Can an Austrian hostel give a luxury ski chalet a run for its money?

"For many families, the dream of a catered chalet and its ready-lit fires, homemade strudels and chauffeured lift shuttles remains just that. Apartments offer access to the slopes at less vertigo-inducing prices, but they tend to come with a minimum seven-night stay. If you only have a few days to spare, or a budget that won't stretch to a full week's lift pass, hotels fill the gap, but then you're back navigating the moguls of cost."

"Opened in December 2021 within a stately, blue-shuttered villa built in the early 1900s as a hospital and maternity facility, this is the first and, so far, only hostel in the Montafon ski area. Five minutes' walk from the town's railway station, and across the road from a bus stop, it is also, crucially, just two minutes' ski-booted shuffle from a gondola station."

"Above the ground-floor restaurant and bar are 13 bedrooms and bunkrooms, some doubles, the others sleeping up to eight people in cosy wooden sleeping pods. Although there is not, yet, any kind of communal games room or lounge, there is a shared kitchen and, in a playful homage to the building's former function as a baby unit, a run of bathrooms tiled in pink."

St Josefsheim, Austria's first hostel in the Montafon ski area, provides an affordable alternative to expensive catered chalets and week-long apartment rentals. Opened in December 2021 in a historic early-1900s villa, the hostel features 13 bedrooms and bunkrooms with wooden sleeping pods, a shared kitchen, and ground-floor restaurant and bar. Located in Schruns, a small western Austrian town, the hostel sits just two minutes' walk from a gondola station and five minutes from the railway station, offering convenient access to five skiing areas. This accommodation option bridges the gap for families seeking ski holidays without the high costs of traditional luxury options or minimum week-long stays.

Read at www.theguardian.com