Christmas Chalets in Austria

Real villages, the best Christmas markets in the Alps, and a warmth that purpose-built resorts cannot manufacture.

If the picture in your head when you think of Christmas in the mountains involves a church spire, a market square and snow on timber balconies, you are thinking of Austria. The villages are villages — they existed before the lifts did — and in the week before Christmas they do the season better than anywhere else in the Alps.

Altitude is the thing to watch. Austrian resorts generally sit lower than the French Tarentaise, so Christmas snow is less of a given in the valley, and the ones that reliably deliver are the high ones: Obergurgl at 1,930 metres, Ischgl's Silvretta Arena, and the Arlberg's upper villages. Lower down, the skiing is often excellent and the walk home is prettier, but December cover depends more on the year.

Resorts in Austria

Ranked by our Christmas Snow Score. 2 of these are still awaiting verified altitude data and show no score yet.

Lech

Austria

Quietly the most exclusive village in the Alps, and among the snowiest places in Austria.

Village 1,444m · top 2,811m

43

/ 100

Weather-dependent

St Anton am Arlberg

Austria

The spiritual home of Alpine skiing, with the toughest terrain and the liveliest après in Austria.

Village 1,304m · top 2,811m

38

/ 100

Weather-dependent

Ischgl

Austria

High, snow-sure skiing across the Silvretta Arena into Switzerland — and the biggest party in the Alps.

Village 1,377m

Snow Score pending

Obergurgl

Austria

The highest parish in Austria at 1,930m, and the country's most reliable bet for Christmas snow.

Village 1,930m

Snow Score pending

Chalets in Austria you can book now

We don’t list chalets ourselves yet — these go straight to our partners’ own Christmas availability.

These are commercial links: we may earn a commission if you book, and it never changes your price. How this works.

Chalets in Austria

Some links below are commercial. If you book through one we may earn a commission, and what you pay is unchanged. How this works.

Common questions

Which Austria resort is most snow-sure at Christmas?

St Anton am Arlberg, which scores 38 out of 100 on our Christmas Snow Score. Several Austria resorts we cover are still awaiting verified altitude data and carry no score yet, so this ranking is of the resorts we have finished researching rather than of every resort in the country.

When is Christmas week in the Austria Alps?

Alpine chalets almost all change over on a Saturday, so Christmas week runs Saturday to Saturday with Christmas Day falling mid-week. The dates for the season you are looking at are shown on every resort page, and they move each year — which is why no page on this site has a year in its address.

Christmas elsewhere in the Alps