What makes a ski hotel truly exceptional? It’s not just the quality of the accommodation. You can create the most sumptuous and stylish property on the planet, but if it doesn’t sit at the bottom of an A-list ski resort, you’ve wasted your time. Conversely, great skiing can’t compensate for stodgy service or uninspiring interiors. No, it has to be a combination of the two: a hotel that is head and shoulders above the competition, and a location that will make your blood fizz with anticipation of the thrills ahead.

Here are 10 hotels that make the grade. By no means all are at the top of the market, but each has managed to coax a little extra magic from the mountains, creating an environment that will warm you each night and inspire you every morning. Given that even the most expensive weighs in at little more than a bog-standard Caribbean break, that’s quite an achievement. So isn’t it time you treated yourself to one?

HOTEL SCHNEIDER ALMHOF - Lech, Austria

Something unusual, and very wonderful, has happened at the Schneider Almhof. At first sight, it is your standard-issue Alpine hotel: built on old cattle pasture and still run by the family that owned the cows. That’s not necessarily a formula for a bad hotel, just one that tends to be set in its ways. You don’t see much modernisation in such a hotel — except, perhaps, for the children taking down dad’s hunting trophies.

Not at the Schneider Almhof. Here, two generations of the Schneider family — mother and son — are working together in a remarkably constructive way. Hannelore Schneider runs the hotel with an old-school eye for detail, while her son Gerold is overseeing a renovation of rare genius. We’re not talking about a couple of new sofas and some fresh carpet in the corridor. Nor has Junior obliterated the character of the place with steel and concrete. Instead, he’s worked with traditional materials and contrasting textures — unvarnished wood, raw silk — to create a style that is clearly modern, but remains richly Alpine in spirit.

Everyone seems excited by the result, not just the Schneiders and their capable staff, but the guests, too (when I was there, they included members of the Jordanian royal family). It’s hardly a surprise. Lech is a lovely place to ski, with a super-snowy microclimate and lots of well-groomed, confidence-boosting pistes. Even if you slept in a barn, you’d probably have a good holiday here. But you’ll enjoy your day on the slopes a whole lot more if you know that the Schneider Almhof awaits you at the end of it.

Best for: anyone with an eye for interior design, and gastronomes. Black-pudding strudel with sauerkraut may not sound much fun, but it was delicious, and typical of the kitchen’s inventive use of traditional ingredients.

Getting there: fly to Innsbruck from Gatwick with Austrian Airlines (from £102), or to Friedrichshafen from Stansted with Ryanair (from £30), and pick up a hire car — Holiday Autos has Ford Focus-sized vehicles from £180 a week. Doubles at the Schneider Almhof (00 43 5583 35000, www.almhof.at) start at £361 a night, half-board.

Sample package: £2,136pp, half-board, with White Roc.

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()ARLBERG HOSPIZ - St Christoph, Austria

It can get murderously cold in the Alps. Back in 1386, a swineherd by the name of John the Foundling was so upset by the number of travellers who froze to death on the pass between Stuben and St Anton that he built a hospice to shelter them. In the first winter alone, it’s estimated that 50 lives were saved by his work.

The hospice grew into St Christoph, and you can still hole up there, albeit in rather more style than a medieval itinerant. You won’t feel quite so isolated, either. The town remains small, but it is well connected with St Anton’s ski area — one of the world’s greats, provided you’re a plucky intermediate or a powder-hungry expert — and the place fairly hums with gung-ho activity. Come nightfall, however, an icy winter spirit reasserts its grip. The temperature plummets, and if there’s fresh snow, the wind will whip it into drifts that can quickly cover your car.

It’s precisely at this moment that the modern-day Hospiz comes into its own. Outside, the world is a barren, inhospitable place. Inside, with the candles lit, log fires roaring and dinner beckoning, you’ll feel as warm as Christmas.

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