Love Kitzbühel? Where to go next, depending on what you love about it

La Clusaz is the only other resort we cover that we class as both lively and traditional, which makes it the closest match on character. It is in France. It is a lively local village with a weekend feel, and it is a little higher: the village sits at 1,100 metres, 300 above Kitzbühel's, with lifts to 2,600.

The trade is the town and the gradient. La Clusaz is a village, not a medieval town, and its skiing is smaller and much steeper. We measure 97 kilometres of piste against Kitzbühel's 135, and 39 percent of it is steeper than one in four, against 29. Its reds average 29.0 percent, the steepest reds of any resort we cover, against Kitzbühel's 20.3. That is measured gradient, which compares fairly across the border where grade labels do not, and it is still an average. But a Kitzbühel skier who is happy on the reds at home should not assume the same here. And there are only 9 kilometres of black, against Kitzbühel's 34.

If what you love is the town itself, the old buildings and the sense of a place with a past, Bad Gastein is the closest overall match to Kitzbühel in our data. It is a grand spa town of faded belle époque hotels, traditional in the way Kitzbühel is, and it is higher on the hill. The village is at 1,000 metres, 200 above Kitzbühel's, and the lifts reach 2,686, almost 700 metres higher.

Its own ski area is 83 kilometres, one of four separate areas down the valley, so it is smaller than Kitzbühel's. It is steeper too: 37 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against 29, and its reds average 25.0 percent against Kitzbühel's 20.3. Neither is a place for off piste, so you lose nothing there: Bad Gastein has 1.5 kilometres of marked itinerary, Kitzbühel less than one. On a day off the hill, the thermal spas are a reason to be there in their own right.

The trade is the nightlife. We class Kitzbühel as lively and Bad Gastein as not, and grand is not the same thing as busy. If the evenings were half the reason you went to Kitzbühel, look at the next two routes instead.

Saalbach-Hinterglemm keeps Kitzbühel's evenings and gives you more skiing. We class it as lively, it is a sunny circuit of villages built for fun, and we measure 192 kilometres of piste against Kitzbühel's 135, plus 12 kilometres of marked itinerary where Kitzbühel has almost none.

It is barely higher, though, with a village at 1,003 metres and lifts to 2,096. And it is much steeper. Forty two percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against Kitzbühel's 29, and its reds average 27.8 percent against Kitzbühel's 20.3. Both are Austrian, and a red at one is still not much like a red at the other.

The trade is the old town, and the black. Saalbach is built for fun, not for history, and it has 12 kilometres of black against Kitzbühel's 34.

This is the one route that is honest about snow. Sölden keeps the part of Kitzbühel's character that travels best, a lively village, and puts it much higher. The village is at 1,368 metres, 568 above Kitzbühel's, the lifts reach 3,340, which is 1,340 metres higher than Kitzbühel's top, on two glaciers, and the season runs from late November to May.

On the skiing it is uncannily close. We measure 135.4 kilometres of piste at both, and 30 percent of Sölden's is steeper than one in four against Kitzbühel's 29.

What you trade is the town, and some of the black. Sölden is sporty rather than historic, and we do not class it as traditional. It has 19 kilometres of black against Kitzbühel's 34, and on average its blacks are steeper, 33.3 percent against 25.9. Fewer black runs, harder ones, which is worth knowing before you go if the blacks are where your group spends its week. If snow is the worry, this is the answer, and the old town is what you give up for it.