Soll - eat, drink, party

In the town

Many of Söll’s bars begin their après-ski in mid-afternoon and the fun carries on until the early hours. It can be hard to tear yourself away to go back to your hotel for dinner.

It’s not quite as raucous, thankfully many will say, as it once was. But it has its moments, and so do we. We tend to spend quite a lot of time in the Salvenstadl (00 43 5333 6373), where we have embarrassed ourselves on occasion by dancing on the tables. Simply to enter into the spirit of things and not to appear stand-offish, you understand. It’s the sort of place where lots of people seem anxious not to appear stand-offish. It can get quite warm in the bar, prompting some female customers to take their tops off while dancing on the tables.

Swiftly moving on, things can get pretty lively too in the Whisky Mühle (00 43 5333 53 26), one of the legendary Alpine watering holes. Rossini (00 43 5333 5139) has excellent cocktails and live music, while the Moonlightbar (00 43 664 4036006) near the gondola station often has customers dancing on the table.

For a treat, by the way, try the great milk-shakes at the Hexenalm (00 43 5333 5544) straight after skiing.

The Austria Pub (00 43 5333 5213) and Buffalo’s Bar has seen our custom on more than one occasion as the night has worn on.

But for eating out, Söll has some gourmet surprises up its sleeve – such as the fabulous award-winning Schindlhaus (00 43 5333 516136) restaurant, the best in town (and one of Tirol’s top restaurants) where brothers Christian and Markus Winkler conjure up amazing dishes. And the nearby Stanglwirt hotel (00 43 5358 2000), at the village of Going, also has a great restaurant.

In the village, Bella Vita (00 43 05333 20360) is always good and a popular meeting place. The Pizzeria Venezia (00 43 5333 6191) is great for Italian, as is Giovanni. We’ve eaten well in the Dorf Stub’n (00 43 5333 5907) and the Postwirt (00 43 5333 5081), with good home-cooking too in the restaurant of the Eggerwirt (00 43 5333 5236).

Mountain restaurants

There is a mountain restaurant in the Ski Welt for about every three kilometres of piste, about 70 in all. You won’t go hungry on the slopes. Dotted about the slopes in the immediate vicinity of Söll there are at least ten, and most of them good.

The Gipfelrestaurant at the top of the Hohe Salve must be visited, preferably on a sunny day, if only to have a table on its open-air revolving terrace. At Hochsoll there is a choice of the Gasthof Hochsoll (00 43 5333 5260 4500), the Gasthof Grundlalm (00 43 5333 5060) and the Stocklalm, and we’ve had good lunches in all three. Interesting to think that you’d have to spend at least ten weeks in the Ski Welt to try out all the mountain restaurants!