Alpine luxury
Every winter brochure in the Alps promises the same thing: untouched snow, discreet luxury, a village that has not changed in a hundred years. Most of that is marketing. We went to three regions to find out which ones earn the description, Austria's Arlberg, Austria's Salzburgerland, and the Dolomites in Italian South Tyrol. Lech, Saalbach-Hinterglemm and Alta Badia made the cut. What follows are the hotels, the slopes and the mountain tables we tested ourselves, one winter at a time.
Lech am Arlberg
Lech sits inside Ski Arlberg, Austria's largest connected ski area, and has spent decades limiting itself on purpose. A capped number of guest beds, Oberlech closed to cars in winter, the lifts and snowmaking running on regional hydropower. We stayed in the village, skied the wider Arlberg circuit and ate at altitude, then checked one of its more storied addresses against the reputation
Say hello
Hotel Post Lech
A Relais & Châteaux landmark in central Lech: rooms, restaurants, spa and a lunch that confirmed its reputation.
Skiing in Lech
Historic ski culture meets a quietly sustainable lifestyle. We tested the hotels, slopes and mountain tables.
Saalbach-Hinterglemm
Saalbach-Hinterglemm sits inside the Skicircus, one of Austria's largest ski areas at around 270 kilometres of piste across four linked valleys in Salzburgerland. We based ourselves in the valley for the week, on the slopes by day and at Hotel Neuhaus by night.
Skiing in Saalbach-Hinterglemm
A winter break done right: Hotel Neuhaus, the slopes and the mountain dining.
Alta Badia
Alta Badia sits on the Italian side of the Dolomites, in Val Badia, where Ladin is still the language spoken in the villages. From here the Sella Ronda loop runs around the Sella massif, through four mountain passes and back, on a UNESCO World Heritage site that does not need the label to look the part. This is personal territory too: one of us has skied this valley since childhood. The job this time was to look at it critically rather than nostalgically.
Skiing in Alta Badia
Wide runs, Italian food and an unhurried winter we've loved since childhood.