An Eater’s Guide to the Most Retro-Chic Ski Towns in the Alps

Over the years, the Alpine ski scene has condensed into a handful of uber-popular resorts: Ischgl in Austria, St. Moritz or Verbier in Switzerland, and Megève or the Three Valleys in France. Whether holidayers prefer après-ski ragers or glitzy luxury, Jägerbombs or multi-course dinners, they are generally funneled toward one of the few well-established mountains.

Over the last couple years, though, ambitious residents in sleepy resort towns across the Alps are carving a third path on the slopes: They’re reviving and rebuilding their historic homes, channeling versions of mountain culture that have faded over the generations. They’re especially taking inspiration from the midcentury golden age of the region, recreating a tres-chic ski world of après-ski Negronis, bright pots of fondue, and minimalist-meets-chalet design. Chefs are playing a key role in this time warp. Returning from international stints, they’re freshening up their hometown gastronomic scenes, reconceiving carb-heavy ski foods, and serving dishes that balance tradition with modern tastes.

The revival has swept across borders and mountains, providing fashionable escapes in every Alpine region. Here are five towns across three countries to check out.

Bad Gastein, Austria

Many travelers head to nearby Kitzbuhel, a ski resort frequented by celebrities and royalty like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Prince Albert of Monaco, but under-the-radar Bad Gastein has an equally rich history as a tourist destination. During its 16th-century golden era, the town became known as a wellness refuge, attracting emperors, empresses, and the rich and famous from all corners of Europe, who bathed in thermal baths, explored local caves, took in the stunning natural landscapes, and tucked themselves into hotels literally built for royalty. Though the area held onto its reputation until the 20th century, when Emperor Franz Joseph arrived to inaugurate the train station in 1905, it eventually fell out of fashion to soak for long hours in lukewarm water. By the ’70s, the town lost its luster and abandoned its grand hotels.

But since 2000, artists, architects, and restaurateurs have been helping Bad Gastein find its spirit again. That’s when wife-and-husband duo Evelyn and Ike Ikrath took over and restored her family’s hotel, Haus Hirt, kicking off a local revival rampage. They went on to resurrect other properties, including design-forward Alpenlofts and Hotel Miramonte. At the latter, Ike preserved the ’50s vibe with vintage furnishings and commissioned designer Ernst Muthwill, who fine-tuned the midcentury ode with colors like cerulean and vermillion. You’ll find the best views of the Gastein Valley in the lobby, ideally with a tall flute of Champagne in hand, before heading to the hotel restaurant, where old-fashioned dishes are reinvented with organic ingredients. A strong list of vegetarian and vegan options, like beetroot hummus served on a linseed picklet, along with house-brewed beers and grilled fish, are served on the terrace, even during the winter (a perfect place to show off that fashionable vintage coat, since it’s unheated).

More recently, owner and architect Barbara Elwardt redesigned the layout of a former sanatorium built in the 1960s to create contemporary mountain escape the Cōmodo while channeling Bad Gastein’s legacy as a Belle Epoque escape. Nostalgic furnishings, modern art, a collection of ‘70s vinyl, and luxe amenities articulate a timeless mishmash style. The hotel’s restaurant, De Leit Restaurant, focuses on farm-to-table dishes and locally sourced ingredients: beef consomme with cheese dumplings, cured salmon trout with beetroot pearls, and Gasteiner Mess, a local take on Eton Mess consisting of vanilla cream, berries, oats, and meringue. Much like the food, the cocktails skew to classics like Negronis, while many of the wines, like a nice winzersekt, are locally produced.

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Lech, Austria

Vorarlberg, Austria’s smallest federal state, has long been known for its artisanal culture and craftsmanship, especially in design and architecture; locally sourced wood and old-school know-how combine to create many of the sustainable houses in the area. More recently, the region has seen a rise in culinary prowess to match its design bona fides, mostly driven by a new generation of hoteliers and restaurateurs in places like Lech.

Since 2018, and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, new-school mountain huts are redefining après-ski for a younger generation in the area. Der Wolf, opened by former ski instructor Christian Wolf, brings together Bregenzerwald craftsmanship in its design with international flavors in its kitchen, where micro-herb salads pop out alongside spicy vegan red Thai curry. In the arching, wood-lined space at Schneggarei, pizzas, grilled scallops, and hand-made pastas allow adrenaline junkies to fuel up without ripping off their skies.

Surrounded by family-run hotels, Kristiania Lech was founded by former Olympian Othmar Schneider in 1953, who wanted to open a place to entertain friends during the winter season. Since his daughter Gertude took over the property a few years ago, the hotel has become more than just a social destination for Lech residents but also a meeting place for the arts scene, with artists regularly dropping by for panel discussions at the hotel’s Salon Talks. At the Kristiana Das restaurant, Gertrude extends warm Austrian hospitality through hearty breakfasts and lunches of butter schnitzel and oysters. At night, Argentinian chef Malcolm Praun produces a seasonal menu that is as eclectic as the art on the walls, with dishes that highlight the hotel’s decades of partnerships with local farmers.

In Zug, a short 10-minute drive from Lech, husband-and-wife duo Josef and Natascha Walch lead the pack at Rote Wand Gourmet Hotel. Josef’s parents opened the inn in 1959, repurposing a farm dating back to 1651; the hotel became a place for the elite to party, with an especially popular disco in the wine cellar. The hotel did alright, but when Josef and Natascha took over the business in 1987, they wanted something different, transforming the guesthouse into a gourmet destination with world-class dining.

Rote Wand now has three separate restaurants: The stuben (tavern) serves classic dishes like Josef’s mother’s fondue. A private dining room in the cellar offers seasonal dinners cooked by guest chefs. But it’s the gourmet restaurant, Chef’s Table, opened in 2015, which makes the hotel so attractive to visiting gourmands. Set in a 1600s schoolhouse on the property, the restaurant mirrors famed Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare in New York, which once held three Michelin stars. The Walches even recruited chef Max Natmessnig, who spent time at the American Chef’s Table, to head up the first kitchen team at Rote Wand’s homage, before he handed over the reins to chef Julian Stieger, an alum of Denmark’s Geranium and New York’s Eleven Madison Park. The 19ish-course tasting menu is creative and whimsical, supported by a crack team of sommeliers and sous chefs from Denmark’s most prestigious restaurants.

Flaine, France

With its brutalist design, the Flaine ski resort didn’t fit the elitist French ski scene when it premiered in the 1960s. The surrounding region was never known for luxury, and the ring of seemingly simple, poured-concrete hotels (including one building that launches into the air over a sharp drop) in Flaine, designed by the famed Marcel Breuer, was a bit ahead of its time. Despite ski slopes dotted with modernist artworks by folks like Pablo Picasso, the resort never quite took off, and it was pejoratively called Phlegm by its haters for years. But in the last few years, the gray blocks of concrete have sprung back to life, offering a low-key yet stylish alternative to ritzy spots like Megève and Courchevel, just like industrialist Eric Boissonnas and his wife Sylvie originally envisioned when they commissioned Breuer.

The refresh comes ironically from the Maisons et Hôtels Sibuet group, a hotelier family known for glitzy five-star properties. Their headliner in the Flaine reboot is the Hotel Totem, which the group calls “une nouvelle vision de l’hôtellerie” but basically amounts to a budget hotel housed in one of Breuer’s masterpieces. Proving that cheap lodging doesn’t necessarily mean basic when it comes with a French touch, the hotel anchors its social spaces with Breuer-designed fireplaces, the architect’s famous chairs, and vintage arcade games, providing achingly cool areas to gather for Negronis and frothy French beers with fellow skiers. The casual, swinging ’60s vibe is evident in the hotel’s dining concept too: Rather than a seated dinner, guests enjoy a nightly buffet meant for mingling. Anything from pizza to pork stew to zucchini ravioli might show up under the buffet heat lamps. Most skiers eat quickly and make their way to the bar for most of the night in any case.

Following the Sibuets’ lead, the Rocky Pop Hotel, a vibey, hostel-like hotel, tucked itself into Breuer’s Grand Massif resort. Decorated by Leslie Gauthier (who also outfitted the hotel chain’s locations in Chamonix and Grenoble), the interior leans more pop art than brutalist, with playful colors and splotches of retro furniture. Along with a game room that converts into a late-night karaoke bar, the hotel boasts three restaurants to choose from: a country-style buffet for breakfast, a sushi restaurant with yakitori grilled at the table, and Fromerton, which serves up hearty fondue and charcuterie from the Savoyard region.

Avoriaz, France

Not far from Flaine, in nearby Avoriaz — a vehicle-free resort known for its angular, shingled buildings — the Sibuet family also revamped the Hôtel des Dromonts in 2016. A once-celebrated ski-in/ski-out hotel, the original building was built by Jacques Labro in 1966. The reincarnation maintains much of the original spirit, utilizing fabrics in ’60s hues like mandarin, violet, turquoise, and mauve and lots of cozy, wood-lined nooks. In the restaurant, Les Enfants Terribles (which also has a location in Megève), photos of famed ’60s-era skiers are splashed on the red walls, while the tables fill with a royal salute to old-school French cuisine: côte de boeuf served alongside potato gratin with a rich bearnaise sauce, roasted chicken baked en croûte de sel (salt crust) presented under a blanket of creamy morilles sauce, and plenty of good French wine.

Davos, Switzerland

Like many ski resorts in Europe, Davos was a summer retreat during the 18th century and only became a popular winter destination in the 19th century, when visiting physicians started creating wellness programs that incorporated the cold Alpine air. The resort reached its peak the following century, with many hotels doubling as health clinics, including the Art Nouveau-style Waldhotel, a luxury sanatorium that inspired Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. The town’s popularity as a wellness enclave ended abruptly in the 1950s, when people no longer fled to sanatoriums to recover from ailments like tuberculosis, and it eventually transformed into a staid locale for the World Economic Forum and G20 Summit.

That is until an influx of restaurants and hotels redefined the city, just as the revived Schatzalp ski area nearby (reopened after seven years) gave ravenous skiers and snowboarders a reason to return as well. Once again folks are taking on huge half-pipes before descending into town for après-ski cocktails and schnitzel.

Along with the lightly revamped Waldhotel, check out the Alpen Gold Hotel. The hotel may be entirely futuristic (it’s made to look like a giant pinecone and is filled with high-tech gadgetry), but chef Manuel Zund digs into culinary traditions at the hotel’s Atelier Vert restaurant. The chef, a member of the Swiss national team that won the 2022 Culinary World Cup, celebrates mountain foodways without a pot of fondue or plate of rosti in sight; instead, Zund combines items once regularly eaten by farmers with modern techniques, foams, and smoke. Herbs like capuchin, fennel flower, and lemon marigold accent hand-churned butter, served alongside crunchy, floral bread; the porridge-like dish of riebel is served as a taco with fermented black garlic; and cold-pressed local hemp augments an apple dessert. The hotel is also home to Nikkei-focused La Muña, where chef Diomis Angelos serves dishes like scallop ceviche with truffle and miso-baked cod filet.

Elsewhere in town, the former Hotel Continental sprang back to life in 2022 as the Alpine Inn with help from architectural historian Michael Hanak; at 1908, the hotel’s restaurant, chef David Svarc brings in the seasons of the forest, like venison tartare with pine needle bread. Even new, neon-lit spots like Piz Piz, in the Hotel Davoserhof, unabashedly serve Swiss classics like fondue, schnitzel, and schnapps. Live music attracts energetic crowds and blasts away any lingering musty vibes from the old Davos.

Michelle Tchea is the author of five bestselling books and owner of the culture-driven organization Chefs Collective. She has contributed to Travel and Leisure, The Guardian, and Time Magazine.

Kristiana Lech