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A long weekend in Kitzbühel: how to spend 72 hours in Austrian luxury

The Austrian resort offers glamour aplenty - Michael Werlberger
The Austrian resort offers glamour aplenty - Michael Werlberger

Alighting at Kitzbühel railway station, I spotted the smart Rosengarten Hotel Restaurant & Spa car awaiting me. My driver, a sprightly septuagenarian with a thick Tirolean accent, diplomatically answered my volley of questions about Simon Taxacher, chef-patron of the Rosengarten, which is set in the village of Kirchberg, 15 minutes’ drive from Kitzbühel. Widely heralded as the best chef in Austria, Taxacher’s legendary tasting menu was to be my starting point for a long weekend in the classy Alpine resort.

It was only a few hours later, sipping G&Ts in the Rosengarten’s bar with Sandra Kobald, Taxacher’s partner in business and life, that I discovered my driver was Simon Taxacher’s father. Officially retired yet still helping with odd jobs, Taxacher Senior built the original Taxacher Hof hotel, where Junior learned the hospitality ropes and subsequently built his restaurant and hotel.

Eight of the best luxury ski holidays for this winter
Eight of the best luxury ski holidays for this winter

The Taxachers’ humble, family-oriented approach to life proved to be the first of many examples I discovered of a refreshingly down-to-earth Kitzbühel. As Joseph Burger, CEO of Kitzbühel’s lift company, told me with pride: “Locals here never forget that Kitzbühel is home to 12,000 cows but only 4,000 year-round residents. We’re still very much a farming community.”

That said, Kitzbühel has long been synonymous with old-school glamour, known for its luxurious hotels, cafés and shops, housed in candy-coloured medieval inns in its picture-perfect Old Town. Everything here is genteel, from the horse-drawn carriages that clippety-clop along the cobbled streets to the softly undulating pastures that encircle Kitzbühel, with the glaring exception of the Hahnenkamm: the most thrilling and challenging ski race on the World Cup calendar, which draws over 80,000 rowdy visitors to Kitzbühel each January.

During Hahnenkamm weekend, the ski world’s biggest names and their entourages take up residence at the Rosengarten, the luxurious Tennerhof and Weisses Rössl hotels in the Old Town and the Rasmushof hotel on the race’s finish line. Rooms are booked four years in advance and visitors drop thousands of euros on magnums of Cristal in the Take Five Club’s notorious VIP lounge.

Chef Simon Taxacher creates works of art at the Rosengarten's restaurant - Credit: rosengarten-taxacher.com
Chef Simon Taxacher creates works of art at the Rosengarten's restaurant Credit: rosengarten-taxacher.com

However, looking around my sultry Rosengarten deluxe suite – all dark wenge wood and black furs with champagne on ice, a wine fridge, glass-fronted fire, palatial bathroom and balcony affording views of the snow-blanketed Gaisberg – I was struck by its €386 per night price tag. Not cheap, of course, but comparable luxury in Courchevel or Verbier would cost more like double that price.

Dinner at the Rosengarten was a triumphant display of exceptional culinary talent. Although unable to pin Michelin stars to his name (Michelin stopped rating restaurants in Austria outside of Vienna in 2010, when he had two stars), Taxacher claims 19 Gault-Millau points and four chef’s toques. His cuisine takes the simplicity and hearty comfort of Tirolean produce and dishes (air-dried ham, barley soup, pork dumplings), adds delicate, unexpected flavour combinations (eel, pumpkin and leek for example) and presents them like fine art. Weighing in at €174 per person, the seven-course tasting menu is eye-wateringly expensive but, in my opinion, worth every mouth-watering penny.   

10 of the world’s most romantic ski resorts
10 of the world’s most romantic ski resorts

The next morning, having declined the €40 caviar on ice option at breakfast, I met Peter of Kitzbühel’s oldest ski school, the Rote Teufels (Red Devils), to explore the slopes. Kitzbühel offers 179km of pistes, which span several low-lying mountains behind the town as well as the south-facing Kitzbüheler Horn opposite, putting it on a par with Flims-Laax and the shared ski area of Lech, Zürs and Warth-Schröcken. And that’s before you add the 279km of pistes of SkiWelt, which can be accessed from nearby Westendorf (a short bus ride from Kirchberg).

We embarked on Kitzbühel’s Ski Safari, travelling the breadth of the ski area from Kirchberg to Hollersbach and back to Kitzbühel. Thanks to efficient lifts and gentle, well-groomed pistes with far-reaching Alpine views, the safari is ideal for intermediate skiers. Indeed, with the notable exception of the steep sections of the Hahnenkamm’s rollicking Streif piste and a smattering of black runs, Kitzbühel’s slopes are flattering blues and reds that wind between forests and old timber hay barns.

Piste in Kitzbühel - Credit: Michael Werlberger/Kitzbühel Tourismus
Kitzbühel has an extensive ski area and a wealth of off piste to explore Credit: Michael Werlberger/Kitzbühel Tourismus

Much is made of Kitzbühel’s low altitude – the town is set at 800m and only one lift tops 2,000m (by just 4m). Yet the pistes are almost entirely laid on pasture, meaning relatively little snowfall is required to achieve good coverage. Furthermore, significant investment in artificial snowmaking and the protection of higher slopes through the summer means Kitzbühel is now the first non-glacial early season race training destination in the Alps.

As Peter and I travelled high across the Saukaser Valley on the 3S gondola, which spans 2.26 miles to link the two main ski areas of Hahnenkamm-Pengelstein and Jochberg-Pass Thurn, he pointed out some of Kitzbühel’s 57,000 acres of off-piste terrain. There was an inviting 1,000-vertical-metre descent from Schwarzkogel into Jochberg and a longer run off Klein Rettenstein, towering above the valley. Other instructors on the gondola chimed in with their favourites and it became clear how rare it is for clients to explore off-piste here. “All the more powder for us,” they beamed.

Seven things to do in Kitzbühel
Seven things to do in Kitzbühel

At the end of the ski day, I rode back up the Hahnenkamm lift for a spot of après-ski tandem paragliding. Strapped snugly to my guide, I ran off the top of the Hahnenkamm and soared into the air, the 85 per cent incline Mausefall (mousetrap) section dropping away below us, taking my tummy with it. We swooped high above the notorious course, dropping down to skim the trees of the Lärchenschuss (larch schuss) section and terrorise skiers outside the Siedlalm hut before dangling above Kitzbühel’s Old Town, churches and golf courses.

Back on solid ground, and having checked into the Rasmushof hotel to be close to the centre of town, I strolled around the streets I’d seen from the sky. The buttressed and frescoed walls of the pedestrianised Old Town reflect Kitzbühel’s history as a thriving medieval market town, which grew even richer from copper and silver mining. The town doesn’t really do oompah-style après-ski, with many people opting to sip coffee and nibble on Sachertorte in smart cafés before glamming up for pre-dinner drinks at the chic Leo Hillinger wine bar. Alternatively, visit the bustling Hüberbräu tavern (no reservations taken so get here early or late to avoid queuing) for a vast Schnitzel and Stein of local beer (€15 all in) before enjoying live music at the Londoner pub.

World's scariest ski runs
World's scariest ski runs

My second day in Kitzbühel dawned bright and perfect for ski touring, so I met my instructor, Manfred Hofer, at the HQ of Kitzbühel’s younger and hipper ski school Element3, which also has an impressive range of ski rental kit. Being an unseasonably warm mid-March day, snow wasn’t abundant but, while I struck occasional patches of grass, there were no rocks. Given the heat, we stuck to fairly short routes, maximising descent over distance, rather than tackling the more arduous, longer itineraries that spread all around the surrounding peaks.  

We paused for lunch at the Sonnbühel mountain hut, where hungry skiers and hikers have sought hospitality since 1924. The Kitzbühel favourite received a new lease of life in 2016 when Ivan Marzola, whose family is behind the acclaimed Comici Hut in the South Tyrol, took over the reins. In trademark Comici style, the large sun terrace was laid out with white linen tablecloths and brightly-coloured blankets, ice buckets groaned under bottles of champagne, and the menu was awash with Catalan lobster, marinated octopus and crisp belly of local suckling pig. It’s precisely the scene I had expected of Kitzbühel, with fur-clad skiers and hikers quaffing bubbles in the sunshine, yet it seems that glitzy Kitz is actually surprisingly hard to find.

Kitzbuhel
The world-famous town of Kitzbühel

I had dinner that night with lifelong locals and friends Signe Reisch, the owner of the Rasmushof hotel – who’s also known as ‘Queen of the Streif’ for her daily lap of the piste – and Rudi Sailer, the brother of Kitzbühel’s beloved ski hero Toni Sailer. In the cosiness of the Rasmushof’s traditional dining room, they shared a Wiener Schnitzel in order to save space for the justifiably famous Kaiserschmarrn (a traditional shredded pancake dessert). Capitalising on the combined mine of local information at my disposal, I asked them what one should do with 72 hours in Kitzbühel. The answer was simple: “Go skiing.”

For more information about Kitzbühel, visit kitzbuehel.com. Double rooms at the Rosengarten Hotel, Restaurant & Spa cost from €194 per night, including breakfast. Double rooms at the Rasmushof cost from €240 per night, including breakfast.

best ski resorts in Austria
best ski resorts in Austria