If you are in Salzburg and would like to go and see the alps, I think Maria Alm is a good choice, as the village is smaller, less crowded than some others in the area and it is suitable for families.
The village is located in the state of Salzburg, and it took us around 1 hour and 20 minutes driving from the town of Salzburg. But you can take a train from Salzburg to Saalfelden and from there, a 10 mins bus to Maria Alm.
While I was doing my research before going to Salzburg and the alps, I got a little bit confused with the pieces of information I’ve found, but at the end, I’ve figured out how the alps in this area work. Here we go:
Maria Alm is part of the Hochkönig ski area and therefore, part of the Ski Amade.
The Ski Amade is a network of 28 ski areas and towns that combined, make up the second largest ski area in Europe. The Ski Amade is divided into five regions: Salzburger Sportwelt, Dachstein Tauern, Bad Gastein, Hochkönig Ski Area, and Grossarl Valley.
There are around 760 km of slopes and 270 ski lifts, the highest being at the Dachstein Glacier with an altitude of 2,700 m.
You can buy one ticket for all the areas or a ticket for each area. It depends on how many days you are staying and if you want to stay in only one region or travelling around. Your choice!
The Hochkönig Ski Area has around 120 km of slopes and it consists of five different resorts: Maria Alm, Mühlbach am Hochkönig, Hinterthal, Hintermoos and Dienten am Hochkönig.
At the Maria Alm, you can have so much fun doing cross-country skiing, winter hiking, toboggan runs (rodel, schlitten), night skiing and many more. There are 32 km of slopes waiting for you.
But also, you can take the lift and just walk around and appreciate the beautiful scenery.
If you are feeling adventurous, why not to do the Königstour? It is recognised as one of the most beautiful ski tours in the Alps. There are 6 summits, 35 km of slopes and 7500 vertical meters. And the best place to star it is at Maria Alm village. To be clear, this tour is for ski/snowboard only. You can’t do it for tracking/walking.
The town has many restaurants with authentic Austrian cuisine and a few good choices for accommodations.
When we went there, we spent the whole day in Maria Alm as my husband and some friends wanted to learn snowboard and the village, as I’ve said, is less crowded and make you feel more confident in trying to go down the mountain.
Tip: they hired a private instructor just for the 3 of them because it was cheaper than each one paying at the ski school. So check the prices before ok?!
At the end we had a lovely time is this cute little village and I highly recommend it.
Have an excellent winter season! 🙂
For tickets and more information about the Ski Amade area: https://www.skiamade.com/en/winter/skiresorts/hochkoenig/maria-alm
And for information about the Hochkönig area: https://www.hochkoenig.at/en/holiday-salzburg/maria-alm.html
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