Austria Hotel & Apartments

We went to the Hotel Austria for half term week because it was a lot cheaper than anywhere else. There were 8 in our party and we all had a wonderful stay. The Hotel was clean and warm and the staff were friendly. The food was always acceptable and there was plenty of it.
The rep was very pleasant and always willing to help.
The first morning First Choice laid on a bus to make sure that everyone arrived in good time to register for their skiing lessons. Subsequent mornings we used one of the service buses that stop outside the supermarket about 50 meteres from the hotel. The cost is 1.20 or 1.40 euros depending on which bus you catch. The free ski bus does exist and we did catch it a few times but we never rellied upon it and therefore we weren't disappointed if it didn't show up.
Returning in an evening was generally ok; however the service bus didn't turn up despite waiting for over an hour one evening but we caught a taxi instead which was about 6 euros.
This hotel is a lot cheaper than other hotels in Soldeu because it is a little way out and you save far more on the cost of the hotel than you will ever pay in travel.
The resort is good but be prepared for a big queue at the gondola station on Monday morning as everyone heads to the top to register for ski school. The ski school is excellent with a lot of the instructors having English as their first language.
All in all we had a good stay and we would definitely go back again.

To all those who are planning a holiday to Hotel Austria, don't be disheartened by previous comments. If you have booked to stay in Soldeu at the hotel Austria you have obviously opted for a cheap skiing holiday, and in my honest opinion you get slightly more than what you pay for.
A problem mentioned before is the distance the hotel is from the slopes. It is true that the free buses are few and far between, in fact I only saw it twice in a week. The timetable says a free bus should arrive at the bus stop at ten past the hour, it rarely does, but a commercial bus usually arrives at 20 past the hour and only costs 1.40Euro to get to the slopes, so even if you wait for the free bus and it doesn't materialise, you can jump on the next one for a pound. So no long waits or taxi rides. The only problem is that if you have a night out in Soldeu you have to get a taxi back as the buses stop at about 9pm, but as previously mentioned it only costs around 6-8 Euros. You basically pay around £20 in bus fairs in a week but save yourself £200 by staying in an out of town hotel, a good trade off?
As for the hotel itself, it is basic, you get a simple room. The radiator in my room had a temperature control, so I was able to keep warm without getting too hot. The bathroom was clean and there was always plenty of hot water and the towels were changed daily.
The food was quite nice, there was always a selection of meat, fish and vegetables for dinner, and a good breakfast, which included bacon and eggs most mornings. The only complaint was that anything that was supposed to be salty was always too salty and anything that was supposed to be sweet was too sweet. Breakfast served 7.30-10 and dinner 19.30-22.00, staff very friendly and the chef was always around to listen to your comments about the food.
The only real gripe I have about the hotel is the room doors, they are made of heavy wood and fit into a wooden frame with any cushioning, this inevitably creates a very loud bang when they are closed, and once you notice one loud bang you'll be hearing it for the whole holiday. And as the hotel is cheap you do get a lot of youngsters or those you wouldn't see in St. Moritz coming home late and slamming doors in the early hours of the morning, thus creating ear splitting booms that would wake the dead.
As with most Pyrenees resorts, you are at the mercy of the weather in terms of the quality of skiing you get, when it snows it is good snow, but the next day it may be stiflingly hot which melts the snow and freezes at night to ice, and so creating dangerous skiing for beginners and causes the closure of a few of the runs.
All in all a cheap and cheerful skiing holiday, nice hotel, nice locals and of course the cheap booze and tobacco.

The hotel Austria is a good place to base yourself if you're looking for a cheap skiing holiday. It's often cheaper than other hotels in Soldeu because it's some distance away from the slopes - about 2km.
The hotel itself is clean and the staff friendly and helpful but the walls are thin so it can get noisy and the food leaves a lot to be desired! There's always a good few choices of grub, including vegetarian fare, and it's edible but hardly gourmet!
The biggest issue with the Hotel Austria is the distance from the slopes. There's supposed to be a free ski bus but it's erratic to say the least, often coming early in the morning and then not seen for the rest of the day, so it's easier to catch taxis for a few Euros a time to and from the slopes.

I organised a group of 8 to stay at the Austria with a warning to all that you get what you pay for.
We paid £289 for the week but to stay in town would have been near double the price.
The hotel is out of town & you are reliant on the bus to get to (usually) Soldeu. We never failed to get the 0905 bus every day and as we used the ski lockers at the gondola had no lugging of ski equipment.
Getting back to the hotel was either by bus if one turned up or flag one of the frequent taxis, usually about 6-8 euros.
We were there at a time when the snow had not fallen for nearly a month & consequently the link between Soldeu & Grau Roig was not ready for skiing, which made a visit to Pas a compulsory bus journey.
As with a previous reviewer we suffered two full buses passing & lost a couple of hours just waiting. This was only an issue due to the snow conditions. Under normal circumstances we would have skied across.
As for the hotel, it is in an isolated position and yes you are reliant on transport to & from town. I am a faddy eater and never appreciate the typical Spanish buffet style meals that all hotels in the Costa Brave area serve but the remainder of the group ate well with no complaints.
The bar upstairs is pleasant enough with TV & DVD player. Last time I was there we took our own DVDs & the entire bar ended up around the TV watching Little Britain.
Rooms are adequate, twin or triple rooms but very warm. We had a Piste side room but would have swapped for a room at the back due to the road noise keeping us awake when we kept the window open every night.
Cleaning was good every day, even folded up our clothes that we left strewn all over.
In essence this is not the Ritz, it is a cheap very functional hotel. If this hotel was in town add £200 to the price. It is usually available in the late deals at knock down prices, purely because of its location.
A word of advice, if you are staying here with a package, don’t book ski hire with the reps. There is a supermarket 40 yds down the road that are half the price of the hire place they take you to. The skis looked brand new but the boots looked a bit wor

Hotel itself was ok - room we were in was reasonable, friends however had a room which was always very hot - there were no controls for the radiators.
The food was generally poor but serving times were good - 3hrs for breakfast, 3hrs for dinner.
Location would not have been an issue if the buses were as publicised.
Day 1 - waited for the 9.20am bus to Pas De La Casa, at 10.10 a full bus drove straight past us, at 10.25 another one arrived but wouldn't go any further than Grau Roig even though it stated Pas De La Casa.
There were no buses any later than 11pm and you can't even rely on that.
A night in Soldeu could lead to a death-defying walk up a 4km steep stretch of road where cars are at racing speeds with no footpath. Far too many other bus nightmares to tell.
Basically - avoid the hotel - if only due to its location. There is no point staying in the middle of nowhere when there is no way of getting out again!
We lost approx a day and a half skiing time over the week, waiting for buses.

Best Avoided, the Hotel Austria offered my party (of 2) a filthy room, the bath had never apparently been cleaned and was filthy all over. There was a bidet but the water coming out of it was brown. The room itself was pokey and had little storage for clothes, just one small wardrobe with 3 hangers within.
The floor wasn’t cleaned at all during our weeks stay, neither obviously was the bathroom! The room was unbearably hot too. Basically a VERY unpleasant place to be. The food was disgusting and of a VERY poor standard, both for breakfast and evening meals. Half the time there were empty trays which the staff didn’t bother to re-fill. We had to eat out several nights as the food was SO poor.
Bar was ok albeit the staff insisted on charging 4% service charge for just pouring a beer. Prices were 3 Euros for large beer - not too bad. The bus service into Soldeu was poor, and not frequent meaning taxi's had to be used. The staff in the hotel were very nonchalant and impolite, and spoke very little or no English.
I would very much recommend avoiding this hotel and paying the extra to stay somewhere in Soldeu itself. Finally, the Thomson rep obviously knew better as he avoided the place all week!