The Tirol is Austria's best known ski region and home to some of Austria’s most high-profile ski resorts, including St Anton-am-Arlberg, often described as the ski capital of Austria, and Kitzbühel, famous for its legendary World Cup Hahnenkamm downhill.
The Tirol (sometimes spelled Tyrol) is home to many of the best
ski resorts in Austria and has always been regarded as safe,
friendly and fun with its celebrated gemütlichkeit (or welcome),
lively après ski and plenty of good quality accommodation. It's an
ideal destination for skiers and boarders of all ability levels and
traditionally, many British and other nationals learn to ski in the
Tirol - particularly in Alpbach, Mayrhofen, Obergurgl, Soll and Wildschönau,
Great ski deals available in Tirol for 2012-13
Alpbach has won prizes as the one of the prettiest villages in
Austria. The quintessentially traditional Austrian village,
complete with onion-domed church, narrow streets and little
traffic, is a delightful ski holiday destination. The skiing in
Alpbach may be on the mellow side, but for those searching for
excitement, there are serious challenges too. Alpbach's slopes are
under-rated, both in variety and genuine steepness. For many years
the British Army held their ski championships here. With the
exception of a nursery slope in the middle of the village, the main
ski area is a 5-minute free bus ride away and reached by a
two-stage gondola to the Hornsboden at 1850m. From there a network
of lifts rise to 2025m on Wiedersbergerhorn, which is now connected
by a new gondola to the Schatzberg above Auffach in Wildschonau,
increasing the size of the lift-connected ski area at Albach from
44km to 85km. Part of the new Alpbachtal - Wildschonau "Ski Juwel"
region with 130km of ski slopes covered by a single lift pass,
Alpbach is approximately 60km east of Innsbruck and has plenty of
novice terrain. While the ski area is best for beginners and
intermediates, experts will find plenty of easily accessible
off-piste. Alpbach is 62km east and south from Innsbruck airport.
Alpbach ski resort
report >
Ischgl is the party capital of Austria. There are party towns
and there's Ischgl, undoubtedly the most lively ski resort in the
Tirol. Burning the candle at both ends is almost unavoidable, and
for the German tourists who dominate the resort, de rigueur. Ischgl
celebrates the beginning and end of each ski season with huge
concerts featuring internationally renowned singers and bands. Yet
the skiing's challenging and extensive enough to require plenty of
energy and skill, so partying every night can prove to be a mixed
blessing on the slopes the next day. There's skiing from 1400m to
2870m (42 lifts serve 210km of slopes), and the resort shares a
mountain and a lift pass with Samnaun, an isolated duty-free resort
across the border in Switzerland. There's good skiing and boarding
for all abilities including some easy off-piste skiing between the
marked runs. Nearby resorts include See, Kappl and Galtur. Ischgl
is 100km to the west of Innsbruck airport. Ischgl ski resort report
>
Kitzbühel is celebrated for its World Cup Hahnenkamm races, but
it has much more to offer including a wonderfully picturesque
medieval walled town centre. The Kitzbühel-Kirchberg region has 54
lifts serving 170 km of pistes and while the general skiing public
happily wander onto the Hanhenkamm, they are unlikely to want to
venture down the actual Streif run. Like St Anton, Kitzbühel has an
impressive variety of linked ski areas, much improved since the
construction of the big 3-S cable car linking the
Hahnenkamm-Pengelstein area with the Jochberg - Resterhöhe ski
region, enabling skiers and snowboarders to return from Pass Thurn
to Kitzbühel on snow rather than by ski bus. There's also the
stand-alone (but easy-to-get-to) Kitzbüheler Horn, with some
exhilarating motorway skiing. Kitzbühel has long had to endure
criticism that the resort is lower than most other resorts in the
Alps and therefore vulnerable to low snow yields. Strangely, in
this respect, the resort punches above its weight and seems to
attract good snow even though some slopes are as low as 800m.
Kitzbühel also stresses that many slopes are pastures with few
rocks, and so need less significantly less snow cover to create
good ski conditions. Kitzbűhel is just 95km from Innsbruck airport.
Kitzbuhel ski resort
report >
Mayrhofen, near the end of the Ziller Valley, with slopes from
630-2500m, is a big, wide open ski area which stretches out on both
sides of the valley, and enjoys the bonus of having one of Europe's
best summer-skiing resorts, Hintertux (with slopes reaching 3250m),
within fairly easy reach. The combined (but not linked) area is
called Glacier World Zillertal 3000. Mayrhofen, with a main street
that's predominantly pedestrianised, is a mix of Tyrolean-style
chalets, and four-star hotels. The main skiing is high above the
tree-line on the Penken, which rises way above the town and is
reached by a large gondola in the centre of town. There are links
with the villages of Finkenberg and Lanersbach and the gentler
slopes across the valley on the Ahorn. There are some 146km of
prepared pistes on the Penken, Horberg, Rastkogel, Eggalm and Ahorn
served by 41 lifts, with a further 86km and 20 more lifts at
Hintertux (12 miles away). Austria's "steepest groomed run", the
Harakiri, is one of the attractions. Mayrhofen is 74km east and
south of Innsbruck airport. Mayrhofen ski resort report >
Obergurgl in the Otztal has some of the highest skiing in
Austria. Obergurgl, at 1930m, is west and south of Innsbruck and is
reached by going as far as you can up the Ötz valley, a 20-minute
drive past Sölden. Obergurgl's sister resort Hochgurgl, even
higher, at 2150m is largely made up of luxury ski-in ski-out
hotels. Obergurgl and Hochgurgl are linked by the 3.6km Top Express
gondola - a journey of some nine minutes. Obergurgl's slopes - 110k
served by 22 lifts - can be sub-divided into the main runs on the
Festkogl, reached by gondola or quad chair, and the smaller
Gaisberg area, topped by the infamous Hohe Mut. Not long ago, the
region invested 25 million euros on three new 8-person gondolas. A
new run down from the Hohe Mut gives skiers and boarders an easier
alternative than the old ungroomed and often mogulled ski route.
Obergurgl is to the west and south of Innsbruck and 97km from
Innsbruck airport. Obergurgl ski resort report >
St Anton is arguably Austria's premier ski resort and the
Arlberg (including St Anton, St Christoph, Stuben, Sonnenkopf, Lech
and Zűrs) is among the greatest ski areas in the world with 260km
of pistes skiing (from 1308-2811m) served by 85 lifts. With a
really diverse cocktail of different ski areas all covered by the
same Arlberg ski pass, St Anton is the liveliest ski resort in the
Arlberg. There really is something for everyone, but without
question, St Anton - with formidable mogul fields and masses of
excellent off-piste - is best suited to strong intermediates and
advanced skiers and boarders. This goes for the nightlife too. Ski
hard, play hard is the resort's leitmotif. Raw beginners in both
disciplines might be advised to make their debuts elsewhere. Nearby
Lech and Zürs, across the Tirolean border in the Vorarlberg, also
form part of the Arlberg and are covered by the same Arlberg lift
pass. St Anton is 96km west from Innsbruck airport. St Anton ski resort
report >
Seefeld, north-west of Innsbruck, is one of the most picturesque
of Austria's mountain towns. There are 32 lifts including 23 T-bars
serving just 27km of slopes on two mountains. Apart from this small
network of excellent beginner and intermediate slopes (there are
more challenging runs too), Seefeld is famous for cross country
skiing, and was the location for the cross-country skiing events in
both the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics, as well as hosting the 1985
Nordic World Ski Championships. It's often described as the
cross-country ski capital of Austria, with some 240km of
cross-country ski tracks. Seefeld has virtually no through traffic
and is just 22km from the Innsbruck airport. Seefeld ski resort report
>
Sölden, where the European World Cup circuit kicks off every
year, has excellent glacier skiing, a big vertical drop (1870m) and
wonderful views across the Ötztal Alps. With 85 bars, pubs,
restaurants and discos, the après ski starts early and gets "pretty
damn wild". There's 141km of pistes skiing for all levels served by
34 lifts, but skiers in search of long, fast runs will enjoy it
most. An 8-person gondola on the Rettenbach glacier takes you to
3247m on the Schwarze Schneide ("Black Blade") enabling skiers and
boarders to try the "The Big 3 Rally" - more than 10,000 vertical
metres in around four hours of hard skiing. You can ski from one
glacier to another through a tunnel 170 metres long - then take the
route through Rettenbachtal to the base of the Gaislachkogl
gondola, up again, and down to the bottom to conclude the tour -
about 50km. Sőlden is situated to the west and south of Innsbruck
and 83km from Innsbruck airport. Solden ski resort report >
Soll (WilderKaiser), the largest of nine villages in the Ski
Welt, is the main gateway resort to the Ski Welt Wilder Kaiser
Brixental region of Tirol. There's 279km of slopes (from 620-1890m)
including the biggest night skiing area in Austria, 91 ski lifts,
over 70 mountain restaurants and bars and more than 1,000
snow-making machines covering 70% of slopes. Skiing from resort to
resort is one of life's great pleasures in the mountains, and
there's plenty of scope for it in the Ski Welt. The Brixental
valley links four celebrated Wilder Kaiser resorts of Sőll,
Scheffau, Ellmau and
Going with Itter, Hopfgarten, Kelschau, Westendorf and Brixen im
Thale. From Hopfgarten's Hohe Salve (1829 m), you can look out
across more than 30 peaks of 3000 metres or more. A single lift
pass covers the entire Ski Welt Wilder Kaiser region or you can buy
a 'Kitzbüheler Alpen AllStarCard' lift pass which enables guests to
ski the pistes in SkiWelt, the lift connected Kitzbühel-Kirchberg
region and more with just one lift ticket. Sőll is 78km east of
Innsbruck airport. Soll
ski resort report >
Neustift in the Stubai valley is an unusually pretty village
jwith its own small ski area - but its big selling point is
providing access to the extensive Stubai Glacier in the Stubai
Valley, between Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass to Italy. The
glacier, with slopes between 2300 and 3200m, has some 24 lifts
serving 110km of runs. It's ideal territory for intermediates and
above, popular with snowboarders, and handy for national ski teams
in need of slopes for race training in summer and autumn. Neustift
in Stubaital is 28km south and west from Innsbruck airport. The
glacier ski area at the far end of the valley is 20km south west
from Neustift. Stubaital
ski resort report >
Wildschönau is a mellow cul-de-sac valley with three ski areas -
65km of skiing served by 25 lifts - spread along six kilometres
sharing a common lift pass, and a free ski bus goes to and fro
between them. Niederau is the Wildschőnau's biggest and best-known
ski resort village, with après-ski bars, hotels, restaurants,
discos and late-night clubs. An 8-person gondola takes skiers to
the local ski area (21km) where there is a choice of red cruising
runs all the way back down, or a chance to cut across to
Lanerköpfl, where a black run snakes steeply down. Beginners have a
choice of nursery lifts in the village or the top of the gondola.
Auffach is a small village, but has Wildschonau's biggest and
highest ski area (41km), now connected to the Wiedersberger Horn
ski area (45km) above Alpbach and part of the new Alpbachtal -
Wildschonau "Ski Juwel" region (130km) Between Niederau and
Auffach is Oberau, a picturesque little village with a 6km ski area
aimed mainly at beginners. Wildschőnau is 72km east from Innsbruck
airport.
Getting to the Tirol
Innsbruck airport is the
main gateway to the Tirol and its central location provides short,
convenient transfers to ski resorts throughout the region. If
flying from the UK, Easy Jet operate daily flights from London
Gatwick to Innsbruck and twice weekly from Bristol and Liverpool.
British Airways fly five times a week from Gatwick to Innsbruck and
new for winter 2012-13, Monarch will fly to Innsbruck three times a
week from Manchester. Transfers from Innsbruck airport to resorts
like St. Anton, Ischgl, Obergurgl, Mayrhofen, Alpbach, Wildschönau,
Kitzbühel take approximately one hour. While resorts like Seefeld,
Kühtai or Neustift can be reached within 30 minutes. Affordable
airport transfers from Innsbruck to the resorts can be booked with
www.transfer.tirol.at.
Munich
airport (Germany) is served by British Airways from
London, Manchester and Edinburgh, Lufthansa from London, Birmingham
and Manchester, EasyJet fly from Stansted and Edinburgh and
Aer Lingus from Cork and Dublin. New for winter 2012-13 Monarch
will fly to Munich from Leeds-Bradford, Luton and Birmingham.
Transfer time from Munich to Tirol is approximately 1 hour 30
minutes,
Salzburg airport is
served by EasyJet from Bristol, Liverpool, Luton, London Gatwick,
Jet2 fly from Edinburgh and Manchester, Flybe from Exeter and
Southampton, British Airways from Gatwick and Ryanair from
Stansted. Salzburg is convenient for resorts such as Kitzbühel,
Söll, Kirchberg, Westendorf, St. Johann and Ellmau in the eastern
part of Tirol; transfer time approximately 1 hour.
Friedrichshafen
airport (Germany) is now served by Monarch from London
Gatwick and Manchester and convenient for travel to St Anton and
Ischgl in the western part of Tirol; transfer time approximately 1
hour 30 minutes.
Tirol Information
Tirol Tourist Board
Maria-Theresien- Str. 55, A-6010 Innsbruck, Tirol
Tel: +43 512 7272 0, Email: info@tirol.at, Web: www.tirol.at
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