Since my husband recently came home from deployment he has a bunch of 4 day weekends in a row which means a lot of traveling for us (well what our wallets will allow!). This weekend we went to Obertauren, Austria which is about an hour south of Salzburg (3.5 hour drive for us). This is a wonderful Alpine resort village for fantastic skiing in the winter and beautiful hiking/biking in the summer. My husband planned this surprise weekend for us as a “welcome home” weekend. He LOVES to ski so I knew that would be included in our weekend but he didn’t forget about me! I got the pleasure of enjoying a spa hotel!
We stayed at the wonderful spa hotel of Hotel Steiner. This hotel is a ski in, ski out location perfectly located right by the ski lifts. There are 26 ski lifts that will take you to 100km of slopes in Obertauren. There are tons of resorts/hotels that are directly on the slopes as well as plenty of restaurants for that mid skiing lunch.
Our hotel was one of the top rated hotels in Obertauren. They had a fantastic wellness area that included a pool, hot tub, multiple saunas, workout room, relaxing areas etc. They also have a spa where you can book treatments such as massages, facials and manicures/pedicures. The hotel is also an all inclusive board, meaning breakfast, lunch and dinner are all included in the price. The meals were all fantastic, a little strange at times but I was willing to try everything. I kept one of the menus so I could remember some of the options (my Mom will be surprised I tried some of this). This was the menu from dinner for our last night.
Salad
Starter:
Apple Mousse with marinated saddle of veal (I picked)
Melon mint juice (husband picked)
Melon mint juice (husband picked)
Soup:
Cream soup of carrots and coconut (we both picked)
Clear soup of beer with biscuit
Main Course:
Roasted gilthead with Mediterranean vegetables and creamy polenta
Medium roasted lamb noisette with vegetables and couscous (we both picked)
Dessert:
Nougat mille feuille with strawberries and balsamic vinegar (husband picked)
Pear “helene” sundae (I picked)
We had 3 nights with dinner all of which I thought were pretty good. All the main dishes I loved, my husband wasn’t a huge fan of the lamb. As you can see some of the description gets lost in translation. I have no idea what a saddle of veal or lamb noisette is but I was willing to try it anyway!
For breakfast: European breakfast is usually always good! They had an assortment of cereal, yogurt with different granolas, fruit, meat, cheese, eggs, sausage, omelets and of course bread and baked goods! My favorite thing was waffles that I dipped in pumpkin honey!!
Lunch was a smaller meal because most people were out skiing and would just eat at a restaurant on the slopes. We decided that if we were paying for lunch we might as well eat it. They had some type of pasta, meat, salad and dessert. The only thing we would complain about is that drinks are not included with the meals. So at dinner if you wanted wine, beer, water, or coke you had to pay for it separately. We just made sure we only had one drink so it didn’t get too expensive.
We didn’t do anything in the town of Obertauren except walk down the street. It’s a typical ski town with tons of ski rentals, shops, restaurants and hotels.
If you choose Obertauren as a place to ski be sure you have snow tires and snow chains with you! It had recently snowed when we got there and saw a few cars with snow chains on. If the weather got bad it would be a difficult place to get to and from. Also remember you need a vignette to drive in Austria.
