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T’s monthly travel series, Flocking To, highlights places you might already have on your wish list, sharing tips from frequent visitors and locals alike.
Compared to the designer-swathed slopes and luxury boutique-lined streets of more widely known Alpine destinations like Gstaad and St. Moritz, Austria’s mountain towns are refreshingly low-key.
Stretching from the border with Liechtenstein (the country) in the east to the Vienna basin in the west, Austria’s Alpine region covers over 20,000 square miles.
From November through March, winter sports are the main draw. Many vacationers also come to soak in the area’s natural springs, which are clustered in historic spa towns like Bad Aussee.
With so many opportunities to build up an appetite, it makes sense that food here tends toward the hearty.
Perhaps the most popular places to fill up — at least during snow season — are the “huts” at the top of the slopes, where après-ski crowds wash down dumplings and kaiserschmarrn (caramelized, chopped-up pancakes served with rum-soaked raisins and sugar) with copious amounts of alcohol.
The Insiders
Alice Liechtenstein is an Italian-born, Austria-based design curator who founded Schloss Hollenegg for Design, a residency program and exhibition space for emerging designers.
Robert Rabensteiner is a fashion consultant who hails from the Austria-adjacent South Tyrol region of Italy and now splits his time between Milan and the Dolomites.
Aldo Sohm is a sommelier, winemaker and author and the proprietor of Aldo Sohm Wine Bar in Manhattan. Based in Brooklyn, he was born and raised near Innsbruck, Austria.
Bettina Steindl is the curator and C.E.O. of CampusVäre, a contemporary art and design center in Vorarlberg, Austria. She grew up in her family’s hotel, Der Unterwirt — now run by her two sisters — in the Alpine village of Ebbs.
Sleep
The Wiesergut, in Saalbach Hinterglemm, is a family-run place, so it’s down to earth but also very luxurious, with the most delicious food.
Take Home
Werkraum Bregenzerwald is a huge handcrafts atelier where you can see exhibits, meet the craftspeople and buy some of their work.
Rochelt, in Fritzens, is the top maker of eau de vie [brandy]. You have to make an appointment to visit the distillery.
Explore
Saalbach Hinterglemm is my favorite ski area, with slopes for all levels and lots of après-ski fun.
The town of Bad Gastein is a great place. Walk through the village to the waterfall, which splashes right past the houses.
The Damüls Mellau ski area, in Vorarlberg, typically has fantastic snow conditions.
Swarovski Crystal Worlds, in Wattens, about 10 miles east of Innsbruck, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Austria now.
Kitzbühel, in the Wilder Kaiser, has since the ’80s and the ’90s been the ski destination for upper-crust Germans and Austrians.
In warmer months, when I’m with my wife, who isn’t an experienced hiker, we go to the village of Axamer Lizum, take the Hoadlbahn cable car up to the Hoadl plateau and hike around there, where the views of the valley are beautiful.
The James Bond museum, 007 Elements, is super fascinating. It’s on the summit of the Gaislachkogl Mountain in Sölden, where they filmed “Spectre” a decade ago, and the exhibits show you a lot of the secret behind-the-scenes stuff.
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