Holiday in Austria for a special wedding anniversary.

[Wynona]

To celebrate our special Wedding Anniversary I would like to go on a Lakes & Mountain holiday. I love the Lake District, but wanted to try a European destination perhaps Austria. We both enjoy hiking, gentle cycling, yoga and the odd zip wire. The choice is bewildering. Ideally 7 days. Where would you go? Budget is in the region of £3000 if that included half-board and flights from UK.

Thank you.

The Austrian alps are lovely!

Have a look at:

Lech am Alberg - Hotel Auenhof, Hotel Berghof
Schladming - Stadthotel Brunner, Johann Schladming, ARX
Maria Alm am Steinernen Meer - Hotel Eder, Die Hochkonigin Mountain Resort

My go-to for this type of trip is Lake Bled in Slovenia.

The hotel we stayed at last year had bike hire https://www.hotel-rieser.com/en/experience/summer/bike/ and there are some level tracks around Archensee.

The Grand Hotel in Zell Am See is spectacular and you can get the train into Salzburg from there. Well worth a visit!

Thank you so much for your suggestions. @yorkshire270 the Grand Hotel looks perfect. I am so grateful to you. Did you book through Tui (as that seems to be the only way to book it for May 2024).

@Wynona we booked directly with the hotel as we made an incredible road trip from the UK to Austria and Switzerland.

The spa is incredible, the lake is stunning and I would highly recommend getting an upgrade to a room which overlooks the lake.

Service was great, it was a perfect hotel. You won't go wrong!

Achensee is fantastic. Level walking /cycling trails around most of the lake and in the valleys leading away from it. Well signposted hill walks up all the surrounding mountains, with several cable cars so you can walk one way and ride the other. A paddle ferry that goes round the lake. A steam train/cog railway. (You can get a card that gives you ferry rides for a week and 1 free trip on each of the cable cars and the train.) And if you like zipwires there an amazing one at the top of one of mountains.
https://www.achensee.com/en/discover/excursions-tyrol/zipline-airrofan-skyglider/ There's horse-drawn carriages, golden eagles, a schnapps and whisky distillery that does tours and tastings, and it's the location of the original Chalet School.

We stayed in the Hotel Post in Pertisau.

https://postamsee.at/en

Grand Hotel in Zell am See has a spectacular location and great views of the mountains and the lake, but when we stayed there (booked through a UK package company) we were allocated a room in the annex - which had no lake view, no mountain view and we had the distinct impression that the package tour guests were getting a very different and poorer service than the "full price" guests.

So if you want to stay there, book the flight yourselves (easy enough from UK to Salzburg) and then take the train, bus or hire a car - and book directly with the hotel, making sure that you get a room with a lake view.

For alternative destinations, look at Saalbach Hinterglemm, which has better hiking, zip wires, a high rope park and mountain biking - but which doesn't have a lake (although Zell am See is only 20 mins away by car or bus). Or Achensee, Wolfgangsee, or anywhere within an hour of Salzburg.

Be careful around dates. The summer season this year didn't start until 25th May, which means that the cable cars, tourist attractions etc. were not operating before then, which puts a limit on the available activities. Be sure to check the opening dates for next summer - contact the relevant Tourist Offices - before you book.

I second Zell or Saalbach Hinterglemm for summer holidays (and as @Havanananana says they are close enough to visit each other - we cycled from Saalbach to Zell (downhill!) then got a bus back - they have special carriers for your bike on the bus. Austria is fab in the summer - great weather, great walking and you can take lifts up to the top of hills/ mountains. You can even ski on a glacier if you are lucky! Most towns have fabulous outdoor swimming pools that are dirt cheap to spend a day in the sun relaxing

Ah - very good poiint. I hadn't spotted it was May.

Not a great time to go to Austria because that's right in the between-seasons period when a lot of the hospitality businesses take their own holidays. Even if some hotels are open a lot of the alms and similar don't open until well into June.

Thank you for your guidance. I have booked Zell am See as the views look stunning and is exactly what we were looking for. Once again, Mumsnet had the answers!