Map of
Austria | Austrian
Tourist Office 
| Austrian SKI RESORTS 
AUSTRIA
by Ted Heck
|
|
Austria has majestic mountains that at first glance may overwhelm newcomers to their fantastic slopes. But skiers need not be intimidated; whatever their level of ability. They have choices of countless acres of untracked powder or miles and miles of well-groomed and marked trails.
Picture-postcard villages sit below the slopes in an environment where skiing history combines with present-day Gemütlichkeit to create a memorable skiing vacation. Gemütlichkeit is that all-embracing German word that connotes camaraderie, pleasant experience, relaxation, and good feeling. It permeates snowfields and mountain huts where skiers break for an alfresco lunch. It also prevails in intimate inns and pensions and restaurants that come alive after dark.
This book is designed to make your trip to Austria easier to plan. More than 700 ski areas dot the landscape. Some are as familiar to us as Julie Andrews in a dirndl, singing that the hills are alive with the sound of music. Lesser-known ones are in tiny farming communities where a local landowner has erected a small lift or two.
In our efforts to catalogue and describe skiing opportunities, we focus on major resorts that have proven most popular with skiers over the years. In some cases we group areas under a single heading to indicate the size of the skiing domain. For example, statistics for Innsbruck include Igls, Hungerberg, Tulfes, Mutters, Axamer Lizum and the Stubai glacier. Also presented collectively are St. Anton, St. Christoph and Stuben and also Zürs and Lech. These areas are tied together with either lift interconnects or ski buses.
The vast networks, which Blue Book editors like to call circuses, are a unique feature of skiing in the Alps. Rarely in America is it possible to ride up the face of one mountain, ski down its other side, and connect with lifts on another mountain. In Austria skiers often keep going and end up miles from their starting point. They can retrace their routes on the snow or board a bus for a free ride home.
We list valleys that contain several resorts. Austrians think of valleys rather than mountain peaks when identifying many areas. The Montafon in western Austria is a good example; it has 11 different communities that host winter sports lovers.
To appreciate the magnitude of this skiing world, consider the state of Tyrol, which twists along Germany's southern border for 100 miles. Mountainous Tyrol, wedged between Germany and northern Italy, would fit within the state of Connecticut. Yet it is a skier's paradise, with 119 resorts that offer downhill skiing and snowboarding. That's about three times the number of all ski areas combined in Colorado and Utah. Skiers in the Tyrol have more than 2,000 miles of prepared runs, endless off-piste terrain, and nearly 1,200 lifts. And no resort worth its strudel is without many miles of cross country tracks and winter walking trails.
Accommodations in Austria range from five star luxury hotels that pamper guests to simple rooms in a farmhouse with a bathroom down the hall. There is a bed for every pocketbook, which brings up the point that a skiing vacation is a bargain, when compared with one in the United States. For years the Austrian National Tourist Office has shown that, even counting transatlantic airfares, the total costs for similar quality lodging, meals and lift tickets are lower for most Americans than a holiday in the Rockies.
Getting to the mountains is easy. An overnight flight from the U.S. to Zurich, Switzerland, or Munich, Germany, puts skiers within a couple of hours of the chosen resort. Ski buses serve the gateway airports. Limited access highways are well maintained and and offer fast access for those who like the flexibility of a rental car. Rail transportation in the alpine countries is efficient and inexpensive, particularly if a rail pass is purchased in the States.
With a rental car or public transportation skiers can round out their holiday with visits to the imperial cities of Innsbruck, Salzburg and Vienna. Castles and palaces, medieval and baroque architecture, outstanding museums, opera houses, concert halls -they are possible add-ons in glorious cities that were thriving long before Queen Isabella hocked her jewels to underwrite Columbus's voyage.
Travel agents offer exciting package deals.We also encourage you to visit the Austrian National Tourist Office website at www.austria.info/us, as well as home pages of the resorts by using links that have been developed in these pages. Click on a resort's address at the top of its page and be whisked to its site. You will see why we feel that a trip to Austria is more than a ski vacation. It is the beginning of a romance.
AUSTRIAN TOURIST OFFICE
|
|
|
Top
of Page