Where for a summer break in Austrian Alps/Tyrol?

[tobyj]

Never been to Austria before. Planning a week or two in the mountains in the summer (possibly combined with a few days in Vienna or Munich). Family of four with two teens.

I'd love recommendations of the best areas to stay to tick our boxes - and any specific recommendations of places to stay or activities/hikes most welcome! We're expecting to hire a car, so public transport not an issue.

Ideal holiday would be:

• not too hot - so fairly high altitude
• hotel or self-catering - no preference, but if hotel then ideally a smaller one - somewhere with nice views to sit out reading a book
• access to good local restaurants (but no need for any other form of nightlife)
• easy access to hiking - ideally a combination of challenging mountain hikes and gentler meadowy walks
• somewhere to swim - ideally lake/river
• a couple of options for outdoor activities, probably (low grade) white water rafting

Basically, somewhere not too busy but still with a few things to do - main priorities are beautiful scenery and food (good local restaurants rather than anything fancy).

Please hit me with your recommendations! Thanks.

Following a great holiday in Switzerland last summer I'm bookmarking this.
Can add that if you want to tack on a city break Vienna totally deserves its frequent first placing on livability indexes

So happy you enjoyed it!

Ooh, excellent thread. Sorry OP, no recommendations but I'd like to do something similar next year, so grateful to all who have posted on your thread.

@MissAmbrosia I've been meaning to "find" you on a thread for months to thank you. One of the best hotels I've stayed in. ❤️

Pertisau am Achensee.

Was waiting for someone to suggest that!

I've also booked the Haymon for next summer after reading your post on here previously!!!

We did Zell am see and Munich last year with a ten year old and 13 year old
In Kaprun we stayed at Hotel Taurenhof - amazing family hotel with amazing food and brilliant for kids (play room etc).
Came with summer card which was amazing

@MissAmbrosia I love the sound of Seefeld and Hotel Haymon looks perfect. I'd like to explore Innsbruck as well. I went to Austria as a child and I'm keen to go back. Cable cars, funicular and walking sounds lovely. But I also need some time to just relax. In august is it possible to spend some time relaxing on a sunlounger in Seefeld?

Did you hire a car when you were there for travelling into Germany? I'm hoping to do this holiday using public transport but I'm worried that might be a little restrictive for us.

We went last summer (with younger DC than yours) and stayed in an apartment in Itter. It was hot! - maybe we weren't high enough. Loads of outdoor swimming pools within a 20 min drive. Great cable cars. We were only there 4 days but definitely want to go back to Austria.

@elizabethcharlotte I stayed at the Haymon last summer (also on @MissAmbrosia's suggestion!)- it has a nice rooftop area with sunloungers and seating. There is also a lake nearby with sunloungers available, and a pool complex with an outdoor area with loungers/seats. It was very hot when we were there late August.

@elizabethcharlotte you can get the train into Germany from Seefeld. One day we got the bus to leutasch gorge, walked the gorge route and crossed the border into Germany on foot, then got the train back to Seefeld.

If you wanted to go further afield though a car would be good to have. There's a few places I looked at going to that weren't really feasible for a day trip with the kids on public transport but would have been with a car.

Brilliant! It sounds perfect! Thank you so much. Can I ask where else you stayed if Seefeld was part of a longer holiday?

Loving the Achensee love, both Maurach and Pertisau are great but I prefer Pertisau. I've just recommended Cabin8 on a different thread for self-catering. We've been several times, it's our happy place.

I’m determined to do this one day - big chalet school fan!

We did! Not on loungers (though the hotel had them) but by the lake in Seefeld itself, and also on one of the other walks we did. There was a big bathing station at that lake. We were really lucky with the weather, the week before we went it had rained all week, but apart from the evening we arrived, not one drop.

@elizabethcharlotte no, just trains and buses. As @Caulidop did, one day we went to the Leutasch gorge and Mittenwald, and another day to (and up) the Zugspitze.

I stayed near and visited Pertisau last year and it is ridiculously great.

@elizabethcharlotte we went onwards to Switzerland (Zermatt) after Seefeld and had been in Germany before. We'd got Interrail passes so had planned to move around a few countries.

We stayed in Maria Alm at the Landau place. 20 min drive to Zell am Zee and all the lake side activities plus loads of other outdoors stuff (toboggan rides, mountain bike trails, trips to the glacier etc etc) We took our own car and drove there/back over a few days.

You can get a train from Zell am See to Saltzburg for a day trip. Train was free during August as a govt initiative to get people back out and about - not sure if that is still a thing now!

We loved Austria - pristine, friendly and stunningly beautiful 🤩

When we left we went via train from Innsbruck down into northern Italy. Brenner Pass, Trento, Bolzano etc.

Loved visiting Lech am Arlberg in the summer holidays a few years ago. Good walks, glorious views and was quite quiet out of the ski season (most of the visitors on our coach from Innsbruck airport got off at St Anton). Stayed at the Hotel Tannbergerhof which was lovely.

We had a lovely time in the Saltzkammerkut region. Short drive from Saltzberg, lakes for swimming, Hallstatt and high mountains nearby.

Are the bike routes traffic free?

@soupfiend

Certainly around Saalbach/Zell am See/Maria Alm/Kaprun there are plenty of bike routes that are traffic free. Usually there are cycle tracks next to the roads (i.e. separated from the road by a verge) or they cross meadows or are alongside rivers. There are also plenty of very quiet backroads where there are more tractors than cars.

Go a bit further south to the dolomites - try Collette’s mountain holidays…