Like Crans-Montana, but in Austria: the family week travels, the soft reds stay home

Lech keeps your family tag and your village height: it sits at 1,450 metres, 50 below Crans-Montana. We tag it upmarket and family, our read is refined, and it is best for understated luxury and families. In our guide, Oberlech, a car free enclave above the village, is the family favourite, and several hotel spas take day guests, so the day off survives the move.

It fixes the thing a Crans-Montana family notices first, the thin blue. Lech has 79 kilometres of blue and easier against your 22, in 175 kilometres of piste we measure around the village, the third most of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover. There are 26 kilometres of black against 12.9, and 56 kilometres of marked itinerary against 3.2, the second most of the 55 resorts we cover. Our matching names that itinerary as the biggest difference.

What you give up is the top and the soft reds. The skiing tops out at 2,440 metres by our measure, 428 below yours, and 61 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, against 79. That top is just short of the 2,500 metres our snow sure test asks for, so we leave the call open. Lech's reds average 22.3 percent, under a typical Austrian red but well above your 19.2, and 33 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 22. Sunshine is not on its list. You fly to Innsbruck or Zurich.

Our matching puts Obertauern closest to Crans-Montana of all the Austrian resorts we cover, on the share of gentle piste and the amount of skiing. Thirty six percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent at both, and at both 100 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,500 metres. The village is higher than yours: 1,740 metres, the highest of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover and 240 above Crans-Montana. Ski in ski out and a neat skiable loop are on its list, and the season runs from late November to May.

The top is the biggest difference our matching finds. The skiing stops at 2,304 metres by our measure, 564 below yours, and 61 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, against 79. With a top that low it is not snow sure on our measure, for all the height of the village.

And the gradient goes the other way. Obertauern's reds average 25.3 percent, the third steepest of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover, its blacks 37.8, the steepest of the 55 we cover, and 29 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 22. Around the village we measure 74 kilometres, the least of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover, with 40.9 of blue and easier against 22 and 4 kilometres of black. Family is not on its tags, and you fly to Salzburg.

Golf and spa is second on Crans-Montana's list, and the spa is on Bad Gastein's list too. Our one line on it is faded belle époque grandeur and thermal spas, our read is grand and characterful, and it is best for belle époque, the spa and the scenery. If the view and the long soak are your favourite parts of the week, it is the Austrian pick for them.

The mountain is the catch. Half its piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 79, and our snow sure test needs more than half, so it falls short on our measure; the skiing reaches 2,644 metres, 224 below yours. The village is at 1,000 metres, 500 below Crans-Montana. Our matching names the share of steep piste as the biggest difference: 37 percent is steeper than one in four, the third biggest share of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover, against your 22, and the reds average 25.0 percent.

The area is less simple than yours. Bad Gastein's own area is 83 kilometres, one of four separate areas down its valley, on a Ski amadé pass of five regions that are not all joined, and the 106.6 kilometres we measure around the village takes in more than that own area. There are 41.3 kilometres of blue and easier against your 22. We tag it traditional, not family, and you fly to Salzburg.