
One of my favourite things about living in Salzburg, where I can see the mountains from my balcony, is that I can take the train or the car for an hour or two to any of the hundreds of ski hills around me for a day of skiing, and still make it home in time for dinner.
I learned to ski in 2015, at the age of nineteen, and felt hugely behind in picking up this skill set, especially living in Canada where it seems like kids are born and raised on skis! I spent the next three years after that honing my skills but then, long-term traveling and ultimately moving to Europe, meant leaving my skis, along with everything else I owned, behind. Firstly in a storage unit in Canada and later with my parents in California, my boxes waited patiently for me to one day (three years later!) to come and claim them again. When the US border finally reopened at the end of 2021 after nearly two years of COVID-related closures, I was finally able to make the trip back to California for the holidays. It was an ideal opportunity to go through all my stuff and decide what to bring back to Austria, including my boots and skis!
→ Check out everywhere I've skiied around the world so far!
It was with great excitement that we packed up the car for our first ski day of 2025 on the gorgeous hills of Obertauern under a bright, sunny, blue sky with perfect snow conditions.
By flight: The closest international airport to Obertauern is in Salzburg.
By car: Of course, the easiest way to get to Obertauern with all your ski gear in tow is to travel with your own wheels. Obertauern is about one hour and 20 minutes drive south from Salzburg. There is plenty of parking at Obertauern but it can get full early with mountain-goers so plan to arrive early to get a good spot near the base of one of the ski lifts. We parked at P5, but I think the best parking is at P4.
→ If you don't have your own car, you can rent one in Salzburg.
By train: You can reach Obertauern from Salzburg by train and bus, a popular option if you don't have your own car. The train takes an hour and 20 minutes from Salzburg Hbf to Radstadt from where you transfer to bus 280 to reach Obertauern for a further half hour. Tickets can be purchased on ÖBB.

Views from the drive between Salzburg and Obertauern

Obertauern Ski Resort




P5 at Obertauern
There are a number of places to buy ski passes at Obertauern; the base of most of the chair lifts will offer a Kassa to purchase your chosen pass. There are a few different options depending on if you want to ski for a half-day, full-day, multiple days, the whole season or - as we did - ski from 11am onwards, all with different pricing. You can also purchase your tickets online in advance. You'll be issued with a ski pass which you can tuck into your ski jacket for easy scanning through the chair lifts.
→ Check out the different ticket options at Obertauern.
I loved the variety of pistes, views, lifts and levels of runs at Obertauern. It didn't feel too big and overwhelming (such as it did at Saalbach-Hinterglemm or Kitzbühel) but really was just a super fun day out. Our favourite lift was the Zehnerkarbahn with incredible views.
The one thing we didn't love was that they decided, unannounced, to close the lifts 15 minutes early meaning we had to hike back to our car through the snow instead...!

Obertauern Piste Map via skiresort.at
















Final light on our final run
Obertauern is fairly large, so you'll find plenty of options in the village. Most of the hills also have a mountain hut - and I can say hand-on-heart that when you're skiing, there is just nothing better than hut food! My typical favourite traditional Austrian dishes - most of which are found in mountain huts - are:
- käsespätzle - cheesy baked noodle-like balls, usually topped with crispy onions
- kaiserschmarrn - shredded pancakes served with marmelade and dusted with powdered sugar
- germknödel - a massive fluffy dumpling, often with marmelade inside, covered in vanilla sauce and sprinkled with poppy seeds
- frittatensuppe - shredded pancakes in broth (usually beef broth, but can often be found in a vegetable broth for us vegetarians!)
- almdudler - a soda that tastes like the perfect mix between ginger ale and lemonade
- heiße schokolade - okay, this isn't typically Austrian, but there's just something about an oat milk hot choc on a ski day
We ate at the Gamsmilchbar, the highest restaurant in the Obertauern region at the top of the Zehnerkarbahn and can confirm it was absolutely delicious.



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Hi! I’m Jana, a Dutch-German-British-Canadian with a dream of seeing every country in the world. I am a storyteller, photographer and adventurer passionate about documenting and sharing my travels.