Stubaier Glacier

The praise is for snow reliability and for the lifts: the glacier runs from roughly October to June, and that is the headline argument in the reviews. The new gondola has largely dealt with the queues - guests note that even with the car park full, boarding takes little time despite this being the only way up. The pistes are broad, well groomed and clearly signed, and the mid-mountain restaurant with its circular glass bar and opening roof is called one of the best in Tyrol.

Slope conditions later in the day are the main gripe: by lunchtime the surface is chewed up, with moguls close to half a metre high almost everywhere, so the skiing is genuinely good only for the first couple of hours. In peak weeks the Gamsgarten hub gets congested and lift boarding backs up. Size bothers people too - several days here is called monotonous. Fog, exposed wind and ice add to it.