Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis

Serfaus, Fiss and Ladis sit side by side on a south-facing plateau at around 1,200–1,450 m above the upper Inn valley, with their lifts rising behind them to a high point of about 2,800 m. The setting is the first thing you notice — the plateau catches the sun all day and looks across the valley at the Samnaun group — and the second is how deliberately the whole place has been built around children.

Serfaus is car-free in its centre: visitors leave the car at the entrance and ride a small underground hover train, the Dorfbahn, which runs the length of the village to the lift base and is claimed as the smallest metro in the world. Fiss and Ladis are quieter and more traditional, with Ladis the smallest and cheapest of the three. All are linked on the mountain, and the combined area runs to 214 km of piste, mostly wide and red.

The children's set-up is on a scale nowhere else in the Alps matches: enormous dedicated kids' areas at the top of the main lifts in both Serfaus and Fiss, with their own magic carpets, themed runs and restaurants. It wins family-resort awards year after year, and it is not cheap; Serfaus in particular has moved firmly upmarket.