Zugspitze

The praise is for snow and altitude: this is the highest ski area in Germany, the glacier holds cover when everything lower down has melted, and the season runs longer than at neighbouring resorts. The summit panorama is an attraction in itself - on a clear day the view reaches Italian and Swiss peaks. Skiing is comfortable here: wide blues and easy reds. On weekdays it is quiet, the lifts run briskly, and you can arrive by train.

Wind and crowds draw the complaints. An icy wind blows across the plateau and the summit often enough that a day without proper kit becomes an ordeal. At weekends and in the winter holidays the Munich crowd arrives: guests describe oversold tickets, packed cog railway carriages and two to three hour waits. Confident skiers find the terrain thin - nothing genuinely steep, modest vertical and low-angle off-piste. The retreating glacier is a recurring theme.