Where to stay in Austria - probably around Innsbruck?

[Curlybrunette]

Hi,

DH and I are planning a European trip next summer. We'll have up to 8/9/10 days.

We are already going to Berlin in February, and DH who is usually pretty happy with wherever I decide to go has mentioned he's like to see Switzerland and Austria so that's what I'm going for.

I've researched and come up with a loose plan of:
Flying into Zurich, stay 2 nights
Train across to Innsbruck (I am most excited about this, the journey looks stunning through the mountains)
Maybe stay in Innsbruck areas for 3 nights
Train to Vienna, stay for 1 or 2 nights
Train to Bratislava, stay for 1 or 2 nights (this is so close to Vienna I just thought we may as well fit in another place)
Fly home

I've got myself in a loop looking at accomocation for Innsbruck. Whilst there we'd like to do outdoors stuff, we love walking, haven't really cycled but with the help of an e bike I'd be happy to try and get up a mountain! We'd give swimming, canoeing etc a go.

Some recommendations I have seen are sports hotel types outside of Innsbruck look great, but as we will be using public transport and will have already done 3.5 hours on the train from Zurich so wouldn't want to do too much more.

My friend did an Alpine Elements holiday in France this summer and that seemed perfect for what we'd like, lots of activites on hand.

So basically, please could you recommend somewhere to stay around Innbruck, or suggest a change of itinery if you think something else will work better.

We don't have to start in Zurich (and end in Bratislava), and don't have to stay in Innsbruck, I just fancied that as the train journey sounds beautiful. We'd go somewhere else if there was a similar scenic journey.

Thank you

We had a lovely week at the Hotel Haymon in Seefeld - food is amazing and they have daily activities. You get a free pass for the bus and the hotel is near the station. We went into Innsbruck and to Mittenwald in the other direction. 2 outdoor pools, funicular and cable cars, some pretty walks. I would personally do Salzburg on the way to Vienna instead of Bratislava. It's a gorgeous town - views from the castle are amazing. We did the Sound of Music tour when we were there last which was good fun. Bratislava is pretty, but historical centre is quite small.

Would highly recommend staying in one of the valleys near Innsbruck rather than in the city. We did an interrail trip this summer and Austria was so easy to get around by public transport. We stayed in Mayrhofen, mainly for access to Hintertux and loved the area, so much to do and so pretty. It was a 30 min train journey off the main train line that connects Innsbruck. However I had also researched the Seefeld area and the Stubai valley south of Innsbruck and they looked amazing too.

If you wanted to spend a night in Innsbruck (a day there is enough really) the Hotel Motel One is near the station and has a fabulous roof top bar with amazing views (also used for breakfast).
https://www.motel-one.com/en/hotels/innsbruck/hotel-innsbruck/
We had a room with a nice terrace too. We stayed in the My Wonderland apartments in Salzburg which are near the Mirabel Gardens. https://www.salzburghotelinfo.com/en/property/my-wonderland.html#rooms - also on Booking dot com and airbnb.
Link to Hotel Haymon too
https://www.haymon.at/en/sommeraktiv.html
Lovely apartments in Vienna. We stayed on Glockengasse.
https://www.rafaelkaiser.com/?lng=en
And Bratislava
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g274924-d13947883-Reviews-Apart_Hotel_Virgo-Bratislava_Bratislava_Region.html

Oh wow thank you I’ll check all those links out.

We did a similar trip over the summer, albeit with DC.

Flew in Zurich, spent 2 nights there. Train to Innsbruck (beautiful journey) and connection to Seefeld. Stayed in Seefeld 8 nights, then train to Munich (2.5h) for 2 nights then flight home.

Seefeld was very nice. It's definitely a skiing/cross country skiing area but still lively (but not too busy) in the summer. You'll be able to get around the nearby villages using the public buses. Things to do:

Go up the funicular and cable car up Rosshutte. The side of the mountain is not that interesting as it's a ski run, but the view from the top is incredible. You can walk along the ridge to the top of the mountain Seefeld Spitze.

Wildsee lake in Seefeld is nice for a walk around. We didn't swim in it (not warm enough), but you can do and there is an outdoor swimming pool there too.

Olympiabad swimming pool was awesome.

Bus to Leutasch gorge, do the gorge walk and walk into Mittenwald. Lunch then train back to Seefeld.

Walks around Seefeld. Unfortunately we didn't get to do loads as the weather wasn't great.

Didn't go into Innsbruck as it didn't look very nice on the way through. I would have liked to see the Stubai valley/glacier, but as we were on public transport it wasn't possible.

We've done a variant of this https://www.inntravel.co.uk/walking-holidays/austria/tyrol-leutasch which was excellent. Train to Seefeld (we didn't love Seefeld itself but it would make a good base too).

We've also got the train to Jenback and then bus to Lake Achensee which was also great - busier and more resort like than the three places in the Leutasch one, but that has advantages (more cable cars, lots of walks from one place, some flatter walking).

Both areas have a card that gives you free buses and other stuff, and excellent mountain huts with good food. Austrian spa hotels are a fab way to do a walking holiday and good value compared with UK (you get breakfast and big dinner as standard).

We went in June both times so it wasn't either too busy or too hot but the cable cars were open. I'm not sure what later in the summer would be like.

Try Mutters or similar just out of the city. Can recommend the mountain carts as an activity there. Public transport is fab in and around Innsbruck. Lots of cable cars to go up and see different mountains.

Agree Seefeld or you could get off at St Anton which has mountain hikes and an outdoor pool.

We stay here when we skibecause we can access so many different ski areas. It's nicely central with good breakfast and a nice sauna. The mountains are really easily accessible by public transport from the city, so I wouldn't bother staying outside. If you want to buy outside gear, Innsbruck has the most amazing shops!
https://maps.app.goo.gl/eFx1e6JnhK3pxy1d7

Seefeld we visited the same places as @Juniohand went to Innsbruck.

We stayed here which was lovely:

https://princess-bergfrieden.at/

We love Austria and have had three walking holidays there - two in Seefeld and one in Saalbach Hinterglemm. We flew via Innsbruck mostly and Salzburg once. The excellent trains and buses make it easy to get around. We loved the mountain walking, cable cars, lakes and scenery. We ate very well with breakfast, dinner and afternoon 'snack' (which was actually lunch) all included in the half board hotel packages. We stayed in spa hotels with lovely indoor and outdoor pools. It was all excellent value for money as well.

If you're set on the Innsbruck area, with just a day trip to Innsbruck to see the sights in the old town centre, then consider Seefeld or perhaps the Zillertal valley - e.g. Zell am Ziller or Mayrhofen.

St Anton would be bottom of my list for a summer holiday in Austria. It's a wonderful place in the winter for skiing, but there are far better places in the summer such as the towns already mentioned, or Saalbach-Hinterglemm, St Johann in Tirol or Kaprun on the eastern side of the Austrian Alps towards Salzburg.

Thanks again you've given me lots to go on.

I'll have a look at the different areas. From what I've seen so far I think I'd like to book us full board. I picture that we'll be out exploring all day so would appreciate coming back having meal and collapsing!

Thanks again, I'm sure I'll be back with more questions

@Curlybrunette In Austria the usual hotel offer is half-board - i.e. a hearty breakfast buffet (from which you are often allowed to make a roll or sandwich to take out for lunch) and evening meal, which is usually 3 or 4 courses. If you don't take a packed lunch from the breakfast buffet, you can either buy filled rolls from any supermarket or bakery in the town, or eat lunch at any of the mountain restaurants.

We flew to Innsbruck and hired a car to drive to Mayrhofen. We stayed at the Sporthotel Strasse. This was over 20 years ago; but then it was great. We’ve looked at online a few times since, with a view to going back.

Have a look at it and the online reviews. We found plenty to do round there.

I've done a lot of research and think our itinery is going to be:
3 nights Zurich
4 nights here It's not very far out of Innsbruck
1 night Salzburg
1 night Vienna
1 night Bratislava

The longest train journey is the Zurich to Innsbruck which is 3.5 hours and it looks stunning, I can't wait

I'd spend less in Zurich and more in Salzburg. And skip Bratislava for an extra night in Vienna - unless you are flying back from there. Worth knowing that they have Bolt / Uber in Bratislava as the taxi guys at the railway station were complete rip off artists.

The flight into Zurich is perfect, super cheap (not so important but nice to have a bargain!), early morning so we'll be there before lunch on the Monday.

We can't go to the hotel near Innsbruck until the Thursday (fully booked before then) so I planned 3 days arouind Zurich. I wanted to visit the Rhine Falls and Lucerne. So really it would be 2 half days in Zurich and 1 day each at the falls and Lucerne.

The flight home is from Bratislava so I've realised I've written it incorrectly above, we'd travel from Vienna to Bratislava on the Wednesday morning, and not have to be at Bratislava airport until 7pm so would have a full day.

Again a really good flight time (to allow us to explore).

I've looked at flights from all areas around and nothing seems to get us back home at a good time (flying back into Manchester/Leeds/East Bradford - up north somewhere). I don't want a 10am flight as want to take advantage of seeing a bit more.

Though if anyone can come up with a better plan, that involves 4 nights at the innsbruck hotel, and has a lovely long train ride through the mountains, as scenic as the Zurich to Innsbruck Transalpin train, I am more than happy to change :-)