Family Holidays: St. Johann in Tirol family skiing holidays

Take the Family holiday rating 4 stars out of 5

Why

St. Johann in Tirol is a few miles from famous Kitzbuehl and lies between the Kitzbuehler Horn and Wilden Kaiser mountains. It's a traditional, quaint Tirolean village with a centre that must be the envy of purpose built 1960's ski resorts. With 17 lifts it's the perfect size for a family ski holiday, especially for younger children and skiing beginners or intermediates. And more adventurous skiers can take advantage of the multi-area Schneewinkl Pass. The ski school has a great reputation, with most instructors fluent in English and the resort offers a crèche (for 2 to 5 year olds) and Ski Kindergarten for 3 to 8 year olds.

Top left: Hot pool in the snow
Top right: Ski School

Bottom left: Scenery from ski slope
Bottom right: St Johann at night

When

The ski season begins in mid-December and runs through March. Although St. Johann's highest lift ‘only’ reaches 1,700m. there are plenty of North facing slopes so snow retention compares favourably to other resorts. St. Johann is also beautiful in the summer and offers extensive hiking, biking, swimming and other sports activities.

How

take the plane

Fly to Salzburg from numerous British airports in the winter and then transfer in 75 minutes.

Do

Use the 61 lifts in the Schneewinkl ski area to get to the top of 4 blue, 23 red and 2 black runs (St. Johann itself has 17 lifts)
Learn to snowboard in the dedicated snowboard park
Take advantage of the Austrian ski school’s expertise to teach your kids or brush up on your own skiing
Enjoy tobogganing, sleigh rides, bowling, swimming, ice skating and even indoor tennis

Eat

Over 50 restaurants offer pizzas from €7 to traditional three course dinners for €12. If you're staying in a hotel via a tour operator package breakfast and dinner will normally be included, leaving you just to choose where to eat lunch from the 38 mountain restaurants.

Cost

Travel outside of February half term if at all possible to save considerably. A week for four with flights, half board accommodation, transfers, ski pass and ski hire will range from £1,500 to £3,000 with lessons on top.