Visit Innsbruck's sprawling slopes and enjoy its buzzing ambiance

Explore the country's highest ski village with 300km of pistes and follow in the tracks of The Jump in the Austrian Tirol capital

Snowbording in Nordkette (Innsbrucktourismus/Klaus Polzer)

Classy, cultural and cool, with some cracking skiing – there aren’t many places that have Innsbruck’s irresistible combination of winter sports and historic sights.

The capital of the Austrian Tirol has nine ski resorts on its doorstep – known as Olympia Ski World – some of which had starring roles on both occasions Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics. And you can reach these 300km of pistes just by taking the free ski bus.

Innsbruck Old Town dwarfed by a backdrop of pistes (Innsbrucktourismus/christoflackner.at)

Vibrant city

Start in the centre of Innsbruck, where the old town is a majestic marvel of medieval, Baroque, Renaissance and Habsburg architecture along with fascinating museums and palaces. You’ll soon feel the youthful buzz of this vibrant university city, which thanks to a large student population means there’s a huge choice of restaurants and bars as well as a packed programme of festivals. There’s superb shopping too, with everything from handmade chocolates to the Swarovski flagship store.

Hovering over Innsbruck is Nordkette, with challenging runs you can reach via Zaha Hadid’s futuristic funicular. For something less taxing, take the family and novice skiers to Mutteralm, which is also a favourite for fans of ski touring.

Schlick 2000 is another popular resort for ski tourers as well as freeriders. But if you’d rather stay put, you can have a go at the rails and kickers in the snowpark or the half-pipe in the Free Nature Park.

OIympic legacy

Relive the excitement of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics at Patscherkofel, where you can follow in the gold-medal ski tracks of champion Franz Klammer. Child-friendly slopes go hand in hand with a hair-raising snowpark and sublime views of the Inn Valley.

The Bergisel Olympic ski jump (Innsbrucktourismus)

You’ll find more Olympic memories at Axamer Lizum, west of Patscherkofel. The snow-sure slopes are in an exceptionally pretty setting, with a good mix of easy and intermediate pistes along with some fiendish black runs. Snowboarders will love the constant gentle gradient that means you don’t have to drag your board around half the time.

Families fall for the charms of Rangger Köpfl, where nursery slopes and a children’s park make learning how to ski a thoroughly fun experience. There’s night-time tobogganing and skiing too. At Glungezer, you can ski the longest run in the Austrian Tirol – all 15km from Schartenkogel at 2,300m.

For high-altitude thrills, head to the Stubai Glacier, where pistes soar above 3,000m and make up Austria’s biggest glacier ski area. And for pure high-altitude charm, you can’t beat Kühtai, the highest ski village in Austria and home to Channel 4’s The Jump.

With daily scheduled flights to Innsbruck from London Heathrow and London Gatwick, as well as services from Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool, it’s easy to discover the Austrian Tirol. For more details see innsbruck.info and visittirol.co.uk

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