The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Why Austria does ski holidays best
Gabriella Le Breton helps you plan the ultimate winter sports experience in a country that has perfected the art of skiing
Ever since the early 20th century, skiing has shaped Austria’s national identity. More than 100 years after the forefathers brought wooden planks to the country’s snowcapped mountains, the home of Mozart, Klimt and Schwarzenegger has grown to become a world leader in all things winter.
As one of the planet’s most mountainous countries, with 62 per cent of the landlocked nation swathed in Alpine peaks, skiing started here as a means of transport. But, thanks to pioneers such as Hannes Schneider, Franz Klammer and Marcel Hirscher, it came to shape Austria’s existence, and the way millions of international visitors slide on the slopes today.
Skiing is an integral part of Austrian life, as reflected in the quantity and affordability of its 462 ski areas (more than in France, which is seven times larger) and authentic resorts, from the sophisticated medieval towns of Lech and Kitzbühel to rustic villages such as Westendorf and Alpbach.
Increasingly, its ski resorts are linked by efficient and modern lift networks to create expansive areas incorporating multiple villages, with gentle slopes leading up to predominantly blue and red trails, which often wind through picture-perfect forests.
It is a less bucolic scene off-piste, however, with areas including Ski Arlberg, Ischgl and Fieberbrunn fully deserving their place among the world’s top freeride destinations.
In a time of weather uncertainty, Austria generally delivers excellent snow cover thanks to a combination of high-altitude resorts (Obergurgl, Obertauern and Ischgl), glaciers (nine in total, including Sölden, Hintertux and Stubai) and Mother Nature (the Vorarlberg’s Warth-Schröcken is Europe’s snowiest town). Austria also boasts some of Europe’s most advanced snowmaking systems, allowing lower-altitude resorts set amid rolling Alpine pasture (Kitzbühel) to operate a long season on just a few inches of snow.
Beyond this impressive infrastructure, Austria rewards richly with something less tangible: gemütlichkeit. It’s that innate warmth, hospitality and sense of fun so generously expressed in the tureens of goulash and towering plates of gröstl (similar to bubble and squeak) served in firewarmed mountain huts (alms); the rich kaiserschmarrn (sweet pancakes) enjoyed in candlelit cafés; the neatly folded duvets in homely gasthofs (hotels); the way lift operators sweep the snow off chairlifts and locals regard ski bars as the British do pubs.
From plush hotel brands to the notorious après haunts, properties are invariably family businesses passed down through generations, with hospitality an inherited passion and talent. Even DJ Gerhard, the well-known DJ at St Anton’s Mooserwirt bar who has kept revellers dancing since 1994, is slowly passing the decks to his son, Thomas.
And when it comes to affording all this, skiing in Austria delivers extremely good value for money. Indeed, this winter’s Post Office Travel Money Ski Resort Report shows that prices have fallen year-on-year in Austrian resorts including St Anton and Ischgl, with the former calculated to be less expensive than Val d’Isère, Zermatt, Wengen and Saas-Fee.
It is a small wonder, then, that Telegraph readers voted overwhelmingly in favour of Austria when asked which European country is the best for skiing, beating France, Italy and Switzerland to poll position. If you are tempted, here is a detailed guide on how to plan the trip of lifetime to the slopes of Austria. Chalet 53 in St Anton costs from €13,500 (£11,617) total, for up to eight people, chalet board with driver service, excluding travel, with Kaluma (01730 260 263; kalumaski.com).
Crowd-free and charming villages
Austria doesn’t do purpose-built ski resorts, offering instead authentic mountain towns, many of which come with the bonus of being linked into sprawling ski areas. Examples include Alpbach and Niederau (for Ski Juwel Alpbachtal-Wildschönau, with 210km of pistes); Westendorf and Ellmau (for SkiWelt); the high-altitude towns of Obergurgl and Hochgurgl (known collectively as Gurgl, with 112km of pistes) and Grossarl (lift-linked to neighbouring Gastein).
These picturesque towns blend Austrian gemütlichkeit with gentle nursery slopes leading up to extensive networks of predominantly intermediate pistes. Even within Ski Arlberg you can find sleepy spots like Stuben (population 80) and Zug, which deliver an authentic Alpine community and high-speed lifts to some of the area’s prime ski spots. Hotel Briem in Westendorf costs from £749, B&B, for two adults and two children, including flights and transfers, with Inghams (01483 319 611; inghams.co.uk).
Lively après-ski
Après-ski might be a French term but it is a fact universally acknowledged that Austria does it best, particularly for those who favour raucous table-top dancing to cheesy songs with a stein of beer in hand. Notorious mountain-top bars such as St Anton’s Mooserwirt and Krazy Kangaruh, Lech’s Balmalp, and Obergurgl’s Nederhütte get the action started at altitude mid-afternoon, culminating in merry revellers continuing dancing at the schirmbars (umbrella bars) that are clustered around the base of the slopes.
Until recently, St Anton and Ischgl reigned supreme in the après-ski world but moves to tone down the party scene have stifled their exuberance to such an extent that some St Anton locals now find the riverside bars of neighbouring Lech a livelier choice.
Partygoers head to Sölden for cocktails and Europop in smart bars, Saalbach for table-top dancing and flaming Jäegermeisters, Obertauern for pumping piste-side huts, and Mayrhofen, which gets famously wild during the annual Snowbombing music festival (April 8 to 13, 2024).
Chalet Hotel Alpensport in Saalbach costs from £768, chalet board, excluding travel, with Alpine Answers (020 7801 1080; alpineanswers.co.uk).
Luxury and glamour
Austria does Alpine luxury in a particularly discrete way. The smartest hotels and most luxurious chalets are often tucked away in secluded spots or behind ancient frescoed walls and traditional carved timber balconies. That is not to say they are behind the times – the chalets peppering the slopes above Lech are among the world’s most indulgent places to stay – rather that they are accustomed to hosting hard-skiing royals and millionaires keen to keep a low profile. Together with Lech, Kitzbühel
blends old-school glamour with a deep-rooted history and passion for skiing. Down-to-earth spots favoured by insiders include Lech’s Yurt, a firewarmed Kyrgyz tent in the Hotel Arlberg garden, and Kitzbühel’s Huberbräu-Stüberl brewery.
For luxury without the hefty prices, the faded glory of Bad Gastein – a spa town in the midst of the Hohe Tauern National Park once favoured by emperors – is poised to rise from the ashes with a raft of slick new hotels. These include the mid-century design hotel The Cōmodo.
Doubles at The Cōmodo in Bad Gastein costs from €190 per night, B&B, excluding travel, booked direct
(0043 6434 304 32; thecomodo.com).