Day trips from Kitzbuhel, Austria
 

We will be in Kitzbuhel, Austria for 3 days while our son skis. In researching possible day trips I've come up with the following possibilities:

St. Johan in Tirol
Werfen with rather magnificent castle (unfortunately closed for the winter)
Zell am See
Kufstein with castle, daily noon organ concerts and home of Reidel glassware

All are within at most 2 hours from St. Anton by train, St. Johan only 8 minutes. Most appear to have charming streets and buildings, a nice church or two and decent lunch possibilities, Anyone have firsthand experience traveling to or staying in any of them? I'd appreciate hearing recommendations or cautions and especially getting information on specific things to see or places to stop. Thanks for your help.

I loved Zell - in summer at least we walked all around the lake on nice paths - a nice town too - not a ski resort per se.

Kufstein's really nice - the castle is great (not sure if open in the winter) and the town itself very pleasant. I'd pick that.

St Johann I've only been through on the bus/train, and it looked pleasant enough but nothing special.

Zell is an attractive town on a lake but no real sites; the lake is lovely but I doubt the boat trips would be running in the winter.

I don't know Werfen.

Are Salzburg and Herrenchiemsee castle too far away?

Reserve one day for Kitzbühel itself - two or three churches/chapels, cute old town. Go up to Kitzbühler Horn for the views.

Bad Gastein is an option. Indulge in some Imperial Hapsburg ambience - it was *the* spa town back then. Maybe hop in the thermal water, too. See the waterfall right in town. Could probably be combined with Zell am See (which has a lovely setting, but is nothing special as a town.)

Salzburg is also an option. Travel time just over 2 hours. You could easily be there at noon.

Kufstein and Rattenberg in the Inn valley are highly recommended.

Salzburg is about 2 hours and don't know about Herrencheimsee but we've been to both and want to see a few new things.

Werfen not only captured my attention with its castle but also a big time gourmet restaurant. Unfortunately it's a time-consumer with a train trip of almost 2 hours one way. It's tough to see something on a map that looks close only to find out the train will take a long time to get there due to mountains, etc. Looks like it would be so simple.

I've always been attracted by the name Zell am See and enjoy just walking about cute places so it might be fine for us even without any specific attractions. Nice to have some assurances about its attractiveness.

We find that we really enjoy our "forced" encounters with small towns to have something to see/do while our son is skiing. It sort of makes us really slow down and smell the roses--or stop and watch the snow men or somesuch.

Thanks for the replies. I welcome more.

What about Innsbruck? Lots to see [eg the Goldenes Dachl, the Hofburg] and it's about 1 hr 30 mins by train from Kitzbuhel. We went there for a day trip once when we were skiing and fancied a day off and enjoyed it a lot.

Combining Zell am See and Bad Gastein has some appeal. In that vein---


I asked this question on another post but based on your answers linking towns along a single route I'll ask again.
If I get a ticket to Bad Gastein, can I get off in Zell am See and get back on to a later train and go on to Bad Gastein on the one ticket or must I buy two tickets--one to Zell am See and another from Zell am See to Bad Gastein?

Julie,

Could you post your whole itinerary? as you say, some places, whilst geographically closer to one of the places you are staying, may be easier and quicker to reach from one of the others.

Sure Annhig. I'll make a separate post with the various possible stops in each. Good suggestion. I'm getting confused. Those kind enough to respond are probably getting confused as well.