Ski Holidays St. Johann in Tirol, Austria

Austria


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If you are not part of the jet set or the self-named 'social elite' of the world and let's face it 95% of skiing holidaymakers don't fit this category, then St. Johann might just be for you. Situated between the Kitzbüheler Horn and the Wilder Kaiser mountains, St. Johann is compact and discreet as well as affordable, and you will be led to believe that you were one of the first people there in this gorgeous Tyrolean retreat. With it's modest and always snow-powdered pistes comprising 60km or 20 north facing marked slopes, St. Johann is also referred to as the snow corner of Austria on account of its tucked away status.

The Snow

Lazy or older parents will no doubt be pleased that the nursery slopes are located beside the village so that their teenage sons and daughters can teach them how to ski between sessions in the leisure centre. In fact beginners and intermediate skiers are best catered for in St. Johann and red and blue curves on the map will hopelessly outnumber their black-slope equivalents for your experienced friends, who might prefer to engage in some shopping or boozing between death defying trips on the only black slope in St. Johann. Skiers can reach the top of the various pistes thanks to gondolas, drag and chairlifts or engage in a bout of sleigh riding, ice-skating or paragliding, which is doubly difficult with skis on.

Après ski

There is a good selection of pubs and clubs as well as mountain huts to retreat mentally from the woes of the day's skiing. If sustenance is your bag then check out the traditional local eateries or 'exotic' pizzerias, which are well within most people's budgets. Then slurp a glass of Glühwein (mulled wine for the uninitiated) and throw yourself off the mountain again or try out night-time skiing and tobogganing on Monday's, Wednesdays and Fridays 7pm-9.30pm.

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