When he became part of a huge ski group and a member of a ski-loving family, Little Traveller's first overseas trip was to Kitzbuhel, a very popular ski town in the Austrian Alps, when he was 1.
For the last few years, we've been going abroad with our friends to ski and every year new friends are added to our group. I was happy to organize our vacation. This time, when our little members joined us, we added grandparents to our group. So we became a big group of 35 people.
We've been to Kitzbuhel before, and the main reason we chose the same place to go with the kids again was because it was easy to get there. We flew straight from Ankara to Münich. It was really hard to stall the little one in our arms for three hours. A bag full of junk and toys i took with me only managed us for about 20 minutes. When we arrived at Münich airport, our pre-arranged transfer bus didn't expect us for the first time! We waited for someone else to be sent to replace our bus, which crashed for about 1.5-2 hours… When we finally got our bus, we arrived at our hotel in Kitzbuhel after about an hour and a half.
If I say our hotel, it's actually a small, family-run hostel: Pension Schmidinger. The most important reason we chose this place was its location and price. The price was really convenient and it was within walking distance of both the centre and the main gondola. The rooms were simple but of course they were very clean. We dare stay in places like this because we have never had any problems with this in Austria. I just regretted that we didn't stay apart afterwards. There's very little choice of food for young kids in restaurants, and ours is very selective. Fortunately, we had friends who couldn't fit into our hotel and stayed in the apartment, so I prepared practical things like vegetable omelettes and soup. Besides, washing bottles in the room, etc. was very difficult.
This kind of ski towns are usually full of one or two main gons. My advice is to go to the main gondola and rent the nearest ski cupboards there, as we did on the first day. In the following days you can get rid of the problem of ski transport and ski shoes and get out of your hotel and get to the gondo.
The formula for skiing with young kids is simple. When you go up with the main gondola, a restaurant with a terrace with very nice views is reached. There's no problem dating the stroller. Everything's been considered, and the officers are very helpful. Our formula is to leave the children and grandmothers in this restaurant, ski for an average of 2 hours, and in the meantime, get a continuous status report by radio and go back to the restaurant. Then we went to the town without slipping, either less of missing or grandmas, after eating for the children and eating ourselves. Well, of course, with a 1-year-old boy skiing, that's all. But in fact, it's enough to take the mountain air like mis, sit against the magnificent view and have a cup of coffee, even take a short walk between the quaint chalets. Besides, we even did a very enjoyable carriage trip.
Let's go to Kitzbuhel…. This is actually my favorite ski resort. It has pistes that will satisfy skiers at all levels, which are 170km away in total. Even the world's hardest ski slope, Streif is also here.
The town is cute or in the mood of a cute authentic mountain town… It is very enjoyable to stroll around, sit in cafes or hang out in apre-ski bars as the centre is closed to traffic. There's even a casino for those who want it. Prices are more affordable than other popular ski towns.
Austrian food is delicious. My favorites are Tiröler Gröstl, made with roasting meat and potatoes, Spaetzle and, of course Schnitzel, a kind of macaroni with onions and cheese. As a group, we prefer to go to a different restaurant every evening and eat dinner instead of eating dinner at the hotel. We also choose our restaurants as a result of advice and research. There was a little problem this time, but we couldn't fit in the restaurants:) So we had dinner at Eggerwirt for three dinners, where we liked their food and could also fit. The food and service were also very good. Other restaurants we like are Zinnkrug, a restaurant right across from Eggerwirt and a Croatian restaurant with all kinds of dishes.
When we go on a week's ski vacation, I love taking a day's skiing break and exploring the place. My goal on the Kitzbuhel holiday was to arrange a day trip to Salzburg. Salzburg is only an hour and a half away from Kitzbuhel, but unfortunately all the children, including ours, were fired, so we couldn't make this trip. If you have the opportunity and you go, I say take Salzburg on your list of sights…
Advice to the parents of Little Travellers:
1. When you're very young, choose to stay in apartments instead of a hotel room.
2. Don't go without a stroller.
3. Take all your child's medicine with you. Especially when i boarded the plane, I can say that all the children in the group are sick…