My wife and I are looking to spend 2 days in the Tirol region of Austria. Where is a good hotel outside of Innsbruck? What are the must see sites in the area? May want to take a day trip to Salzburg - I understand it is 2 hours from Innsbruck. What is the must see there?

Is there a particular reason that you are choosing to stay around Innsbruck? We just got back from a month in Europe - we started our trip in Salzburg at the wonderful B&B Sallerhof in Brodig just outside of Salzburg - http://sallerhof.com. It was our favorite place from our entire trip. The owners were great and the breakfast was out of sight. We also liked being able to walk around the little town in the evening. Salzburg is also one of our favorite towns in Europe. We also went to Untersberg - there is town - which takes you up to the top of the mountain for great views. About an hour from Innsbruck is Oberammergau - site of the Passion play - which is a personal favorite. While you are in the area you can go to Ettal - a beautiful little Monastary ( great beer and liquor too ) as well as Linderhof casle ( close to Oberammergau and Neuschwanstein castle n Fussen. There is also a beautiful little church in the area call Weis church. While we were in Oberammergau we stayed at Fux B&B - http://www.firmafux.de. Good luck and enjoy. If you are drving when you get there stop at a gas station and get a detailed map of the area. We had a good map - best we could get here but loved the one we added from the gas station - actually had all of the roads and towns on it. Good luck and enjoy

To answer your question, Gasthof Badl in Hall in Tirol. We stayed there on 3 trips. Nice rooms, good buffet breakfast, great room balony views of Hall and the mountains plus the nicest people (Frau Steiner and Sonja, owners) you could meet. It's just a five minute walk from the train station to the Badl or to the pedestrian zone of Hall. It's a charming, beautiful old town. There's also a terific restaurant (Badl has a nice one also) just over the foot bridge called the Burg Tavern in Burg Hasseg. A great medieval dining experience with excellent food yet reasonable.
www.badl.at

What time of year are you going and would you take a recommendation for a B&B?

Second the recommendation for Gasthof Badl in Hall in Tirol.

I don't know if I'd spend 4 hours to travel to Salzburg as a "day trip" if you are only spending 2 hours in the region. There are many interesting small towns to visit much closer to Hall. You could even drive into Italy over the Brenner Pass.

You can go whitewater rafting in Imst in the extreme western part of Austria.

Thanks for the help. To Norrisken - Yes, I would welcome a suggestion on a B&B. We will be there 7/30 to 8/1. What do you suggest?
To Bettyk, what small towns do you recommend in the Hall area, and why? I'm open.
To FauxSteMarie.. where is the white water rafting you suggest? Do you know what class of river?
All help is greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone.
Walt

The whitewater rafting is in Imst. Imst is west of Innsbruck. I don't know how you would classify it. It was exciting enough and they gave the adults schnapps at the end. If you go to Imst, stop at tourist information. There are a number of companies there that do this.

You might also want to check this website:

http://www.rafting-canyoning.de/en/rafting.htm

Thanks for the info.

wfd, there are a couple of places that I have looked at but haven't visited yet:

Mutters, often called the "most beautiful village in Tirol" is not far at all from Innsbruck/Hall.

http://www.innsbruck.info/mutters - click on English version

Across the Brenner Pass into Italy (less than an hour away) is Vipiteno/Sterzing. It really looks lovely:

http://tinyurl.com/24opd6

http://www.vipiteno.com/script/pages...did=0&L=en

You can also do a search here on Fodors for both places.

Hi,
I agree that Vipitino/Sterzing is a very charming town. We have been there twice recently. It is about 45 minutes from Innsbruck. It can be seen in about an hour or two, as it is a small town consisting of one long pedestrian street. It's filled with interesting shops, restaurants and outdoor cafe's. We thought it was very worthwhile.

Paul