Like Megève, but in Austria: the old town or the easy miles?

If what you love about Megève is coming off the hill into a real old place, Kitzbühel is Austria's answer. It is a medieval town with walls and painted facades, and the skiing arrived long after the streets. Money has been coming here a long time, so designer shops sit beside the Tyrolean outfitters, the restaurants range well past the local staples, and nobody hurries you through lunch on the mountain. We class it as traditional, as we do Megève. It even has a railway station on a main line, in the town itself.

The skiing is a different shape. We measure 135 kilometres of piste around the town, against Megève's 189, and 63 kilometres is blue and easier, against Megève's 104 of green and blue. What Kitzbühel has instead is black: 34 kilometres, the most of any of the 55 resorts we cover, against Megève's 23. Its split between easy, red and black is the most even of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover, and 29 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 20.

Read closer, it is kinder than that sounds. Kitzbühel's reds average 20.3 percent, the gentlest of the Austrian resorts we cover and softer than Megève's at 23.1. Its blacks average 25.9 percent, well under the Austrian black average of 30.3. These are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so a black here will have its moment. But a Megève cruiser will find the reds friendlier than the map suggests.

What you give up is the calm, and a little height. We class Kitzbühel as lively, and its evenings are half the reason people go: in the busy weeks the bars run late. You can find a quiet table, but you will be looking for it rather than living in it. The town sits at 800 metres, 313 below Megève, the skiing tops out at 1,968 by our measure, and 11 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres. Our guide is frank that the lower runs lean on snowmaking in a thin spell, so the heart of winter is the time to go.

If the best of a Megève week is the long, easy cruising, the SkiWelt gives you more of it than Megève does. We measure 258 kilometres of piste around it, 69 more than Megève and the third most of the 55 resorts we cover. Of that, 133 kilometres is blue and easier, the most of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover, against Megève's 104 of green and blue. Our own description calls it one of the largest linked areas there is.

It is also the least steep of the Austrian resorts we cover. Twenty-four percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against Megève's 20, and 34 percent is gentler than 15 percent, against 32. The blues average 15.6 percent, a touch softer than Megève's 16.3. That gentle share, and a traditional character, are why our matching puts the SkiWelt nearest to Megève of all the Austrian resorts we cover.

There is more bite when you want it. The 20 kilometres of black average 28.5 percent, against Megève's 23.3, the gentlest blacks of the 17 French resorts we cover, and there are 10.8 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, about twice Megève's 5.2.

The trade is height and polish. The SkiWelt has the lowest village of the 55 resorts we cover, at 620 metres, and the lowest top of the skiing, 1,958 by our measure. Under 1 percent of its piste is at or above 1,800 metres. Our read on it is traditional, friendly and made for families, rather than upmarket or quiet. Go for the skiing and the children, not for Megève's gloss.

Schladming is the outsider of the three. Our matching ranks it third and finds none of Megève's character in it. It earns its place on one thing a Megève family will feel on the first morning: 39 percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, the largest share of the 13 Austrian resorts we cover, against Megève's 32. Its blues average 13.0 percent, against Megève's 16.3 and an Austrian blue average of 16.4.

The skiing is all of a piece: four mountains linked end to end with no bus, 123 kilometres in their own right. The Ski amadé pass is quoted at 760 kilometres, but that is five regions, not all joined. The town is friendly and down to earth, and the slopes are floodlit for night skiing.

The catch is the reds. There are 62 kilometres of red against 59 of blue and easier, and they average 24.4 percent, steeper than Megève's 23.1, so 27 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 20. The black is thin, at 13 kilometres. The village is at 745 metres and 7 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800. Our read on it is family rather than upmarket or quiet: a good week for children learning, and a different week from Megève.