Kühtai

Kühtai is Austria's highest ski village at 2,020 m, on a broad saddle 35 minutes from Innsbruck by road. That altitude means the season opens in late November and there is snow on the pistes when the surrounding valleys are still autumn brown. The area is a modest 43 km on 12 lifts, wrapped around the Dreiseenhütte on the ridge, with high, treeless terrain and a good beginner sector directly by the village. Because of the elevation there is essentially no village outside the ski hotels themselves, this is a place to ski and eat rather than to sightsee, but for a snow-sure short break from Innsbruck it is hard to beat.