Hi, we booked a flight to Munich for March 2011. We had read on the internet and had it confirmed on Via Michelin and the AA route finders that it would take 3 hours to drive to Ischgl. I then read in the Where to Ski and Snowboard book that it was 4 hours. We are travelling on Saturday afternoon. Has anyone done this trip at this time of year and can they tell us whether we should allow 3 or 4 hours? It’s not the outbound, it’s the getting back to the airport and not missing the plane (but at the same time, we do want to get a mornings skiing in. Cheers John

Flew into Munich for Kappl this year on 2nd Jan. To be honest the roads were horrendous and it took us 5 hours - admittedly the sat nav did not account for a slip road closure and we ended up going north (in extremely busy traffic) for 30 mins or so. However I think the road is OK outwith peak season, but bear in mind that there weill still be loads of German and Dutch folk heading to Austria on any given Saturday of the season and with so few border crossings, the roads do tend to get rammed. Don’t know which route you were thinking about as there is an alternative over some pass (forgotten the name) but this can get very busy too apparently.
I used Hertz and was copmpletely let down - ordered an estate car (2 adults 3 kids plus sets of skis and boots for all of us) and was given a Kia Ce-ed (ie a hatchback) - couldn’t even fit the luggage in let alone the skis. Ended up getting a Zafira which worked out fine.
In terms of who to use for a transfer if you’re noyt hiring a car http://www.tirol-taxi.at/2010b/ this lot seem pretty reasonable

Thanks for that. That’s what I feared. Innsbruck was £500 more whilst I avoided Salzburg because I had read it was 15 mins longer than Munich. How I wish I could change my flight to Salzburg. I know the roads to from Salzburg to Innsbruck are good and under Austrian law, all hire cars have to have snow tyres - none of this extra charge of £115 per booking for tyres that are probably already on the car that you get in Germany. You say your trip was horrendous. Here’s a funny story. Landed at Salzburg at 9:00 one morning and planned to be be in Obergurgl by lunch time. Had printed off a route using RAC and I drove whilst my wife directed. We came off the motorway and started to climb a coll - I thought it was odd there were no signposts to Obergurgl but carried on driving. When we were 3.5 hours into the trip I said something had to be wrong and sent the wife into a hotel to ask directions. My wife (who is fluent in German) came out looking white. The RAC route sent us over a pass that is always closed until June. They estimated it was 4-5 hours to Obergurgl. My wife just wanted to stop there for the night and our eldest boy was feeling car sick - We ended up getting to our resort at 5PM. Easy to laugh and as you can see from Munich, we are still making stupid mistakes.

You might want to check on the winter tyre scenario. Think I read somewhere that new laws come into effect this winter for Germany and winter tyres now must come as standard during winter season. Apparently the car hire companies have been ripping us off for some time now.

Two main problems to look out for on the roads in our experience (three if you include getting round Munich) - crossing over the border into Austria (I had this problem in the summer a few years ago too) and there was a horrendous tailback which disappeared as soon as we passed the exit for Zillertal - the roads past that were a dream.

If you’re going during Fasching week (which I think is 5th March) I would seriously consider getting the train to Landeck from Munich, then taxi.

PS Liked your story. We arrived in Munich at 2pm this year thinking we would be there by 6 - got to Kappl after 9 and the resturaurant had stopped serving, but my wife’s tears worked a treat and we got some food. This year our flight leaves Edinburgh at 06:50 to Innsbruck, so in theory we should be there by lunch.

Jelliot,

I drove from Friedrichsaffen to Ischgl a couple of years in ago in early Feb. It took about 2 hours (using the Arlberg tunnel to be on the safe side, though the pass was open) and was straightforward enough. This was in the days when Ryanair flew there, which I don’t think they now do. Funny enough Boabski, I hired a car through Herz and also got a petrol Kia Ce’ed when I’d asked for a diesel Golf (but at least it was an estate).

A word of caution - the only problem we had was with the Vignette, which you need to drive on the Austrian motorways. They cost about 7 Euro for a week, but if you get caught without one (like we did) it’s a 120 Euro on-the-spot fine, the receipt for which only covers you for that day’s travel so you still have to buy a Vignette. You have to get one before you cross the border from Germany. Of course, I knew about this in advance but Herz could / would not sell me one at the airport. You can get them from petrol stations in Germany but in our case we left it too late, thinking there would be signs saying “you are close to the border - buy your Vignettes here” or something like that. You live and learn - my advice would be to get one at the first petrol station from the airport you come across - the Austrian border cops have heard all the stories before and have no sympathy…

That said, Ischgl was brilliant, the only down-side being the crowded (and slightly mental) main home runs off the mountain…

Just for info - which might help….

Yesterday I booked a hire car from Munich Airport for 4 days with Hertz.  I was basically dropping it off about the same time as picking it up. By varying the dropping of time/picking up time by 15 minutes I saved a ludicrous £110 !  It seemed a bit random, i.e. in the end I picked up at 10:45 am and dropped off at 11am. When i tried 10:30am and 10:45am the price was £110 more…..

Hertz seem to charge 60 Euros for the duration of the hire (however long) for winter tyres. A rip off i know, but I couldn’t risk not having them