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SKIING IN AUSTRIA
Skiing is one of the most popular sports in
Austria and in Austrian history. An Austrian citizen with no skiing
ambitions cannot be considered a true Austrian. Austrian professional
skiers rank top of the world and Innsbruck was not host for the
Olympic Winter Games twice in 1964 and 1974 for no reason. Many
different skiing resorts in the alps are well known throughout the
world and attract many tourists from about everywhere. Because the
austrian alps are inhabited very frequent, there was no reason to
build up new and unnatural skiing resorts but existing towns shifted
to skiing tourism. To keep the local atmosphere for all foreigners,
the small valleys were adapted very modestly to modern mass tourism,
still offering high tech equipped lifts and tracks and accommodations
for the small briefcase to luxury.
The skiing areas are organized very good, offering
all sorts of transportation and many valleys connect to each other.
There is not a rare chance that you start skiing in one valley in
the morning an end up in a total different one at the end of the
day. Some areas offer so many lifts and tracks, taht even after
a week you have not seen them all. Another very important fact is
the snowboarding friendly enviroment, allowing boarders the use
all lifts and tracks. Many areas are host for big international
skiing and snowboarding competitions and Innsbruck is even considered
the "snoboarding captial" of Europe.
Nowadays skiing holidays are not limited to skiing anymore. More
and more skiing resorts also offer a exiting nightlife, parties
and other fun stuff. Towns like Kitzbühel are considered as
meeting points for the high society and kind of a party space. A
very positiv experience for tourists is also the very friendly climate
and the anticipating inhabitants.
Arlberg
One of the most popular skiing areas is the
Arlberg reaching from Vorarlberg to Tyrolia With its small villages
and very neat towns like Lech, St. Anton, Stuben and Zürs this
region attractes skiers from around the world. The Arlberg is also
known for its luxurious accommodations and very long skiing history.
Because of the altitude of its tracks in around 2200m, good snow
conditions are nearly guranteed from December to April. It is very
popular skiing resort not only for the Royal British Family.
Kitzbühel
Kitzbühel and its neighboring towns Lechberg,
Kirchberg and Mittersill offer skiers a really big and modern skiing
area. Its very famous "Hahnenkamm" race, one of the most important
skiing events, once a year since 1931 and the reputation as a Apres
Ski town, make the area around Kitzbühel to a very popular
and exclusive skiing region in Tyrolia. By the way, parts of the
1965 movie "Help!" starring the Beatles was filmed in Kitzbühel.
Saalbach/Hinterglemm
The towns of Saalbach and Hinterglemm in Salzburg
offer tracks in the length of 200km and around 60 lifts. Like many
of the Austrian skiing resorts, Apres Ski and Nightlife are offered
to tourists for a change to the hard sportiv skiing and snowboarding
day.
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