| Holiday Ratings | |
| Recommended days | 7 |
| Budget | £ |
| Difficulty | Easy |
Visiting
A week in the Austrian Tyrol is a very different experience from our usual type of holiday. We visited after stopping for a night in Salzburg, a fabulous city and detailed here. Due to the terrain, getting anywhere in this region takes a long time and the weather also dominates what you can do. If you want a peaceful, relaxing holiday with occasional trips then you’ll love it here.
Our Accommodation
We stayed at the Alpenland Sporthotel in the village of Maria Alm. The resort and hotel and mainly geared up for the winter skiing season but we visited in August, hoping for sunshine! The hotel has a decent car park, is well signposted and offers both rooms and apartments. As we were there a week we opted for the latter and had a good sized bedroom, a lounge/dining area and a decent bathroom. The wifi was fast and reliable (ideal for wet days!) and we had a nice balcony area too.
The hotel itself has a small gym with weights and a couple of treadmills as well as a pool and sauna. All useful in the bad weather. There is also outdoor table tennis and the option of hiring electric mountain bikes. We didn’t eat in the hotel so can’t comment on food but there were various B&B and HB packages offered.
My Experience
Following on from our break in Salzburg we had a week booked in the Austrian mountains. It was good to see, once we reached the car, that Mercedes sat nav shares a sense of humour with my Jag’s sat nav and we quickly left the main road for a succession of B and C roads populated by tractors, cyclists and inevitably, motorhomes. Progress was even slower and it took over two hours to get to our destination.
We were staying at the Hotel Alpenland in Maria Alm. We’d stayed at the sister hotel a few years ago with the kids and we loved the leisure facilities it had which meant we were all able to amuse ourselves on the wet days. This hotel was also meant to have a gym and pool and we’d booked an apartment with a separate living room so we had enough space for the week. It certainly lived up to its Alpenland name, with a ski run terminating 100m from our balcony!
After sorting out our luggage and tidying everything away we had a quick walk through the village to a restaurant Deb had found. Almer Bauernkasten was a typical Austrian wooden chalet and we sat and had a huge salad with beer while listening to thunder and watching the lightning flashes. Tomorrow may be a quiet hotel day!
Sunday morning I woke around 5 and did some work before heading out for a walk to explore the village. It was cloudy but still very warm at 7AM and also surprisingly busy, lots of people out walking dogs, getting bread etc. I saw a spectacular church, looking gorgeous with the mountain backdrop, and also the war memorials. These were particularly poignant as each name had a photo next to it. I got back to the hotel around 8.30 to make a cuppa and start the mammoth photo editing task.
We had a very relaxed morning mostly doing nothing other than a brief walk around the village and a pause for breakfast, apple strudel and cappuccino. The weather was cooler and overcast and, being Sunday, most of the local attractions were closed. We continues the relaxed theme, spending most of the day in our apartment other than a trip to the gym for me and a walk around the village and coffee stop. We actually found the mountain cable car terminus, which was only about 5 minutes from our hotel, so that’s something easy to do next week.
Monday was ….. wet. Searching for things to do in this very outdoorsy part of the country we decided on a nearby cave complex as that should be dry. We drove about 30 mins to reach it, parked up and then discovered it was closed due to flooding! On the way we had passed a gorge walk so we thought we’d try that. Sadly, so did every other foiled visitor to Lamprechtshohle Cave and after waiting 10 minutes in a queue that by the time we left had maybe a hundred people in, we left.
We parked in Saalfelden and had a walk around the town instead. This was a typically pretty and well ordered Austrian town and we sat and had chicken skewers at the aptly named La Piazza on the town square. The food was delicious and the portions certainly generous although it still amazes me the number of stenchy smokers here. We arrived back at the hotel just after 2 to find the cleaning team had done some excellent bed art with our quilts and pillows!
We wiled away a few hours on the laptops, listening to an audio book and the steady fall of rain before heading out for a walk. We went to a different part of the village and there was a wood processing plant nearby, the smell of sawdust permeating the air. After a disgustingly unhealthy dinner that was it for the evening, a very lazy day! A week in the Austrian Tyrol was going to be a challenge if this rain continued!
Krimml Waterfall
The next morning we awoke to….. rain. I didn’t really want another day doing nothing so I decided we’d visit a waterfall as that was one of the few things made more impressive by recent weather. We headed for Krimml Waterfall, the largest in Europe and fifth highest in the world apparently. The journey should have taken about an hour but the traffic was so bad it actually took two but we parked up next to the exhibition centre and went inside. I actually bought the wrong tickets and paid €10.20 when we should have just paid €4 for the waterfall as we didn’t intend to visit the exhibition.
The path to the waterfall was well signposted and the huge cascade of water and plume of spray meant even someone with my navigational disabilities would struggle not to find it. There were plenty of souvenir shops along the way and the path was quite busy considering the rain. The trail meandered up the side of the hill with periodic diversions to a viewing area and I went to each of these so Deb could make her way up at her own pace. The views were, obviously, spectacular but the photos are sadly not – the spray meant I didn’t want to expose the camera for too long so most were just snapshots and therefore binned.
We got to the top of the path and went inside the cafe but the outer viewing area overlooking the falls was closed and the inside was hot, crowded and sweaty so we left. Walking down the hill, we took time to look at various plants Deb pointed out to me, some green and some yellow and possibly other varieties too! Once we had finished the path we went into the cafe and I reluctantly indulged in Sachertorte with a coffee while Deb ate salad.
It was a long drive home but we eventually arrived around 17:30 and proceeded to find space for coats, bags and hats to dry!
Kufstein Castle
I actually had a good sleep, helped by a hot bath before bed. I woke to a cold but dry morning so had a walk around the village before breakfast, you could actually see snow on the mountains around us! Having learned our lesson from yesterday we were ready to leave by 9 and drove a couple of hours to Kufstein.
Kufstein is a beautiful Austrian Tyrolean town on the river Inn (of Innsbruk fame) that just happens to be dominated by a massive castle. This is built on a sheer rock outcrop and over the years has expanded to cover the entire upper surface of the rock. The castle bounced between the control of Bavaria and the Habsburgs for 500 years with Maximillian I creating the famous round tower that is a symbol of the castle. After its military purpose ended it became a political prison for those deemed too liberal by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Which was just about anyone who lifted their forehead off the ground. It is now a tourist attraction and museum.
We parked in the town centre and then promptly lost sight of the aforementioned castle that dominates the town and got lost. I crossed the river to get my bearings, such as they are and then we headed in a vaguely correct direction until we found the castle entrance. We paid our €25 entrance and took the funicular to the upper courtyard and keep complex.
The castle is well signposted for each of the museums and they generally have a decent amount of English explanations, although some were lacking. Before the funicular there was a man powered treadmill to get goods from the ground to the upper levels of the castle! This is still in place along with a wooden gallery overlooking the courtyard. The next courtyard has the castle cafe where we paused for a coffee before continuing our tour.
The castle includes museums of local history, costumes and culture, arms and armour (including replicas you can try on), a history of Maximillian I and the castle and the political prison. There are also gun batteries, a herb garden, the worlds largest open air organ (that we didn’t visit) and a rock cut tunnel that extended for a couple of hundred metres linking two parts of the castle. Although I’m sure you’re thinking this was just another castle it was that but also a superb set of museums and a tour through 500 years of Tyrolean history. The views were pretty good too.
We left the castle after about three hours and wandered around the town before making our way home. Not a ridiculously long day but certainly a full one once photos had been sorted and notes written up.
Hallstatt
Thursday morning was the day the sunshine came back so we were up before 6 ready to leave for Hallstatt at 7. The drive was ridiculous – it was a relatively short distance but took 90 minutes of twisting mountain roads, up one side and down the other with roadworks and tunnels in between. Unlike the UK the roadwork restrictions were just at the actual roadworks but like the UK, BMW drivers here are total arses. There was also almost a total lack of roadside litter, proving yet again that the problem with England is the people.
We arrived at Hallstatt around 8.30 and parked up in the car park near the funicular and then walked 10 minutes into the town. Hallstatt is a cliched Austrian lakeside village – wooden gingerbread style houses, ornate balconies overflowing with petunias, cedarwood shingle roofs, a beautifully calm lake and stunning mountains all around. It goes without saying it was litter and graffiti free and even though a large proportion of Austrians smoke, there were almost no cigarette butts on the ground.
We slowly walked through the town, taking in one stunning viewpoint after another and eventually reaching the parish church and ossuary. Land is in short supply here so people are only buried for 10 years and then dug up and the skulls and leg bones decorated and placed in the ossuary chapel although most people now apparently opt for cremation. Not sure what happens to the rest of the bones?
That was an interesting interlude before walking through the town again, stopping for a coffee at the utterly disinterested Die Gemischtwarenhandlung am See (literally General store at the lake) cafe, buying far too much stuff for Alice and then back to the car. The car park when we arrived was packed, with a queue to get in and it was probably frustrating for those waiting that we opened the car, had a sandwich, got our coats for the salt mine and then locked up and headed off.
We only had a couple of minutes walk to the ticket office so we bought our tickets (€68 so it’d better be good!) and joined the queue for the funicular. Unlike the castle ones recently this one was 400m high and ridiculously steep! From there we followed the path for about 10 minutes through the Celtic graveyard where some amazing artifacts and burials have been discovered and to the mine entrance.
There was a 30 minute queue until our tour started and the group was quite large, 65 people. We donned the delightful supplied overalls and followed the guide into the mine. Outside we had been baking with our masks giving our faces a sheen of sweat, inside the temperature dropped to 8 degrees and the masks were almost welcome!
The talks on the tour were interesting but the group size and dual languages slowed everything down so what should have been 45 minutes actually took 90. We saw how modern salt is mined (basically fracking) and how rock salt is mined too. We took the slide down between levels, one of those experiences people tell you are ‘fun’, and saw an underground lake. This was apparently the size of a football pitch but was so poorly illuminated you couldn’t really get any idea. The tour ended with a railway trip back to the start. I’d rate it as interesting but not really worth the time or money.
Our final stop in the area was Rudolf’s Tower – originally a 14th (?) century defensive structure, now a cafe overlooking the Skywalk. Remember that thing about ‘fun experiences’? Skywalk is another of those – a metal platform extending over the cliff edge so you can take selfies. I edged about halfway along it and took some pictures of the distant town below us but my brain kept reminding me how silly I was with each jolt of someone jumping on it because they thought it was amusing.
Very sensibly, Deb had gone to the cafe and was sat having a coffee when I got back. We sat for a while and then took the funicular down the mountain before driving home. This was another long drive but we were home by 6 to write up notes, sort photos etc, the usual holiday rituals.
Kitzloch Gorge
The next morning was our last full day of our week in the Austrian Tyrol so we decided to visit some of the more local attractions. If the weather is good and you’re into hiking there is loads to do nearby so we drove 13k (45 minutes!!) to the Kitzloch Gorge. We were lucky enough to be able to park in the closest car park as the others were about 15 mins walk away, up the hillside! We paid our fee, collected our very fetching helmets and set off on the path.
The path was obviously well maintained and signposted and we meandered up the gorge, seeing waterfalls and crossing back and forth on wooden walkways. The engineering to build these structures was impressive in its own right. The walk took about an hour, maybe a little more with photo stops. The light this early was not ideal as the sun didn’t really reach in to the gorge but at least we got a parking space! Afterwards we had a coffee before heading home, pausing in Dienten for me to climb a hill to take a picture of the church.
We got back to the hotel and did the usual photo sorting, I then thought I’d have a quick lie down before we took the nearby cable car up the mountains. I woke 90 minutes later! We quickly got ready and walked to the cable car station for the brief trip. The car was excellent – almost silent, clean and free. The station at the top, Tom Almhutte, was superb – there was a petting area with sheep and goats, lots of free kids activity areas, some huge (47m) slides down the hillside and it was the starting point for a variety of bike and hiking trails.
More importantly it had a cafe. I had been looking forward to Kaiserschmarrn (shredded buttermilk pancakes) all week and this was my last chance. Sadly, the portion was for two people but I just had to man up and eat it all. Along with my ice cream coffee. I was actually in pain by the time I finished so I decided that as penance I’d walk down the hill back to the hotel. This took about an hour but it was a lovely walk, beautiful scenery and roastingly hot. I’m not sure it covered the 1000 plus calorie snack though!
Strangely I was so full I skipped dinner and we had a chilled night in the apartment and worked out trip times for the trek to Regensburg tomorrow. Our fantastic week in the Austrian Tyrol had involved 3000 photos and 1400 km of driving and a thoroughly enjoyable time in a picture postcard landscape.
Love watching sunset !