Feb 06 travel to Austria with children
 

We are planning a winter trip with two small children(ages 3 and 5). Our tentative itinteray is to fly into Munich, spend one night, then via train to Salzburg and finally into the mountain resort area of Schladming. Are we crazy? I know it will be the height of winter, but will it be too much with children. We plan on some skiing on our own, hopefully finding babysitting services at the mountain resorts. Is any of the nightlife family friendly. Any other child frienly suggestions?

Why don't you find one of the kinder-ski programs and put the kids in ski school while you ski? Most of the resorts have such programs.

You can make an easy transfer by train regardless of weather. Your resort is family friendly. As prior poster mentions - look at the kinder program. Many children do this. Often lunch can be included.
I do not know what is family friendly nightlife , but many resorts have a musical evening with dancers in local costumes- they might enjoy this.

Many kids just like to ride the gondola to the mountain top and play in the snow with mom and dad. Nice restaurant there for meals or hot chocolate.
Horse- drawn sleigh ride or tobagan ride may also be fun!

Cannot speak for Austria, but years ago we went to southern Germany in the winter and left our kids at home. We were glad we did because the restaurants didn't seem kid-friendly at all. In the evening at dinner, we never saw kids...we actually didn't see mayn couples, either. Lots of tables of smoking men.

We were in Austria last February with a group of kids - although all of the kids were older (4 families with a total of 7 kids between 6 and 12 years old). We flew to Munich but instead of training it, we rented cars and drove that same day to Zell am See. All of the kids in the group are good skiers so we spent the week mostly on the slopes. We enjoyed it very much.

Definitely try to enroll the kids in a ski school - they will love it and it will give you a few hours to ski on your own.

Generally, I did not find the hotels in Austria particularly kid friendly - I would say they were "kid-neutral": kids were accepted but also expected to behave well at dinner and otherwise. Smoking in restaurants was definitely our biggest complaint.