The mountains are the reason you came. What you do with them is where the holiday is actually made. Every experience below can be arranged from your chalet — guides booked, transfers timed, equipment waiting.
Some are once-in-a-lifetime. Some are simply the right way to spend a Tuesday. Filter by season, or tell us what you have in mind and we will build the week around it.
WinterKitzbühel’s ski area runs to around 233 km of slopes, but the mountain everyone comes to see is the Streif — host of the Hahnenkamm downhill and, by common consent, the hardest race course in the world. Outside race week a guide can take you down it at a civilised pace, which is the only way most people should attempt it. The rest of the KitzSki terrain suits confident intermediates best.
WinterLech and Zürs sit within Ski Arlberg, where 85 lifts serve over 300km of groomed piste and a further 200km of marked powder runs. The White Ring is the circuit that defines the place: a full day’s loop through Lech, Zürs, Zug and Oberlech that returns you to where you started, having skied most of the valley. Best taken with a guide who knows which section to ski at which hour.
WinterSt. Anton is where alpine skiing was more or less invented, and it has never entirely lost its appetite for the serious end of the sport. The terrain off Rendl and Galzig rewards skiers who can already handle themselves, and a private guide reads the snowpack and picks the aspect rather than simply following tracks. This is the resort for people who ski hard and want the day to prove it.
WinterLech Zürs is the only place in Austria where heli-skiing is officially permitted. Flights land on the Mehlsack (2,652 m) or the Schneetäli (2,450 m), and every descent is led by a certified mountain guide. Flights are confirmed at short notice and only in good weather, so we register your interest before you arrive.
WinterIschgl opens and closes its winter with open-air Top of the Mountain concerts. The Opening Concert is held in the village; the Easter and Spring concerts take place at 2,300 m on the Idalp, billed as the largest open-air arena in the Alps. Elton John, Robbie Williams and Helene Fischer have all played here. Accommodation across the valley fills quickly around these dates.
WinterIschgl connects over the ridge to Samnaun in Switzerland, making it Austria’s largest cross-border ski area, with snow-sure slopes from late November into early May. You ski out of one country and lunch in another, which for most guests is the point. Samnaun is duty-free, and the last lift back is the one detail worth getting right.
WinterThe quiet counterweight to a hard week on the piste. Oberlech is car-free, which makes horse-drawn carriage rides through the village a genuine pleasure rather than a novelty, and the cross-country track towards Zug is among the prettiest in the Arlberg. Add a floodlit toboggan run after dark and a long dinner afterwards.
Year RoundBuilt into the summit of the Gaislachkogl above Sölden at over 3,000m, this is an installation rather than a museum: galleries cut into the rock, props from the films, and floor-to-ceiling glass looking out over the Ötztal glaciers. Spectre was partly shot on this mountain in 2015, and the approach by gondola retraces the film’s own. It opens only when the Gaislachkoglbahn runs, so check before planning a day around it.
SummerForty-eight kilometres of hairpins from Bruck to Heiligenblut, climbing past glaciers and wildflower meadows to Austria’s highest peak. The road opens from early May to early November and July is the month for the flowers and the clearest views. Take it slowly, stop often, and set aside the whole day rather than treating it as a transfer.
SummerThe Gerlos Alpine Road runs 69km from Zell am Ziller to Mittersill, laid out by the same engineer who built the Grossglockner road and with the same instinct for where a corner should go. It delivers you to the Krimml Waterfalls, the highest in Austria, where a path climbs alongside the falls through spray and larch forest.
Year RoundAbove Zell am See-Kaprun the Kitzsteinhorn holds snow when the valley is in full summer, which makes it one of the few places in Austria where you can ski in the morning and swim in the Zeller See the same afternoon. The summit platforms look out across the Hohe Tauern, and the ice gallery cut into the glacier is worth the extra half hour.
SummerSölden in summer is a different resort entirely: trails climbing to glacial lakes, high huts serving lunch at altitudes most countries reserve for summits, and mountain biking on terrain that is genuinely demanding. Routes are built around your pace, from a gentle traverse with a lift home to a full ridge day between valleys.
Year RoundA chef in the chalet changes the rhythm of the week — dinner when you come in, not when a restaurant decides. Menus are built around what the valley has that month: Tyrolean beef, lake fish, alpine cheese from a few kilometres away. When you would rather go out, Ischgl’s Dine.Around serves each course of a single menu across different toque-awarded restaurants in one evening.
“The lift pass gets you up the mountain.
A good guide decides which mountain you should have been on.”
Who is travelling, what they can already do, and what they would rather avoid. Ability levels matter more than wish lists.
Guides, instructors, tables and helicopters are held provisionally while you decide. Nothing is charged at this stage.
A single itinerary with times, meeting points and contacts. Weather-dependent days carry a stated alternative.
Mountain activities are arranged with independent, licensed local operators and IFMGA-certified guides. Availability, pricing and safety decisions rest with the operator, and high-mountain plans are always subject to weather and snow conditions.
Yes. We book private instructors and IFMGA-certified mountain guides in all our destinations.
Only in Lech Zürs, with a certified guide and in suitable weather.
Yes. Book any chalet catered, or add individual chef evenings to a self-catered stay.
No. Experiences are quoted separately and held provisionally while you decide; nothing is charged until you confirm.