The Skiers' Guide to Zillertal Arena

Super experience. A great resort for intermediate. A lot of fun long runs with ability to swap between blue and red runs. Easy to find quieter runs.

My husband and I, booked to ski end of January, which is usually hit and miss with snowfall, however the Zillertal 3000, Arena area is perfect as its high enough to keep the snow, when the valley melts. We stayed in a lovely air b n b in Finkenberg, not far from the main town of Mayrahofen. Finkenberg has its own Gondular up,which connects you to a hub of ski schools, places to eat and Blue and Red runs. That was the nice thing, ease into skiing on a few long blue runs, with Huts for coffee,yagertees,Gluwein and beers along the route, before a spot of lunch and the more demanding red runs.
The cable car, ski lift network was vast, all interconnected, which made getting around a breeze.
For me,I found a lot of very wide and long Blue and Red runs, plenty of snow, with some Red runs maybe needing a plus sign next to them, as there were parts of them quite steep.
My friends that were with us were Snow Boarders, and they enjoyed the snow parks, and the powder snow slightly off the main runs. I enjoyed getting lost in the massive amount of choices that were available each day.
After 4 days exploring, we decided to take the free greenline bus in the morning up to the Hintertux Glacier and catch a lift up to the highest point to marvel at the 360 scenic view of the snow covered Mountain tops, breathtaking !
All in all I would say money well spent. Fantastic skiing,so much choice it was ridiculous.
Lastly..flew into Innsbruck , a transfer was going to be £322 for two of us round trip, which i thought was too much, so I looked at public transport,as we had no equipment to carry. I downloaded the Austrian OBB app and paid €39 for two of us each way €78 round trip for both of us, massive saving..and added to the excitement of going native lol. All in All we will definitely go back.

This was the first visit for a group of five guys.
We were unsure due to the lack of British reviews but how wrong were we to doubt it.
We all have mainly skied in France and have a general love of France ski resorts and après ski and now we all feel that Austria will become our new go to.
There is a huge range of accommodation from hostels through to high end hotels with spas.
The lift systems are very efficient, comfortable and with modern clean toilets at the base of every lift system, a nice change from what we all find at many resorts around the world.
Many of the seats both in gondolas and bench seats are heated with many having a bubble cover also.
There are many family and first time skier areas mid mountain accessible both ways via gondola which helps them still get to see the views and not feel left behind.
The pistes are very well groomed and what we would class, true to their colour.
This resort, whilst suitable in some areas for kids and families, is more geared, we feel, to intermediates and expert skiers.
We would say that there are more red runs than any other, and then lack runs except for a few are steep, narrow and icy, with some more moguls than others.
If you are stopping at Seppies for a few drinks before the end of the day and heading back to Königsleiten, then you will have to ski a rather steep and mogul full black with plenty of ice due to it being in the shade for most of the afternoon.
There is a playful red and two easy blacks down to Gerlos from Seppies also.
There are some fun wide blues for families and new skiers which are accessible up and down on lift systems.
Some fun time trials, photo stands and plenty of restaurants to close from on the mountain.
With regards to Après ski, this place is typically Austrian. Loud, friendly and plentiful. Dancing on tables is manditory as are angry alligators shot games. After après food is readily available to help soak up some of the alcohol.
This resort it predominantly visited by Dutch who are a friendly bunch and also know how to party hard. Just ask to join in their games and they will welcome you with open arms.
The taxi drivers who are not Austrian, we found, try and pull a fast one. We recommend asking them to run the meter as they tend to pluck a figure out of the sky.
One word of advice is to take cash money. Many bars and restaurants have a minimum spend of €40/50 for card use and taxis don’t take card payment unless they charge and extra €10. Cash really is king here so don’t say that you were not warned.
A half pint is around €5 and a pint around €9.
Food is cheaper than in France we found, with a good quality pizza around €16.
The lift pass was around €380 for six days and there wasn’t an option to add on the helicopter insurance as a daily add on as you do in France.
Whilst we were there, a guy femured himself and it cost him €5000 for the helicopter. His British EHIC card payed for the operation. So we advise taking out good travel insurance to cover helicopter rescue.
We were a group of three boarders and two skiers and we all found the whole area good fun with maybe two very short flat spots to hassle the boarders.
Would we go back to Austria? certainly. Would we go back to Zillertal Arena, defiantly. Roll on next season.