Kitzbühel — Hahnenkamm

Kitzbühel is best known for one thing: the Hahnenkamm, the most famous downhill race on the World Cup calendar, run on the notoriously demanding Streif course each January. Outside race week, the mountain is open to the public, and the wider KitzSki area — linking Kitzbühel with neighbouring Kirchberg — offers 170km of pistes around a genuinely medieval town centre.

The Streif itself is skiable by the public outside the race period, though its steepest sections (the Mausefalle, the Hausbergkante) make clear why it has such a fearsome reputation among professional racers. Hahnenkamm and Steinbergkogel hold the area's more serious terrain generally; Ehrenbachhöhe and Pengelstein are better suited to intermediate cruising, and make up the bulk of the KitzSki network.

The KitzSki pass covers the full area. Kitzbühel is reached by train from Innsbruck (about an hour) or Salzburg (about 90 minutes). At a lower altitude than many Alpine resorts, conditions can vary more than at glacier-fed areas — January and February are the most reliable months, and it's worth checking recent snow reports before booking.

Kitzbühel's town centre is one of the best-preserved medieval old towns in Austria, and it's rare to find a ski resort where the architecture is as much a draw as the skiing. The Londoner is the town's landmark après-ski pub — ski boots and all — while the wider dining and hotel scene, including the Tennerhof and Schloss Lebenberg, leans distinctly upmarket.