Auer-Fiegl

Picked this B&B as it was small, up in the village of Innerwald which is above Solden itself and therefore much quieter, and had direct access to a piste. Bianca who runs the B&B is very friendly and helpful, nothing is too much trouble. She speaks excellent English. The hotel has only a small number of rooms, but these are typical Austrian in style and therefore have plenty of room. They were kept clean every day, decent sized bathroom and fresh towels. Breakfast is service from 8-9.30am, which seeing as the first lift 10 minutes skiing away opens at 8am was a little disappointing, but she is prepared to be flexible if you so wish. Cereals, fruit juices, tea and coffee, bread and rolls, eggs, ham and cheese is all provided. Take slippers or inside shoes with you as they will NOT let you wear outdoor shoes once inside the front door - a good idea if you ask me. There is a ski and boot room 10 metres away up a small slope in the adjacent building, and your front door key opens this room. Boot racks are heated and it is 100% secure. Carry your boots literally 10 feet up an incline, clip into your bindings and you are on a blue run which leads you down to the Glaischkogl gondola in town. This then whisks you up to mid station quickly, from where you can ski back down or go up to 3000m on the next stage and access the whole Solden ski area across to the glaciers. The Glaischkogl gondola does not get queues (early March ski week so not exactly a peak week but I have seen 45 minute queues in other resorts this time of year...) and you will avoid the hassle of trying to get up the Giggijoch lift at the other end of town. The ski area itself is superb - widely varied with runs through the trees, higher exposed skiing and 2 glaciers as well. Buy the 10 euros extra lift pass and ski a day in Obergurgl as well, well worth it. Passes are available in all ski shops, some bars and the lift stations down in Solden itself. Innerwald is a tiny village about 500m up the mountain. It does have one of the liveliest acres ski bars, Philipp, but this is right across the other side of the wide piste and you do not get disturbed at all from Haus Auer-Fiegl. There is little else in the village, other than a handful of hotels, all quite upmarket and all possessing good restaurants - in particular Hotel Gruner across the opposite side of the widest part of the piste. Take good walking shoes with you as you have no alternative other than to risk walking on this piste run on the way out in the evenings!!!! Behind Philipp is the Centrum Lift, a tediously slow lift come funicular type of system that operates up until 11pm every night, so you can ride down into Solden, have dinner and return back to Innerwald free of charge and thus avoiding taxis or very long walks. There are many good restaurants in Solden, the best being in some of the hotels: Hubertus opposite the lift in town is excellent with superb Zweigelt local red wine, Grauer Bear up by the GlaischkoglBahn is also very good and traditional Tirolean fayre. Neither are expensive either. There is a very good Italian, Gusto, in town as well. Ski shops are well stocked and you will find lots of equipment and clothing you cannot buy in the UK. The town is nowhere near as rowdy as some would have you believe, but you can certainly find "banging bars" and strip bars/lap dancing clubs later if thats your bag. Otherwise it is a bigger more towny ski resort at the base of a high valley by Austrian standards, nicely presented and with an upmarket feel to the place. My top tip if you are skiing - take breakfast as early as you can, get up the GlaischkoglBahn by 8.45am latest, and then take the 2nd stage to the top before skiing back to mid station and doing the run off the mountain past Innerwald early before the slopes deteriorate later in the day. Then you can work your way across from mid station to the other areas including the glaciers. Beware the queues at the links to Giggijoch and further round before the Rettenbach - these are unavoidable bottlenecks, but the worst wait we had was 5-10 minutes when on seeing the queue we thought it would be at least double that. Traffic moves quickly, and once up the mountain it spreads out well. The B&B itself has parking places free of charge. We flew to Munich and drove down - 3 and a half hours on a Saturday afternoon. I suggest avoiding Saturday mornings either in or out of the valley however as it is rammed with German and Dutch cars coming or going. We drove back across the FrenPass into Garmisch - more interesting route and shorter distance, but don't do it if you are time sensitive as it does get very busy at weekends. Innsbruck and Friedricshafen would be ideal airports to fly into and drive from. Overall I found this a perfect place to ski if you like good skiing, good standard of accommodation, ease of access to the slopes, and are prepared to do a little bit of exploring on foot to find places to eat at night. There is no bar at the hotel.