Resort height: 1375m
The mountains
As befits Sölden's young, fun-loving image, there's a good terrain park here - though it depends on natural snow for its features (the most advanced now rely on shaped earth banks beneath the snow for their structure). In a dry winter, the jumps are a little small and there's no half-pipe.
How many of the guests will make proper use of it is another matter of course! Terrain-park acrobatics may be something that many aspire to these days, but they're not the kind of skill you can master over the course of a one-week skiing holiday. So it's good to know the resort has 146km of well-groomed pistes for mere mortals to play on. The wide, evenly-pitched runs on the glacier are the perfect place on which to warm up at the start of the holiday, before moving onto explore the rest of the mountain as the week progresses (a day-trip up to Obergurgl is a must). Snowboarders and more advanced skiers will be praying for a fresh dump, because the wide-open slopes are a freerider's paradise - provided, of course, you tackle them in the company of a guide.
Getting there
Sölden is a one-hour drive from Innsbruck airport - although the tour operators' transfer buses will take a little longer.
Rating: 
9/10
Après-ski
Sölden rocks - from late afternoon to the small hours of the following morning. Usually it begins at Eugen's Obstlerhütte mountain hut on the piste between Hochsölden and Sölden, and then fans out to cover the whole resort. But on Friday afternoon's there's always a band playing from lunchtime until the lifts shut at the Giggjoch hub of lifts and pistes, above Hochsölden. At the moment, the revelers are mostly German, and English-speakers are fairly thin on the ground. But that's bound to change as Sölden's fame spreads.
Rating: 
7/10
Non-skiers
The nightlife in Sölden will be more than enough for some people. But if you've got a clear head the following morning, then the shops, museums and monuments of Innsbruck are little more than an hour away. There's also a glittering new spa complex at nearby Längenfeld and igloo village up near the Rettenbach glacier - you spend the night in your own private snow room, in expedition-grade sleeping bags, having warmed up first in Europe's highest sauna.
Rating: 7/10
Cost of living
Sölden is not a budget-traveller's destination, in part because you'll need a healthy entertainments' budget.
Rating: 
6/10
Attractiveness of the resort
The Ötztal, in which Sölden is set, is an Alpine classic: a long valley with forests coating its lower slopes and craggy peaks up high. The resort itself is less romantic - big, spread out, and bisected by a busy road.
