Mayrhofen is relatively large for an Alpine ski town. The town offers a wide variety of skiing as it sits between two peaks, Penken and Ahorn. Other ski areas are also close by. Penken is the higher of the two mountains and offers much more in terms of runs with many blue, red and black runs for all levels of skiers. The Penkenbahn Gondola is thus swamped each morning but queues move steadily, however it is best to arrive either early or late each morning. Ahorn is a much quieter mountain with blue and red runs but it is enjoyable in that ski slopes are much quieter and lifts and restaurants are also much easier to access. Mayrhofen offers good snow, facilities, acommodation, scenery and lots of sunshine making it an excellent ski destination. The town is fairly big so there is plenty of apres ski. Lots of bars, cafés and some decent restaurants too. There are also some nice shops. All in all it seems to be slightly upmarket. Most hotels are really quite nice but aren't cheap and the town does seem to be dominated by the larger hotels. The Penken-lift is pretty much smack dab in the centre of town and so as you rise to the top of Penken mountain there are really nice views of the town below. The Ahorn-lift is just a little outside the main area of the town and the walk is a little uphill so if you are carrying your ski gear it's a good idea just to take the ski bus. I don't like taking ski buses because they are always full of somewhat immobile people carrying ski equipment but in this case it is preferable. The trip is nice and short. The Ahorn-lift is much quieter than Penken so at least you don't have to hustle through the queues to grab a gondola. The way up to Ahorn is by cable car and you usually have enough room in the car. Penken offers some really great runs and best of all most are adequately long runs with varying terrain. It's great when a slope has variety. I love constantly challenging runs but I also really love slopes that are high octane and then easy off and become more relaxing only for the gradient to then increase again. The Penken area has that. It also has a number of runs to chose from. You have the runs that take you into isolated areas so that you have to get a lift back to the top and you also have shorter runs that all culminate in one big area of criss-crossing skiers and an array of lifts to choose from. At first such an array that you don't quite know which lift leads to that run that you've spotted from the other side of the mountain. Skiers will know what I mean. Sometimes there are two many lifts in one place and it should be an easy matter to get to the very top of that slope but somehow you always seem to only make it to the second stage. This frenetic area is on the other side of Penken mountain. It's like one giant bowl with everything flowing down to the bottom. From the top you can see hundreds if not thousands of skiers flying or sometimes barely moving down about a dozen or fifteen slopes. In this 'bowl' there is also a cable car lift at one end of the trench and the trench will take you to a peak, not just to top of the slope. It's a very big cable car and it carries about 80-100 people each time it goes up. Even as a skier who has skied in lots of resorts it was kind of weird being on a lift with almost a hundred people. Despite the numbers that go up it isn't actually one of those runs where you feel like you're joined at the hip to about ten other skiers. People take their time and so it isn't one of those horribly crowded runs. It can be frustrating when a really good slope is ruined by its own popularity. The run also feels like a naturally cut route to the bottom, not a flattened piece of hill. It's winding and has some really good turns and lots of steep parts. Over on Ahorn mountain the pace is quite different I must say that despite the lack of variety in terms of runs I still enjoyed Ahorn as much as Penken because it's the most relaxing skiing I've ever done. Even the toughest black slope which is thrilling and envigorating can also be relaxing at the same time. Ahorn has no black runs but it has plenty of relaxing skiing. As I said it is much quieter and the runs are quite wide so despite the less than thrilling gradients you really have the space to generate as much speed as you like. Black runs are great but you often have to be careful or vigilant of the other skiers and so can't ski quite as fast as you like (although sometimes you just say 'to hell with it' and expect people to get out of your way!). Like I said Ahorn is a relaxing and quiet place to ski and it just makes the snow that bit whiter and the sky that bit bluer. It's not hustle bustle and lunchtimes in the restaurants. There are no queues for the lifts. It's very peaceful on this mountain, you can really take you time and you can take a break whenever. There will always be a deck-chair free too which is great. I have a great memory of sitting with my aunt and uncle in a deck-chair. We were sunbathing and watching some of my uncles and cousins ski by. The air was so fresh, it was perfectly warm and I had a nice bottle of coke cooling in a little hole in the snow beside me. That was bliss. You can just lie back and listen the the sounds of skiers swoosh by and the sound of the snow crunching beneath their skis. That is another thing that makes Ahorn good. If you are in a relatively large group with people of mixed abilities it really is great for everyone. The runs aren't massively exciting (although the red run from the welt down to the village is pretty damn good) but experienced skiers will have the space to really generate some speed and can carve out some decent paths on the runs. So you can all ski together, stop as you please at the restaurants and relax as well as have some really good skiing. Another great memory I have from Mayrhofen was when I went down from the mountain relatively early one afternoon to avoid the heavy queues at Penken. We were staying in the Feldwebel hotel which had a lovely leisure centre, it has a pool, jacuzzi and steam room and the poolside area functions as a solarium as this annex of the hotel is built like a greenhouse. It was really special to be swimming around in the poor and relaxing in the warm jacuzzi (I had the whole centre to myself for a while) whilst staring out the window at the sun setting behind snowy mountains. Another moment of bliss in Mayrhofen. It's an excellent ski town which is really peaceful and quaintly lit at night. Unless you are up around the Penkenbahn where all the bars are, then it's pretty lively and not that peaceful, which is good too. Really the only drawbacks are that it is a little expensive compared to other places I've skied (not that I'm the one doing the paying) and also the queues at Penkenbahn can be very long but all in all it's definitely worth it. It's a nice town with some great skiing on offer.

We both booked  a 10 day trip with a German travel agent to Mayrhofen, Austria. The tour started in Hamburg and we met a lot of young people in the bus. The ride took us around 20 hours as well, as we had to stop in Bremen, Cologne and Frankfurt to collect more guests. Finally we reached our hotel and went directly to rent our skies, so that we could start skiing in the huge skiing area. There were around 160 kilometres slopes and a Vans Funpark, as well as the steepest slope in entire Austria, which is called “Hara-kiri”.

In the evenings we went out for dinner to a place called the “Waldcafé” and afterwards we met in one of the bars of Mayrhofen, which was either the “Apropos” or the “Eisbär Bar”. One night I went up the Ahorn-mountain to go for a party in the so called “White Lounge”. A bar and a hotel completely made of snow and ice, which looks really impressive, but it starts getting cold very soon and also there is no option to leave the White Lounge before 11 pm as there are no lifts going. The problem is that if you are freezing up there and you would prefer going back to the valley at 9 pm, you won’t be able to go anywhere and you will have to freeze another 2 hours. Another option would be to start drinking, but as the White Lounge is the only bar up on the mountain you will wonder a bit about the prices for the drinks.

During the day I was practicing in the fun park and I got some really bad looking bruises from the kickers and the rails and in the evenings we usually went out to have a drink and to have a party. The week was really exhausting. ;) Our ride back home was a bit quicker than the drive to Austria, as we didn’t made too many stops.

A friend of mine, who cancelled his vacation with me due to a sport injury, booked this "Landhaus". He was advice by a friend of him and he'd been adviced well. The lady of the house was very welcome and friendly, she was always available and very helpfull, on Christmas night she even brought us to the city so we coul party in town and only have to pay taxi for bringing us home. We only had to pay 16€ pro night including breakfast, very cheap for ski vacation, certainly during the Christmas period. Breakfast was simple, also every day the same, but it was good and when you ate well, you haven't too much at lunch, I had always enough with a good soup. In the evening we could cook our diner in kitchen, we'd to share with other guest, which was well equiped, even with a television! The room was big enough for 2 persons and I slept very well in my bed, we had also a bathroom in our room with a shower, a lavabo and a toilet. The only negative point was the fact we were far from everything and had to take the car to go somewhere, we were 10 km from town and when we wanted to go for a drink, we had to pay a taxi to bring us back. I hope someone can profite from my advice and if so will go there give the lady of house a big hug from David in Belgium

We stayed in Appartement 1 from Haus 68a. We had the whole ground floor to ourselves. It seems that everything was just brand new. It was all very clean too. 2 bedrooms (1 with 2 beds, 1 with 3 beds) and in the living room was an extra bed. A lot of space, good kitchen to cook your meals and 2 bathrooms. Very luxurious! It just outside Mayrhofen, drive up there in 5 minutes and enjoy bars, cafés, great restaurants, live music, etc. You need a car to drive into town and to the lift stations that will bring you up in the mountains. From Mayrhofen you cannot directly slide down a mountain from your hotel. The area is great for hiking in the summer (and winter) also. So if you're not into skiing and snowboarding, it still is a great place to visit! PS I totally forget to mention this: When you ask the friendly lady, there will be fresh baked Kaiser rolls hanging on the door knob every morning when you wake up!! That was THE BEST! Pay the bill when you check out though, hehe.

In winter we (me, my parents & my brother Djuri) always (for 11 years) went to Austria for our annual ski-trip. We've been to different places all over Austria, every year we would try something else, but the last few years we stayed at the Strass Fun& Spa Hotel in Mayrhofen. The ski-area around the hotel is very nice and the hotel is situated in the centre of Mayrhofen next to the ski-lift wich is very convenient. The interior is very luxurious and the rooms are nice and clean The food is great, I remember that I especially liked the breakfast buffet. Normally I dont eat breakfast so that counts for something! The staff is very friendly and there are a lot of facilities at the hotel. Like for example the spa area and there is a discotheque in the basement of the hotel wich is very nice. There is the normal Strass hotel and the Strass sport hotel. They are both nice but one of them is more luxurious. It's not cheap but if you just need a break and want to treat yourself to something nice you should visit this hotel.

Great place to go to after a day on the slopes. A very lively atmosphere really friendly staff and locals. Good place to tips of places to go on the mountain and has a strong snowboarding culture inside the pub.