Austria
Ski villages that kept their village, and lift systems far bigger than the towns they start from.
Austrian skiing runs on a different model to the French purpose-built resorts: the villages came first, the lifts were bolted onto them afterwards, and most still work as places people live rather than as accommodation blocks at the base of a slope. The trade-off is lower altitude than the French Alps — snow reliability varies more year to year outside the glacier resorts.
Places in Austria
Alpbach
A Tyrolean village that enforces its own building code in wood, half an hour off the Innsbruck motorway and mostly missed by it.
Kitzbühel
A medieval walled town that happens to host the hardest downhill race in skiing, and still functions as a town in summer.
Mayrhofen
The Zillertal's busiest ski town, home to Austria's steepest marked piste and an après scene that starts well before the lifts close.
SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental
Nine Tyrolean villages sharing one lift network, quiet enough and gentle enough that most of it works for a family with mixed abilities.
Sölden
Two glaciers, the highest lift-served terrain in Austria, and the most reliable snow in this list.
Mentioned in
Alpbach
A Tyrolean village that enforces its own building code in wood, half an hour off the Innsbruck motorway and mostly missed by it.
Mayrhofen
The Zillertal's busiest ski town, home to Austria's steepest marked piste and an après scene that starts well before the lifts close.
SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental
Nine Tyrolean villages sharing one lift network, quiet enough and gentle enough that most of it works for a family with mixed abilities.