Ski Resorts in Austria

With names such as St. Anton in Tirol, Lech am Arlberg, Kitzbuhel in Tirol and the Tyrolean capital city of Innsbruck and its surrounding villages, Austria has fast become a firm favourite among skiers.

St Anton and Lech have excellent all season snow records, providing extensive and challenging on-piste skiing. If off-piste skiing is more your thing, then St Anton has some of the best terrain Austria has to offer.

Austria offers fantastic scenery with an excellent choice of skiing with miles of tree-lined runs and equally impressive après ski. There are traditional ski resorts (eg Lech), family resorts (eg Soll) or lively après ski resorts (eg St Anton). Austria offers excellent facilities in resorts for beginners, hundreds of kilometres of intermediate ski slopes and challenging skiing for expert skiers.

Austria also has smaller, quieter ski resorts offering excellent value for money. There is something for every level of skier and plenty of ski resorts have activities for non skiers.

Austrian ski resorts have hosted the Winter Olympics (twice!) and the FIS World Championships on six occasions; testament indeed to the quality of the snow and the excellent skiing facilities in the Austrian Alps.

St Anton Ski Resort

St Anton is unique amongst ski resorts in holding three legendary reputations simultaneously. First there is its world class skiing, second there is the resort’s reputation for the most hedonistic nightlife in any ski resort in the world, and third there is St Anton’s status as a key pioneering resort in Alpine skiing. Marketed as the cradle of Alpine skiing, one of the first ski clubs in the Alps, the Arlberg Ski Club, was established here in 1901. Suitably St Anton hosted the World Alpine Skiing Championships a century later in 2001. Especially popular with expert and advanced skiers; it quotes 180km of additional ‘off piste’ terrain.

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Lech-Zurs Ski Resort

Lech is a classic resort with a long skiing history, linked to neighbouring, equally exclusive Zürs and sharing the Arlberg Pass with ski hedonists heaven, St Anton.

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Mayrhofen Ski Resort

One of Austria’s top resorts, Mayrhofen in the Tyrol, has managed to retain the ambiance and architectural integrity of a traditional village. The skiing takes place on two separate mountains, the larger of which is reached by the impressive Penken cable car. The local ski area is extensive, but the Super Zillertal pass increases the maximum to more than 500km of pistes.

Obergurgl Ski Resort

For those looking for some great skiing, the high-altitude charming resort of Obergurgl is ideal. This perennial favourite has recently undergone major renovations and offers a superb ski experience for all classes of skier.

Saalbach Ski Resort

Saalbach was an Alpine village in its own right long before the advent of skiing. It is now the second most popular destination in Austria (after the capital Vienna). Saalbach Hinterglemm offers some of the country’s most exciting skiing and was the location for the 1991 Alpine World Championships.

Leogang Ski Resort

Leogang is a pretty, traditional village with a strong cultural identity. Located in the Pizgauer area of Austria the mixture of old and new buildings have been tastefully integrated and are loosely centred on its onion-domed tower village church. It offers the twin benefits of being a cosy, picturesque little village but well connected to the huge and popular Saalbach Hinterglemm ski circus.

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Kappl Ski Resort

A pretty hillside village with skiing suitable for all standards and especially for families. There’s a ski bus link to the nearby resorts of Ischgl and Galtur, which are included on the Silvretta lift pass.

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Maria Alm Ski Resort

The 90km of trails around the traditional village of Maria Alm are supplemented by further skiing on the lift pass at Hochkönig. All mainstream winter sports are available here, and there’s an active night lift, plus the toboggan run is floodlit!

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Westendorf Ski Resort

Part of Austria’s largest lift-linked ski area, the Ski Welt (250km), although Westendorf is the only village on the pass not lift-linked in to it. However it is a lovely village, voted the most beautiful in Europe in 1998, and has some of the region’s best skiing all to itself.

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Zell am See Ski Resort

The attractive lakeside town of Zell am See has a different feel to it than most Austrian ski destinations. The mountains, towering high to altitudes capable of maintaining glacier skiing at neighbouring Kaprun, gives virtually guaranteed skiing throughout the season. Today there are more than 130km of trails (78 miles), 80km of which are local to Zell.

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Nassfeld Ski Resort

The closest sizable village (second largest in the Tyrol) to the Stubai glacier, which some claim to be Europe’s best, and at the Eastern end of Europe’s largest year-round ski centre. It also has one of the world’s biggest verticals down from it (off piste, conditions permitting). The ski area directly by the village itself is small and is really only suited to beginners and intermediates.

Ski Holidays in Austria

Apres ski in Austria

If it is apres ski you are after then St Anton is definitely the place to be! The apres ski in St Anton certainly rivals the skiing and some take the former more seriously!

You will also find the après kicking off in other Austrian resorts from the early afternoon; Schnapps usually being the drink of choice.

A resort that almost equals St. Anton for boisterous behaviour is that of Mayrhofen in the Ziller Valley. Popular with young skiers it also offers the opportunity to indulge in glacier skiing on the impressive Hintertux Glacier.

Things to do for non-skiers in Austria

Most Austrian ski resorts offer a wide range of ‘off-the-piste’ activities, but this of course depends on the size of the resort itself.

For those not skiing, activities can include: paragliding, ice-skating, tobogganing, hot air ballooning, ice climbing, dog-sledding, skidooing and bobsleigh runs. There are also indoor activities as would be found in any decent size town such as fitness centres, swimming pools etc, and clubs and casinos, ensuring there is always something going on to suit most tastes. Most resorts offer a great selection of restaurants which serve anything from fast-food to Michelin starred Austrian cuisine.