Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Austria summer walking

44 replies

southchinasea · 11/01/2025 23:05

We - 2 adults - have enjoyed a couple of walking holidays in and around Seefeld in Austria. We would like to go back to Austria and are looking for suggestions for other areas to base ourselves. Somewhere with good public transport, access to varied walking and a half board hotel with nice food a pool. Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm wondering about Zell am see?

OP posts:
southchinasea · 08/06/2025 20:31

@mihinobis Thank you for the walk recommendation, that looks spectacular. We will be in Hinterglemm from next Saturday, really looking forward to it! The weather is looking generally good - a bit mixed, hard to tell from the forecast till we get a bit closer. Do you have any other suggestions of walks you did and enjoyed?

OP posts:
Catsdogsfish · 09/06/2025 09:02

Will you have the Joker card? I think it includes some free guided hikes.

southchinasea · 09/06/2025 09:21

@Catsdogsfish Thank you, yes we do, and we have downloaded lots of maps and routes, but just looking for recommendations for any we really shouldn't miss, from anyone who has been to Hinterglemm-Saalbach. The Joker card looks great.

OP posts:
Havanananana · 09/06/2025 12:49

The Tourist Office offers excellent guided hikes throughout the summer - free with the Joker Card. The hotel will have the weekly programme of hikes. Even though you have downloaded maps be sure to pick up a free hiking map at the lift stations - vital if your phone runs out of power!

The big hike from Saalbach to Zell am See is a hard-core hike that takes several hours. You need to catch the early morning "hikers special" cable car at the Schattberg Xpress which runs a few hours before the lifts officially open, otherwise you might be pressed for time.

Easy, interesting hikes:

Take the free bus to the end of the valley at Lengau, then walk past the Lengauhof hotel, through the car park and the keep the river on your left hand side as you hike up to the Lindlingalm and the high ropes park. Continue through the farmyard and water park and then walk around the head of the valley clockwise by crossing the river just after the water park, then walk up past the Saalalm and the Ossmannalm huts - good food and cold beer at both - before returning back to the Lindlingalm.

Ride up the Reiterkogel lift in Hinterglemm, then follow the easy trail past the reservoir to the Rosswaldhutte hut. From there, either continue on to the Hochalm area (from where you need to walk down) or retrace your steps and follow the route above the reservoir back to the lift.

Ride up the Kohlmais cable car in Saalbach. At the top, walk around and under the lift station towards the chairlift (lots of marmots just there). Find the Wurzel Trail behind the chairlift station and follow the hiking path along the ridge towards the Schonleiten lift. For a longer walk, just before the section up to the Wildenkarhutte, take the path to the left to the Schonleitenhutte. From there, there is a path that leads to the top of Asitz in Leogang. From Leogang you can take the bus back (the bus stop is on the main road at the Asitz lift) via Saalfelden (change for the #260 bus towards Zell) and the Maishofen crossroads (change for the #680 to Hinterglemm). The buses are timed to meet each other.

Take the Schattberg lift up and turn right. Walk down to where the paths split. Take the left-hand path (over a stile) and walk around the path until you're below the Westgipfelhutte. Either continue uphill to the hut and yellow Westgipfel cable car, from where you can ride down into Hinterglemm, or walk back to Saalbach using the wide path next to the hut. Or - below the Westgipfelhutte there is the Hacklberg trail (there's one for mountain bikes and one for hikers). Follow this to the Hacklbergalm, then back to the mid-station of the Westgipfelbahn. (You can of course do these walks in reverse, starting by riding up the Westgipfelbahn. Do not try to walk down the Schattberg).

southchinasea · 09/06/2025 14:47

@Havanananana Thank you so much for the detailed info - that's so kind. Yes we will gauge whether or not to do the long hike as the week goes on - we are a combination of one strong capable hiker and the other (me) keen but averagely fit weekend walker so we'll see how we go! And yes, absolutely, we have various devices with the routes and we will make sure we have paper copies too. Are you based in Austria - you clearly know it very well? The weather looks okay but a bit mixed at the moment?

OP posts:
Havanananana · 09/06/2025 21:14

Regularly visit Saalbach so know the place very well.

Havanananana · 13/06/2025 09:05

@southchinasea

A small amendment to one of the suggested hikes.

The ridge walk from the top of Kohlmais (in Saalbach) towards Wildenkarhutte or Leogang is the "Saalachtaler Hohenweg" and is marked as Route 771 on the hiking maps and on the yellow signposts. When you walk down from the Kohlmais lift, the next part of the path starts behind the Panorama 6 lift station and the first 200m-300m are shared with the mountain bike trail, the "Wurzel Trail" - so called because the path is covered with tree roots. The Schonleiten lift (by the Wildenkarhutte) is not running this summer, so to get back to Saalbach you just retrace your steps back to the Kohlmais lift.

Weather looks good for next week. The tourist office issues a daily forecast - you can see it on the local TV information page - or you can look on the excellent "Bergfex" website

southchinasea · 13/06/2025 09:11

@Havanananana Thank you for that and for the weather forecast links, that's great. We're excited to be there tomorrow! Thank you for all your help.

OP posts:
mihinobis · 13/06/2025 09:55

Hi, I've just seen that you've @ mentioned me asking about hikes. Havananananana has done a really good job already. The Saalachtaler Hohenweg is really nice.

Are you there for two weeks or coming back on Saturday?
21st June is the summer solstice and if the weather is nice the mountain rescue teams go up and light fires on the mountain tops. It looks fabulous. So if you are there next Saturday night make sure you go out when it gets dark to have a look.

The weather is a bit rubbish on Monday but the rest of the week is very nice. Thunderstorms possible on Sunday afternoon.

Hope you have a lovely time. I live not very far from Saalbach.

southchinasea · 13/06/2025 21:10

@mihinobis Thank you very much. We are there for a week, coming back on the 21st, so will miss the solstice, but it sounds lovely. Yes the weather looks good overall. You are lucky living out there!

OP posts:
cactusdragon · 13/06/2025 21:45

Would love to hear how your week goes. This is our plan for next summer!

mihinobis · 13/06/2025 21:46

southchinasea · 13/06/2025 21:10

@mihinobis Thank you very much. We are there for a week, coming back on the 21st, so will miss the solstice, but it sounds lovely. Yes the weather looks good overall. You are lucky living out there!

It's a holy day on Thursday so the shops will be closed.
Enjoy your week!

janedani · 13/06/2025 21:50

We have stayed in St Johan lots of walking from the door would recommend. Going back to Walchsee for the second year running this time self catering -not such a busy place but has everything we need, lake to swim in, shops, walks from the door and easy to get to other places like Salzburg and Eagles Nest

southchinasea · 13/06/2025 21:51

cactusdragon · 13/06/2025 21:45

Would love to hear how your week goes. This is our plan for next summer!

Oh yes, I'll update at the end of the week!

OP posts:
MyCalmRoseHelper · 06/07/2025 13:21

southchinasea · 13/06/2025 21:51

Oh yes, I'll update at the end of the week!

How did you find the area? I’m looking at travelling to Saalbach on my own.

southchinasea · 06/07/2025 15:37

@cactusdragon @MyCalmRoseHelper
We had a really good time thanks. The weather was beautiful - sunny with blue skies - and we loved the walking. The cable cars were great and made it so easy to get up high and enjoy the views. We stayed in Hinterglemm and used all the cable cars there and from Saalbach as well as getting the bus up to the end of the valley. There was lots of mountain biking on tracks down the mountain - interesting to see but we stuck to hiking! I used trekking poles which really helped with the downhill walking.

We stayed at the Alpin Jewel which was lovely, with amazing food. The room was really nice, with a balcony. We enjoyed the pools - a decent sized indoor pool and an outdoor one with a view. I would just advise checking the different German state school holiday dates, including their Pentecost holidays, which meant the outdoor pool got busy at times.

OP posts:
mihinobis · 06/07/2025 17:55

The Pentecost holidays this year were the busiest ever.
The Austrians don't have this time off, just the Germans, but Austrians usually have a long weekend for Corpus Christi which coincides with the second week of the German holidays.

Other times to avoid are the Ascension weekend and August (Bavarians on holiday and pile in to Austria).

Mid to end of September is nice. May and June are nice, just avoid the holidays mentioned above.

MsMartini · 06/07/2025 18:24

Brilliant thread, thanks all. Years of holidays here 😀

We are recently (think we were away the same week as you, @southchinasea ) back from a week on Lake Achensee, mentioned by pp, staying at Hotel Wiesenhof.

It was great. Excellkent walking with valley walks if weather less good, two cable cars near by, free buses with hotel card (you can upgrade to include cable cars and boats etc), excellent huts, lake swimming.

Last year we sent to the Seefeld area and walked the Leutasch valley (with Inntravel, moving on every two days) but Achensee had enough to keep us going and it was nice not packing up. Busier area, but that meant we could split up a bit more (dh is a better hiker and likes steep ridges more than I do) as other people around, more transport options.

Dublassie · 07/07/2025 23:37

We are heading to Saalbach next week and staying in Val Saa Alpinresort ! We will be coming from Lake Bled. Have skied in both places prior so very excited to experience it in summer !

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread