Travel advice for Austria

Monkeyz

Monkeyz

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Hello all
I successfully achieved a sales incentive at my work
It was organized by one of our suppliers and the reward is a tour of their HQ in Salzburg Austria and a ski trip
It will be for a week, sometime late Jan early Feb 2025

This will be my first time traveling to anywhere that isn't in SA or Moz
The supplier is handling accommodations thankfully.

What clothing to get and if my cellphone charger and sims will work is my main concerns
Any other tips or recommendations will be welcome
 
Monkeyz said:
Hello all
I successfully achieved a sales incentive at my work
It was organized by one of our suppliers and the reward is a tour of their HQ in Salzburg Austria and a ski trip
It will be for a week, sometime late Jan early Feb 2025

This will be my first time traveling to anywhere that isn't in SA or Moz
The supplier is handling accommodations thankfully.

What clothing to get and if my cellphone charger and sims will work is my main concerns
Any other tips or recommendations will be welcome
Click to expand...

Your two pin charger will work.
Get an eSIM if your phone supports it.
Sacher torte isn’t that great.
 
Going to be kak cold.

Ask them to send you when it's warmer. :)

January in Austria is on average a very cold month, with a minimum temperature of -6.2 degrees Celsius, a maximum of 1.1 °C, and therefore a daily average of -2.6 °C
Click to expand...
 
You can buy decent ski gear at like Outdoorwarehouse or you can buy there, plenty big sports shops around all the ski resorts. You will need ski pants, set you back around R1,500 I guess by K-way., then a decent jacket, gloves and a beenie. Some people prefer goggles to ski with others don't.

Hope you got lots of moola as skiing is effing expensive! you gonna need to budget around :

1) a days ski pass will start at R1,200 this gets cheaper the more days you buy
2) ski rental gear, boots + skis + pole + helmet will be anothe R1,000 per day
3) food and drinks on the slops, another R800

So like R3,000 per day at minimum....
 
As others have said, skiing is expensive.
Rent your gear there, would also suggest you rent ski clothing as well unless you think you'll do it a few times in the next few years (though fashion choice there is questionable). Suggest you also do skiing lessons there for the first 2 days, so if you want to buy a pass, do it for the second day onward. Doing sunglasses for skiing is fine, invest once you do your second trip.

Can get kway stuff, generally works, Salzburg is one of the most expensive cities in Austria, joke is that it gets you ready for Switzerland. I find that better quality clothing is cheaper in Austria than South Africa but you lack the cheaper tier being easily accessible, so basically pricing is premium.

Highly recommend either going puffer jacket or longer coat to knees, make sure they are for winter. Doing 2/3 layers is generally better (kway pullover is great for this), but you want to be able to remove as inside everywhere there is heating to 23C+, some restaurants will be like 26C+.

Note skiing clothing should be able to handle getting wet.


Wrath of Khan said:
2) ski rental gear, boots + skis + pole + helmet will be anothe R1,000 per day
Click to expand...
Would rather say that it's ~20 EUR/day for most as an average, even the most premium is ~R700, but talking about doing a week. For a few days it will go up, but still like 25 EUR/day for basic, and as a beginner you definitely don't need more.
Wrath of Khan said:
3) food and drinks on the slops, another R800
Click to expand...
Not sure how this budget works, this is dependent on how many, where, etc.
Definitely did less than that my last trip.
 
Get a Visual SIM with an app called Airalo works really well.

Get yourself some decent snow boots / shoes to use everyday as well a marino wool socks.

Decent set of gloves for Skiing and then rent the rest of the gear at the slopes.

Puffer jacket and a couple of layers will keep you warm, or buy a ski jacket from a department store as they are better suited for ski passes and have vents to cool you down.

Skiing in Austria is awesome but incredibly difficult. I tried and then decided to rather drink beer and jagermeister watching every one else.
 
Johnatan56 said:
As others have said, skiing is expensive.
Rent your gear there, would also suggest you rent ski clothing as well unless you think you'll do it a few times in the next few years (though fashion choice there is questionable). Suggest you also do skiing lessons there for the first 2 days, so if you want to buy a pass, do it for the second day onward. Doing sunglasses for skiing is fine, invest once you do your second trip.

Can get kway stuff, generally works, Salzburg is one of the most expensive cities in Austria, joke is that it gets you ready for Switzerland. I find that better quality clothing is cheaper in Austria than South Africa but you lack the cheaper tier being easily accessible, so basically pricing is premium.

Highly recommend either going puffer jacket or longer coat to knees, make sure they are for winter. Doing 2/3 layers is generally better (kway pullover is great for this), but you want to be able to remove as inside everywhere there is heating to 23C+, some restaurants will be like 26C+.

Note skiing clothing should be able to handle getting wet.



Would rather say that it's ~20 EUR/day for most as an average, even the most premium is ~R700, but talking about doing a week. For a few days it will go up, but still like 25 EUR/day for basic, and as a beginner you definitely don't need more.

Not sure how this budget works, this is dependent on how many, where, etc.
Definitely did less than that my last trip.
Click to expand...

cheapest you'll get is 30 EUR and that'll probably be hard to find or rubbish, you can't just rent skis... you still need boots + poles + helmet.

on the slops at all the little stops you are going to have a hot chocolate = 7 eur, lunch beer is 7 eur, and how about a weiner schnitzel 17 eur... you want pudding, pancake is 8 eur... maybe a late afternoon beer, another 7 eur. Total = 46 eur / R903 for the days eating... this excludes breakfast which you hopefully ate at your accomodation. And these are all the bare minimum prices... go to the big ski places and its more.

show me your food prices on the slopes for the day 👀
 
Wrath of Khan said:
cheapest you'll get is 30 EUR and that'll probably be hard to find or rubbish, you can't just rent skis... you still need boots + poles + helmet.

on the slops at all the little stops you are going to have a hot chocolate = 7 eur, lunch beer is 7 eur, and how about a weiner schnitzel 17 eur... you want pudding, pancake is 8 eur... maybe a late afternoon beer, another 7 eur. Total = 46 eur / R903 for the days eating... this excludes breakfast which you hopefully ate at your accomodation. And these are all the bare minimum prices... go to the big ski places and its more.

show me your food prices on the slopes for the day 👀
Click to expand...
You're right, I last went in 2021, pricing has jumped insanely in Austria (seems like 40-50%). Do note that intersport is one of the most expensive places to get it from though, but it depends which slope you go for an alternative.

Beer should be 5 EUR for a half liter though, and Schnitzel at 17 is going to be a more expensive place, the question there is whether you're going to go to more expensive places, but if you're already spending thousands of rand to be there, saving R50 a meal is not really going to be the priority.

(As an aside, Gastronomy is the main reason for inflation in Austria, it's absurd: https://www.derstandard.at/story/30...-gastronomie-ist-die-teuerung-doppelt-so-hoch, https://www.wko.at/oe/tourismus-freizeitwirtschaft/gastronomie/preiserhoehungen-inflation)
 
Johnatan56 said:
You're right, I last went in 2021, pricing has jumped insanely in Austria (seems like 40-50%). Do note that intersport is one of the most expensive places to get it from though, but it depends which slope you go for an alternative.

Beer should be 5 EUR for a half liter though, and Schnitzel at 17 is going to be a more expensive place, the question there is whether you're going to go to more expensive places, but if you're already spending thousands of rand to be there, saving R50 a meal is not really going to be the priority.

(As an aside, Gastronomy is the main reason for inflation in Austria, it's absurd: https://www.derstandard.at/story/30...-gastronomie-ist-die-teuerung-doppelt-so-hoch, https://www.wko.at/oe/tourismus-freizeitwirtschaft/gastronomie/preiserhoehungen-inflation)
Click to expand...

This is Max Pub, on the cheapest slopes in Austria, just this little pub that you sit outside, their prices as you say have jumped 50% at least..
imagine having a lunch + pudding + beer = 36 euros / R700....
Austria used to be decently priced, not break your spine and sell your kids expensive.
Doesn't help the Rand has lost 50% as well

only holidays one can afford are sitting in the garden looking at old photos

Winter


222.jpg

111.jpg
 
oh and the prices above are in Euros so times by 19.13 <-- and that's a good rate! lol :ROFL:
 
Monkeyz said:
Hello all
I successfully achieved a sales incentive at my work
It was organized by one of our suppliers and the reward is a tour of their HQ in Salzburg Austria and a ski trip
It will be for a week, sometime late Jan early Feb 2025

This will be my first time traveling to anywhere that isn't in SA or Moz
The supplier is handling accommodations thankfully.

What clothing to get and if my cellphone charger and sims will work is my main concerns
Any other tips or recommendations will be welcome
Click to expand...

It will be seriously cold outside but indoors it should feel comfortably warm, central heating is big in Europe while in SA we suffer lol.

2 pin charger works fine in Europe.

When I went to Vienna I used my Vodacom sim with a roaming bundle for data + minutes. Others on Vodacom Prepaid worked without issue but on my contract sim I had to phone the SA callcentre for them to provision it for “Network Synchronization” and “Network Services Option” so that I could use 4G and 5G properly.

Other tips, Europe is very expensive so start budgeting now already.
Check your airline's policy on luggage sizes so you can see if your existing luggage is too big.
If you have an iPhone I would also recommend popping an Airtag into the luggage, gave me peace of mind that it did make it on the plane when I was waiting for it.
 
NR7 said:
When I went to Vienna I used my Vodacom sim with a roaming bundle for data + minutes. Others on Vodacom Prepaid worked without issue but on my contract sim I had to phone the SA callcentre for them to provision it for “Network Synchronization” and “Network Services Option” so that I could use 4G and 5G properly.
Click to expand...
I would highly recommend not roaming on a South African SIM, get e.g. HoT in Austria, support eSim (https://www.hot.at/shop/checkout/index.html#esim or buy in a Hofer). The calls/data is cheaper and you won't have an issue with roaming out of bundle. Just note Switzerland is not part of the inclusive EU roaming, and make sure on HoT that you set it so it's a once off airtime purchase or set the limit to 0.
 
Johnatan56 said:
I would highly recommend not roaming on a South African SIM, get e.g. HoT in Austria, support eSim (https://www.hot.at/shop/checkout/index.html#esim or buy in a Hofer). The calls/data is cheaper and you won't have an issue with roaming out of bundle. Just note Switzerland is not part of the inclusive EU roaming, and make sure on HoT that you set it so it's a once off airtime purchase or set the limit to 0.
Click to expand...

Just make sure you can still receive SA calls and SMSes. My bank blocked my Ubers and I had to sms them to allow my card to pay, despite telling them I would be overseas before flying. One time the sms was delayed and then even phoned me.

And to avoid sim swap scams too, if you don’t get the SMS to reply and cancel a fraudulently initiated sim swap then you can have major issues.
 
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