Vorarlberg is Austria’s smallest state and its most surprising. Tucked against the Swiss and German borders, it has developed a reputation for architectural innovation that seems at odds with its Alpine setting — until you realize that the clean lines and natural materials of the Vorarlberg school of architecture are themselves a response to the landscape. Wooden buildings with glass facades sit in mountain meadows as if they grew there.
The Bregenzerwald is the heartland — a valley of cheese-making villages connected by a bus route that doubles as an architectural tour. Each village has commissioned contemporary buildings — bus stops by world-class architects, museums in converted farmhouses, hotels that blur the line between traditional and modern. Bregenz sits on Lake Constance, hosting a summer festival where opera is performed on a floating stage with the lake and mountains as backdrop. The skiing at Lech and St. Anton is among the best in the world — deep snow, long runs, and a tradition of après-ski that the Arlberg region essentially invented.
When to go: July through September for hiking, architecture tours, and the Bregenz Festival. December through April for world-class skiing.