind you! The views are stunning! Inside the igloo is pretty amazing and it changes every year!
- If you are going on a package holiday, you can usually buy your ski pass from the rep on the bus. It’s the same price, but it saves time in the morning. Make sure to take a picture of your ski pass, as it’s the only way to replace it if you do lose it! For a six day ski pass it’s €311.50, so don’t lose your jacket! Plus don’t forget to enter your card details on the Ski Line website. It keeps track of all the km’s and where you travel for the week…very cool!! We try to beat the distance we travel every year!
- If you have been skiing in Soll numerous times, visit the tourist office at the start of the week. Apparently, you are presented with a special pin, marking when you’ve reached a milestone visit. We only found out about it at the end of the trip this year, so I didn’t get my five year pin. But we did meet someone who was has come back to Soll for his 40th ski trip and so received his 40th year pin!
- The closet airport is Salzburg and it’s one of the worst airports ever! The queues are outrageous for both check-in and going through security. We got there three hours before our flight and the flight was just about to start boarding when we finally made it to the departure gates. There is only one, pretty crap, food option in the airport. So we have learned our lesson and we bring all the food we need!
Have you been skiing? Are you a fan??? It’s by far Trevor’s favourite holiday…he’s already looking forward to next year!!! If you have any questions, pop them below! Plus, you can check out the travel guide I made after our ski trip last year to Zell am See!
