From
the UK, the closest airports to Pertisau are Innsbruck,
Salzburg and Munich.
For those traveling from outside Europe, Munich and Vienna
are probably the easiest and cheapest starting-points to reach (without adding
on the expense and inconvenience of taking connecting flights to the smaller
airports). From
Jenbach to Pertisau you have the option of the Postbus, a taxi, or the
Achenseebahn steamtrain.
We
recommend traveling by rail in Austria. The
trains are clean, fast, and reliable in a way that is positively disconcerting
to the British traveler. The
Austrian Rail Network website, OEBB, can be accessed here
(in English but if you wish to purchase a ticket online, that website is as yet
only available in German). Note
that every train has a unique number, like a flight number, and it’s very
important to make a note of the one you wish to catch, so as to be sure you’re
getting on the right train. The
number should be displayed on the doors to each carriage.
Rol and Kaz neglected this advice to their peril one day which resulted
in an involuntary tiki-tour of the Salzkammergut!
There
are first and second-class carriages (second-class is perfectly respectable!)
and a reasonable amount of room to store luggage.
A “Grossraumwagen” (open carriage) is usually better in this respect
than an “Abteilwagen” (old-fashioned compartment train, with corridor).
Rol and Kaz nearly ruptured themselves lifting their cases down from the
racks in an Abteilwagen. Cases can
be stored between the seats of a Grossraumwagen.
It’s
possible to buy your train tickets online for travel within Austria only,
from the Austrian Rail website, about a month before your travel dates, and you
can print your own ticket on the spot (which takes the form of a sheet with a
large and apparently scrambled bar-code on it – don’t worry; they’re meant
to look like this!) You can also
reserve seats while you’re making your booking.
This carries a small extra charge – about 3.40 Euros per journey –
but on the long journeys such as Vienna-Jenbach, it is worth it to be sure of
getting a seat. Wandering up and
down a quarter-mile-long train lugging all your suitcases in search of a seat is
no picnic! You can request a window
seat, in a smoking or non-smoking carriage.
When a ticket inspector checks your self-printed ticket he or she may
request ID to confirm your ownership of the ticket – passport or photo
driver’s license is fine.
Traveling
on the Austrian Rail Network is much simpler than the UK. Most inter-city trains run every day, so you can make
journeys on Saturdays and Sundays as easily as on weekdays. There are no arcane
rules about when you can travel/which routings etc, and costing is done on a
per-kilometer basis (so a return fare costs twice the price of a one-way fare).
There are no discounts for advance purchase, but for people not traveling
solo there is a kind of two-for-the-price-of-one discount known as an
“Ein-Plus-Freizeit ticket” (if it’s cheaper for you to use this ticket,
you will be offered it automatically by the online ticketing website, or over
the counter, so you don’t need to ask for it specially).
If you purchase tickets online, you will be required to name a date and
the tickets will be valid only for that day – but if you purchase them
over the counter, they will be open-dated (unless you wish to reserve seats on a
particular train). It’s possible
to get a network card known as a “Vorteil Karte” which gives discounts on
fares, but the expense of purchasing the card is not worth it for people making
a short visit. Again, there are
Senior Cards available, but unless you plan to travel alone, the discounts
obtained by purchasing one aren’t any greater than those available from the
Ein-Plus-Freizeit tickets (as Rol discovered, when she traveled round Austria
with her father some years back).
Travellers
coming from outside Europe might be interested in purchasing a Eurail pass,
which can only be bought outside Europe. Information
about these can be obtained here.
Unless you’re planning to travel around a lot, it’s not much of a
saving and easier to buy tickets when you need them (since Eurail passes do have
quite a lot of complicated rules attached to their use).
If
you arrive in Munich Aiport,
it’s possible to catch the U-Bahn (Schnellbahn S8) from Munich Airport to the
Munich East (München Ost) railway station and from there take a train to Jenbach,
the closest station to Pertisau. There
are direct trains from Munich East to Jenbach about every two hours, and the
journey takes about two hours and twenty minutes.
There are other trains where you are required to change once, at Rosenheim,
which take a little longer. The
German Railway website Deutschebahn
has information on Schnellbahn and network train times, in German and in English.
It is possible to order tickets online from this website, for delivery by mail.
You need to allow delivery time for addresses abroad - check the site for details.
It is also possible to order tickets by phone from the UK office of Deutschebahn.
This website has details. It is possible
to buy a ticket covering your whole journey from Munich Airport to Jenbach,
via the Schnellbahn and the network train. In August 2006, a single ticket
for this journey including seat reservation cost Roley 30.60 Euros.
If
you arrive in Vienna
Airport, if you wish to travel straight onto Pertisau, the best way to do so
is to take the Airport Bus from the airport to the West Railway Station (Wien
Westbahnhof). The bus runs every
half hour, costing 6 Euros one-way or 11 Euros return and the journey to the
Westbahnhof (the last stop on the route) takes about thirty-five minutes.
Luggage can be stowed in the hold under the bus, so this is the easiest
way to get across Vienna with an enormous suitcase!
Timetables for the Airport-Westbahnhof buses can be viewed here
(PDF). From the Westbahnhof, there
are direct trains to Jenbach approximately every two hours, with the journey
taking about four and a half hours.
Salzburg
Airport is Rol’s preferred choice for UK residents heading to Pertisau –
mostly because of the cheap twice-daily Ryanair flights from London Stansted to
Salzburg. In summer there are also
some charter flights from other British airports and flights on Flybe several
times a week from Southampton to Salzburg.
From the airport, to reach the Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) you
can take either a taxi (cost about 10-15 Euros depending on traffic) or the
Stadtbus no. 2 (1.80 Euros from the driver or roadside machine, ample room for
luggage). To reach the
airport bus stop, exit the arrivals terminal, go straight ahead across the car
park, and the bus stop is on the road, near a little automatic machine that
sells tickets. Direct trains to
Jenbach run every two hours and take about an hour and a half.
A return rail trip from Salzburg to Jenbach currently costs around 55
Euros for one person; two people traveling together can do so much more cheaply
on Ein-Plus-Freizeit tickets.
Innsbruck
Airport is also close to Pertisau and there are several flights a week from
London Gatwick to Innsbruck on British Airways.
These tend to be quite expensive –
and they seem to be a factor in bumping up the price of the package
holidays. From Innsbruck airport
you need to travel across town to the railway station to catch one of the
frequent trains to Jenbach (about 20 minutes by train; approximately 5.50 Euros
one way if memory serves). Innsbruck
public transport, I’m sorry to say, is an impenetrable mystery to Rol and Kaz
so we suggest a taxi! According to
the airport website, Bus F travels from the Airport to the Hauptbahnhof at
15-minute intervals, the journey taking 18 minutes.
So
you’ve arrived in Jenbach and scrambled out of the train, double-quick (and do
hurry; the expresses only stop for about 40 seconds so make sure you and your
suitcase are by the door and ready to hurl yourself out onto the platform the
minute the train stops – wheeled suitcases are advised!)
There are lifts and an underground walkway for getting between platforms
at the western end, by the way, so please do not dash across the tracks!
Though
the Chaletians always traveled to Pertisau from Jenbach via the little steamtrain
and ferry, nowadays both vehicles get very crowded so it’s not really practical
to travel this way if you are taking luggage.
On a daytrip, however, it is ideal (for more information see our Getting
Around and Daytrip to Pertisau sections).
For travellers with luggage, a taxi or the Postbus are a better bet.
You
can catch a taxi from Jenbach station to Pertisau from the carpark behind the
stationhouse, in front of the Alte Toleranz (there isn't an actual taxirank but
the taxis are labelled so march up to one and demand a ride!).
It takes 15-20 minutes depending on how furiously fast the driver goes. In August 2006 it cost Rol 22 Euros for this journey.
Alternately,
you can catch the Postbus from Jenbach to Pertisau.
The bus may be labelled 8332 or possibly 4080 and it leaves from the
bus stop (Haltestelle) on the southern side of the station, past of the tracks
of the Zillertalbahn, not, as you might expect, by the stationhouse (on the
northern side of the station). There
is a bus shelter at the bus stop and a timetable mounted on a pole.
Here are most recent timetables for the Jenbach-Pertisau
bus.
If
you have a hotel booking for Pertisau you are entitled to travel there and back
from Jenbach for free on the Postbus on the days of your arrival and departure.
Just show the driver a copy of your hotel booking.
Otherwise it costs something over five euros one way, I think (a bigger
party, therefore, makes a taxi an economical choice for a daytrip).
There is not a huge amount of room for luggage in the bus (some space by
the back door) and the bus does fill up with school children in the afternoon as
you drive through Jenbach.
The
journey up to Pertisau on the Postbus is a bit of a strain as you will probably
need to change buses when you reach Maurach High School to go onto Pertisau.
You can ask the driver if you have to change (“ich will nach Pertisau
fahren – muss ich im Maurach umsteigen?” but even German-speakers may have
difficulty interpreting the grunted response.)
If feeling specially bold, you can figure it out thusly – when the bus
reaches Maurach, it drives through the village and does a sharp right-hand turn
and climbs a steep hill towards the Rofan cable car station.
Take a look at the bus parked on your left as you go up the hill (if
there is one parked there). If it
has “Pertisau” written on the front you will need to change onto it! The
Maurach bus will stop at the foot of the Rofan cable car station, and then turn
a circle round a roundabout and come back the same way down the hill and stop
again beside the high school (now on your right, a little below the level of the
road). You can then if need be rush off the Maurach-Achenkirch bus
onto the Pertisau bus, which will be parked in front. The Pertisau bus will wait for this general exodus.
Someone may at this point be bawling “Umsteigen! Pertisau!” or words
to that effect.
And now I imagine you’re thinking you’ll probably take a taxi. That is probably your best bet, if your hotel won’t come to collect you!