This charming Austrian ski resort hasn’t changed in 30 years

It’s a crisp, snowy Monday morning in Alpbach, in the glorious Austrian Tyrol, and I’m standing in a line of skiers, new salopettes chafing slightly around my waist.

Strangers on skis stand on either side of me and a spectacularly handsome ski instructor is in front of us, waving ski poles and talking about snow ploughs, parallel turns and other phrases that might as well be in German for all the sense they make. Beside him, a narrow grey travelator grinds up a terrifying gradient. I’m nervous, excited and entirely unsure how my first ski lesson is going to plan out.

This all came back to me, 36 years later, as I stood on my balcony at the Böglerhof Hotel, looking out over Alpbach’s small nursery slope, where I first learnt to ski, in 1988.

In the intervening years, I’ve skied in a dozen different Austrian resorts, but picture-perfect Alpbach has always had my heart. Its ski area may be modest, the après-ski scene almost non-existent, but the quiet streets and traditional Tyrolean chalets are beloved by families and those, like me, who come as much for the glorious mountain scenery as the ski runs themselves.

On my last visit, in 2012, the opening of a new gondola linking the Alpbachtal ski area to the Wildschönau was big news, adding 82km of ski runs to Alpbachtal’s 63km. The creation of the Ski Juwel region caused quite a kerfuffle at the time; locals had concerns that huge car parks and new hotels would have to be built to accommodate skiers flooding into the valley.

But the village has long been change-proofed, in large part because of the original owner of the Böglerhof, Alfons Moser, who became mayor in the post-war years and set about imposing tight planning laws which still stand today.

Moser’s legacy is a village that looks almost entirely the same as when I first visited it in 1988. All new chalets must be built to a traditional design: no more than three floors high, with decorated wooden balconies; the roof pitch must be exact; and a house can be painted no other colour but white. Small concessions are given to hotels, but apart from the Spar supermarket at the village entrance, and the cleverly hidden Congress Centre (sewn into the mountain beneath the nursery slope), there’s barely a modern construction in sight.

“There is something magical about it,” said Joey Pearson, when I visited Conny’s Sport Rentals to pick up my equipment. Like me, Joey first visited in the 1980s as a child, returning as a ski rep and is now married to the owner of the ski rental shop. “It draws you back because it’s so peaceful – no other village in Tyrol is so unchanged.”

Although tradition is highly prized in Alpbach, the village isn’t entirely stuck in a time warp. The gleaming Pöglbahn cable car transported me – along with my guide, Stefan – up to the top of the Wiedersberger Horn, where a further lift took us to the region’s top station, the Hornbahn 2000.

The highest point of the region, at 2,030m, the mountain is crowned with the Top of Alpbachtal, a slickly designed wooden and glass viewing platform, towering 13m above the snow.

Opened in 2022, along with the new, high-speed Hornbahn chairlift, it’s a popular rest stop with hikers in summer and skiers in winter.

We sat for a while and then set off along a gentle blue slope, which travelled back down to the top station of the Wiedersberger Horn lift and the main lattice of runs. On the way, we stopped by a carved wooden door-frame, complete with a working door, set on the side of the piste.

A favourite on Instagram among visitors, the door opens to create the illusion of stepping out on to the mountain and into the spectacular view. It’s quirky – much like the kids’ Funslope run, with archways to duck through and oversized hands set by the piste-side that squawk and jabber as you speed by.

The ski area’s long sweeping blue runs and wide red pistes were perfect for rediscovering my ski legs. Lunch at the Dauerstoa Alm – tucked into a wooden booth, with scarlet and white checked cushions to soothe my grumbling back – offered a chance to revisit my teenage self’s favourite lunch: gröstl, a mountain of fried potatoes and bacon, topped with a fried egg – a portion so mammoth, Stefan had to eat at least half of it.

By mid-afternoon, my legs were done and I returned to the Böglerhof, where the daily afternoon tea was under way, with hot tea and fresh strudel in the elegant, firelit lounge.

The hotel is a perfect metaphor for Alpbach itself: everything feels traditional, from the 500-year-old Fuggerstube restaurant to the oom-pah-pah band that plays in the lounge.

But hidden away on the top floor is a brand-new, state-of-the-art spa: a modern two-floor space with a gloriously warm swim-out infinity pool and cold plunge.

Both the hotel and the village pull off the trick of appearing to be unchanged, while quietly embracing all the aspects of 21st-century skiing. It’s often said that returning to places you’ve loved isn’t always a good idea, and that you should leave your memories intact. But with Alpbach, it’s the not going back sooner that I regret.

How to do it

Inghams offers a week at Böglerhof Hotel from £1,469pp, full board, including flights and transfers.

Annabelle Thorpe was a guest of the Austrian Tourist Board and Alpbach Tourism.