Featured Image Copyright: Ötztal

With more than 250 peaks of 3,000m and above, the Ötztal Valley forms the spectacular backbone of its Tirolian region, and provides winter adventurers with a jaw-dropping, world-famous and tell-all-your-friends powder playground that has skiers and snowboards alike going back for more over and over again.

But in the 2019/2020 season, expect an even bigger and even better season from this Austrian favourite. Not only is there an all-new state-of-the-art gondola to ride, but a massive new Superpass means more ridable terrain for repeat visitors and newbies alike to sink their tracks into. Convinced? You bet. Here’s a shotgun guide to doing winter in Ötztal right…

How To Get There

Just 50km from Innsbruck airport, the Ötztal Valley is an outrageously convenient place to spend a winter week. If you can’t get flights to the ‘Bruck though, you’ll find more options heading to Munich, which is 160km away. Then, there’s a direct train from central Munich to Ötztal, meaning minimum transfer stress and maximum ride time.

Why Go

When was the last time a ski holiday guaranteed snow from October all the way through to May? And when was the last time you squeezed in a session on not one but two glaciers, and three 3,000m peaks? And have you retraced the footsteps of a British secret agent recently? These are all boxes that the epic Ötztal Valley can offer.

“Have you retraced the footsteps of a British secret agent recently?”

Here, setting off for top-drawer skiing will not only take you to some of the highest resorts in the Alps, but will see you retracing the well-heeled footsteps of James Bond who, in Spectre, drove the glacial roads and dined in the heart-stoppingly beautiful ice Q restaurant of Sölden.

Even better, getting around the Ötztal Valley just got a whole lot easier. New for 2019/2020, the Ötztal Superskipass opens up 361km of slopes and 90 lifts across six ski areas: Hochoetz-Kühtai, Niederthai, Gries, Vent, Sölden and the popular Obergurgl-Hochgurgl. What’s more, there’s a box-fresh ten-seater gondola in the Ötztal village that’ll shoot passengers up 2,083m to Hochsölden and the Giggijoch ridge in less than six minutes. More terrain, less lift time? A certified win-win.