Are you something of a winter sports enthusiast? Are you considering moving to Austria? Now is the perfect time.

With the high season New Year crowds heading home on the 5th January 2013, the rest of the month opens up some great winter sport weekend opportunities where you can enjoy ideal snow conditions, crisp, cold temperatures and crowd-free slopes ahead of the busy February high season school holidays.

Of course, if you are thinking of relocating at around this time, winter sports do not have to be reduced to a holiday experience – they can form part of your new lifestyle.

Skiing & Snowboarding
Busy ski season can often be a nightmare: hour-long waits in lift queues, swarms of schoolchildren and hundreds of chicly clad Parisians monopolising the piste. Carving the snow solo on a deserted slope is usually just a dream. Here is our pick of alternative ski and snowboarding destinations for you to consider:

East Tirol – An Untouched Haven
Tirol is famed as the Austrian heart of skiing. What is not so well known is that this Alpine paradise comes in two parts, its second part still a relatively well kept secret to the majority of people. Unlike North Tirol, the resorts of East Tirol are rarely appear in top ten lists, and may not present the same lively après-ski scene, however this is simply due to its alluring remoteness.

Werfenweng – Eco-friendly ‘Green’ Skiing in the Alps
Located around 45 km from Salzburg, Werfenweng consists of a meagre few hundred properties dotted around an expansive valley, overshadowed by snow-capped mountains. As well as being an excellent location for paragliding, Werfenweng is also an intimate and family-friendly area for skiing and snowboarding.

The unique part of this winter sport location is that it offers carbon-neutral holidays: sustainability does not come at the expense of a great break, and Werfenweng offers alternative transport options to cars such as a horse-drawn sleigh ride or a llama trekking adventure, along with free use of equipment for cross-country skiing.

Mountain Biking
Not so much a winter sport, but if you’re planning on sticking around in Austria through the seasons, then mountain biking is an activity for all the family which allows you to drink in some of the country’s most beautiful landscape. From laid-back bike rides, to multi-day, full blown tours of cities, countryside and mountains, we have selected five top routes through Salzburgerland:

1. Tauern Bike Tour – Along the rivers Salzach and Saalach, at the point where Krimml Waterfalls (the highest in Central Europe) plunge to the depths below.
2. Mozart Bike Tour – A tour through Salzburgerland and Bavaria, where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart left numerous traces.
3. Alpe Adria Bike Tour – Through SalzburgerLand, Carinthia and Friuli-Giulia-Venezia and crossing the 8km Tauern railway tunnel, this is a lovely alpine traverse through the Adriatic sea.
4. Bajuwarii Tour – This bicycle tour follows in the footsteps of the ancient Bajuwarii
5. Enns Bike Tour – Through a world of mountains and water, this river-side bike tour is also a worthwhile trip for nature lovers.

Immigration into Europe provides a one stop immigration solution for individuals and companies who are looking to relocate to the EU.