Austrian skiing getaways: Head for the heights to carve up some Tirolean snow
Misty peaks of the Inn Valley and the Kitzbuhel Alps
Remember Malory Towers? The high jinks of boarding school subculture that we gorged on as kids?
Less well known, but a personal favourite, was the Chalet School series, set above the snowline in Austria’s Tirol.
I daydreamed for years about getting there. A pair of low tech roller skates and the hills of Cork’s northside were all the tools that I needed to keep hope afloat.
I’m about to find out if all those glute drills paid off.
I’m — drumroll please — on my way to Söll, a chocolate-box village in Tirol’s Wilder Kaiser region.
It’s a hot favourite among Irish and British skiers because it has access to Austria’s largest interconnected ski area, known as the SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser.
It’s also increasingly popular as a destination for ski “mini-breaks” (it’s a thing) thanks to ease of access.
Transfer time to Söll from the three nearest airports — Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Munich — is no more than 90 minutes.
Our party of six flies out of Dublin with Aer Lingus and we’re on the ground in Munich two hours later.
Our host leads us to the Four Seasons reception desk where she has a private transfer lined up.
“Four Seasons organise transfers for groups and individuals and take you straight to the resort,” she explains, adding that those opting for car-hire will find it’s “an easy drive on the autobahn” to reach resorts such as Söll.
An hour-and-a-half later, we’re at our hotel, Der Greil. Like a lot of the hotels in the village, it’s family-run.
Third-generation hotelier Josef ‘Sepp’ Greil, his wife Karina, daughter Victoria, and dog Charly give us a warm “Griass Di!” (greetings!).
Once we’ve dropped our bags, we’re invited to the Kaminstubn, Der Greil’s cosy restaurant, where a crackling fire ensures we feel very much “dahoam” (at home).
Our host is a local treasure. Sepp’s passion for the family business and fine cuisine is matched only by his passion for Riedel glasses.
They are everywhere: in cabinets, on shelves, in chandeliers, even on tiny pedestals dotting the walls of his hotel’s dedicated “Riedel Room”.
“I display Riedel glasses the way Louis Vuitton displays handbags,” Sepp says solemnly.
Our party is treated to a gourmet meal or Gëmütlichkeit in what is the only Riedel Room in Europe. It’s here that executives from the Riedel factory, in the nearby town of Kufstein, come to road test new glassware.
“This is the Chef’s Table for the wine glass,” says Gabriel Eder, head of Söll Tourism.
Our group of seven motors through more than 50 glasses, tasting, spitting, toasting.
We learn that serving champagne in a flute kills the taste (the bubbles take over, who knew?) and that Sepp, for real, travels with a case full of Reidel glasses “because the glass is the most important tool for the wine”.
It’s a tool for serving soup too, in this case delicious cucumber soup, which is swallowed, not spitooned.
The gourmet feed lives up to its billing, as does all of the hotel grub, including the tasty, healthy breakfast buffet and the Tirolean snacks that tired skiers can graze on during the afternoon.
Tired skiers have further treats to savour. Four-star Der Greil has the only panoramic indoor swimming pool in the village. It’s hard to do justice to the view.
Great cathedrals of mountains rise into jagged peaks in the near distance. It’s so sensational that it looks fake. There’s more for jaded bodies in the hotel basement: saunas and steam rooms. This is what bliss feels like.
Bliss gives way to fear as we head to the main event: skiing. It’s been eight years since I last carved powder (snow, to clarify), so I’m hoping to be eased, gently, back in.
Alas, the daredevils in our party want black slope action. I ponder my survival as we ride high in the Hexenwasser (Witch’s Water) gondola, having collected our equipment from Sporthaus Edinger at the base of the mountain.
Our gondola is one of 90 lifts across 290km of piste that make up the SkiWelt. The view of the valley below me and the mountains around me is so staggering that I have the comfort of knowing I’m already in heaven should a black slope prove fatal.
We get out at the middle station and lock into the skis. I split off from the high-octane pack and head with one or two others down a slope I can cope with. We arrive at what looks like Hansel and Gretel’s gaff. It’s a witch’s house.
Witches are big in the SkiWelt. They’re responsible for the snow in the mountains, caused by shaking out their feather beds.
At least that’s how the story goes, and it’s a good story, because we all need a bit of witchcraft to master the symmetry you need to be a good skier.
It’s good too that they are super-friendly witches, known here as Hexen, because the kiddies love visiting their gingerbread homes in the snow and the adults like tasting their magical potions or Hexenwasser.
I sample Dragon’s Blood and Witch’s Piss and I can’t tell the difference.
The witchcraft must have worked because I survive my first day of skiing. I even venture to the top of Hohe Salve, the highest mountain (1,829m) in the Kitzbuhel Alps.
It’s a clear day so I can literally see forever. As if things couldn’t get any better, we go for lunch in the Gipfelalm Hohe Salve, which has the highest revolving panoramic terrace in Austria.
I can’t find my seat when I return from the loo because it’s not where I left it. And that’s before we stop off for a shot of pear schnapps on the downhill, or before we ever get to the après-ski.
We do get to sample après-ski at the dreamily named Moonlight Bar, right back where we started, next to the Hexenwasser gondola. It’s next to a winter playground too where a frozen lake is a natural ice rink (lakes are big in the SkiWelt).
It’s another nice spot for kiddies to hang out, with a gentle slope and a button lift. I contemplate asking to spend the next day skiing there. It’s more my level.
Gerhard the ski-instructor brings me back to basics on our second day. He’s been skiing since the day his dad strapped planks of wood to his feet, aged about two.
The SkiWelt has come a very long way since. What really kickstarted it was the wreckage of a Second World War aeroplane, which the locals used to build a lift for the benefit of people in the low-lying villages who needed to reach their farm animals on higher pastures.
Farming activity is big in these villages and herds continue to graze the mountain pastures which are as green as the green, green grass of home during the summer months, when tourism switches from snow sports to hiking and biking.
Back down in the village, charming chalet-style hotels huddle in the snow. The stand-out piece of architecture (if you don’t count the mountains) is the Rococo church. I drop in as I’m passing, expecting something alpine and simple. It’s nearly as grand as the Vatican.
We go for dinner to the Weinatelier Agnes, a wine store with in-house restaurant, next to the village fountain.
The focus is on fresh, regional produce, organic where possible. I have saffron pea risotto with grilled prawn and it’s delicious.
The company is outstanding too and includes Christina Heuberger and Philipp Ernsting, head of marketing and communications, and head of press, respectively, for Wilder Kaiser Tourist Board.
Christina tells us she cannot ski despite growing up in the region. Refusing to learn was her teenage rebellion. It’s like living in Tayto Park and refusing to eat Taytos.
Meal over, we head back to Der Greil, to our warm and cosy rooms, with underfloor heating in the bathrooms, and balconies with views many will only ever dream of.
I dream that I’m skiing with feet in perfect symmetry, giving the black run bandits a run for their money, while firing those northside glutes.
Women who dabbled in herbal medicines or natural remedies could wind up being labelled witches in the Middle Ages, but thankfully it didn’t always end in a death sentence.
Söll has embraced its witch folklore, traced back to the local legend of two sisters - the Saukogel Witch and the Juffinger Witch – who lived in the area centuries ago and were known as nature guardians, with a deep knowledge of herbs and healing.
Their “good” witch reputation is celebrated in the name given to the mountain adventure park, Hexenwasser, which translates as “Witches’ Water”.
On the Hohe Salve mountain, Soll’s highest peak, the Hexenwasser includes interactive stations where you can hang out with witches and taste their herbal remedies and/or help them make popcorn over an open fire and/or blow giant soap bubbles.
You can also isit them at the Simonalm Farmhouse, a 300-yeard old chalet where you can learn about butter making, bread baking or interact with farm animals.
During winter, the area becomes an illuminated toboggan run or Hexenritt (Witches’ Run) where you can enjoy family-friendly, helter-skelter nighttime tobogganing.
Just take the gondola up the mountain and steer clear (literally) of anyone shouting “Avada Kedavra”…
We travelled to Soll, courtesy of Aer Lingus to Munich, which is the perfect access point for the Austrian Tirol and Soll Aer Lingus have daily flights to Munich from Dublin, and a weekly flight from Cork from December to March.
Soll is only 140km from Soll in the Wilder Kaiser region. Our transfer was with Four Seasons, who have a full transfer service to Austria, and a service desk in Area Z of Munich Airport.
We stayed at the 4 Star Superior Hotel Greil – which is known as a Wine and Gourmet Hotel and has an excellent pool and spa area.
A night in the Hotel Der Greil in January for 2 people in a deluxe room – with superb buffet breakfast, afternoon snack and dinner is around €350-400, including full use of the Wellness area.
The hotel is open for both summer and winter bookings and is a short walk from the main pedestrian area of Soll, and its restaurants and bars.
Check out skiwelt.at for winter prices for lift passes and look for special early season deals in December and in March 2026.
For 2025/26 a 5-day lift pass will cost €258.50 for adults, and €172.50 for children.
Our ski gear was supplied by Sporthaus Edinger – which is conveniently located at the Soll Gondola, with ski storage provided. They also provide e-bikes.
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