Hello everyone! After a couple of years of travel hiatus to become a mommy I am now in full travel-planning mode once again! Ahhh...grandparents as babysitters are a wonderful thing!

Anyways, we are planning another trip to Austria in April of next year. I'm torn on where to base ourselves for 3-4 nights. We have been to Salzburg/Salzkammergut several times and would like to concentrate on the Tirol area. It was postings by bettyk and pja that made me choose to go back to Austria in the first place, and I really don't think I can go wrong, but that certainly isn't helping any! Right now I am researching Hall in Tirol (I've been but only for a short few hours in 05), the Zillertal (Zell am Ziller/Mayrofen and surrounds), the towns around the Achensee and now I just started reading about Kitzbuel.

So basically I'm really hoping someone that knows these areas can give you your opinion on which is your favorite and why. I am looking for the obvious thing that come from staying in this area, which is stunning scenery. I'm also interested in a good location, although that isn't a dealbreaker, because we would like the option of doing daytrips possibly down to the Dolomites and around the surrounding area. We will be traveling with another couple and would really like to stay in a fewo with two bedrooms, and that's been my challenge thus far...finding decent fewos that fit that requirement. So, in addition if anyone wants to chime in with a great recommendation I would love to hear it. We would like to stay within walking distance of town.

Thanks everyone!
Tracy

Forgot to mention that we are also looking into the Ötztal region as well. And if it helps any we will be flying in from Munich and plan on driving (renting a car) staight to our destination.

Thanks!
Tracy

Hi Tracy!
I am so happy to hear you are going to be travelling again. We are going to be in Austria in May of next year. We are basing in Salzburg and making day trips to Zell am See and also to Hallstatt. I can't wait to get there!

Sorry I don't have any recommendations for you. I do look forward to a trip report when you get back though!

Have fun planning!
Gina

Tracy, you obviously know that Paul and I each have our favorites. I think either Pertisau or Maurach in the Achensee would be good. There is probably more in the way of hotels and restaurants in Pertisau but you can pretty much find everything you need between the two villages and they are only a short drive apart.

You can check (in English) under accommodations for apartments. We stayed at a hotel so I can't recommend anyplace in particular.

http://www.achensee.info/en/home?_season=at1

They also have downloadable brochures that you can view.

It's half an hour to Hall in Tirol from Pertisau and less than that in the other direction to Rattenberg. From Rattenberg it's another 25 minutes or so to Kufstein so there are many opportunities for day trips.

I don't think you will go wrong staying in any of the places you mentioned. They are all fabulous.

Oh well, the Achensee is just like the Starnberger See or the Ammersee, nice but not that interesting at all. No "stunning scenery". They are Munich "suburbs" where people spend the afternoon. I should upload a few photos of the Achensee. It's nice for walking and during the season a few stores are open on sunday, so you can do some shopping.
If you're interested in the area, drive down the Zillertal road and up to Gerlos and then the to the Glockner road.

I love, love, love Hall in Tirol! I did a home exchange with a couple there a few years back, and they are now great friends of mine. It is such a charming little town with lots of neat shops and a bevy of restaurants. What's nice is that Innsbruck is about 15-20 minutes down the road by car, so that makes things easy if you need to catch a train, or want some more excitement, shopping, etc... We had a car but opted to take the bus down to Innsbruck one day to avoid having to park.

I haven't been to the other places in Austria besides Salzburg that you mentioned, but we drove there from Hall as a day trip. And in terms of accommodations, I can't comment since that was taken care of for us. I think if you do a search though on here or even check VRBO, you might come up with something rentable.

Best of luck-- it's soooo beautiful, and will be magnificent at that time of year! I stopped to see my friends this past April in Hall in Tirol, and there was still quite a bit of snow in the mountain areas, but it was sunny and gorgeous as well.

Thanks everyone! Decisions decisions! I'm not sure what we will do. I think it may depend on what kind of lodging we can find. Normally I find quite a lot of options by going on the tourism website for a particular town or region but I'm not having too much luck. However, with that being said I did some research yesterday afternoon and found a few options that I liked and all were in the Zillertal. I'm still checking things out though, and I have plenty of time so no rush.

If you have any more comments please keep them coming!

Gina, sounds like we may miss each other by just a month or so! Your trip sounds great, of course. I'm sure you will be very happy to get back! When you get to Salzburg eat a Mozart Ball for me!

Tracy

Tracy, Have you been to the Sud Tyrol---AKA Dolomites?

I enjoyed Achensee, and the train ride up, but I picked it for personal reasons, and don't think I would use it as a base. I'd probably pick Zell - you can spend one day visiting the Krimml waterfall, and another on the Grossglockner road.

For pix of the Zell area see http://kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/Europe-2006 - last gallery, for a great many unedited pix of Achensee, see http://kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/R...e-World-2004-5 - password achensee.

thursdaysd, your pictures are wonderful as always. The Grossglockner looks stunning, as did that waterfall! Thanks so much for sharing.

Bob, I have never been to the Dolomites but I am interested. Have you been to both the Austrian Tirol area and the Dolomites and, if so, which would be your preference and why? Keep in mind that we were be there in late April which is certainly not ideal for either location.

Thanks!
Tracy

>Austrian Tirol area
Just a short update, Tirol is a state, Governor (=Landeshauptmann) is Günther Platter of the ÖVP party. check Wikipedia.

tcreath - why, thanks! I've been to the Dolomites as well as the Tyrol, and I'd vote for the Tyrol every time. Of course, the serious shortage of shade in the Dolomites might have something to do with it. If you do pick the Dolomites I can recommend the Cavallino d'Oro - http://www.cavallino.it/index_3.html Oh, and take the train over the Brenner Pass.

logos, thanks for the info. I trust you, so wikipedia isn't necessary! I was just trying to distinquish the Tirol in Austria from the sudtirol which is, I assume, in Italy.

>Tirol in Austria from the sudtirol
In Südtirol it's the "autonomous province of Bozen / South Tyrol". So basically the created a province when they divided Tyrol. State always means "North / East Tyrol".

It was all the same culture as part of Austria until after WW1. That part which is now Italy still has all of the signs and menus in both languages, and most of the local names are actually Germanic. I see the areas as contigious and similar, only the peaks in the Dolomites are more jagged. We like the Val Gardena area---Google that name to check it out.

Hi Tracy,

We love Hall in Tirol AND the Zillertal. The only "negative" to the Zillertal is that the deeper into the valley you go, the more dramatic the scenery. This also means further away from other places, such as the Dolomites. Although it's only about 30 to 40 minutes long, it does mean 30 to 40 min. to reach the beginning of the valley and other places.

Although our favorite place to stay in Hall in Tirol (Gasthof Badl) doesn't have appartments, it does have beautiful scenery and it's just a short walk into the charming old town of Hall in Tirol. It's also less than 30 minutes to the Italian border. The Dolomites (Val Gardena) are about 1:30 from Hall in Tirol.

Just an opinion... between the Dolomites and the Tyrol, it'd be a toss up. Two very different areas mountain scenery wise. The Dolomites themselves look like nothing else in the Alps.

In the Zillertal we stayed in Finkenberg overlooking Mayrhofen, which is the largest town in the Zillertal. For scenery... it is spectacular! No towns you could walk to from Finkenberg. We simply loved our stay there though.

www.badl.at

www.gaestehaus-bergland.at/en/start.html

www.worldisround.com/articles/343800/index.html

www.worldisround.com/articles/355538/index.html

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/index.html

Oh, just a note here, most (if not all) the cable cars in the Dolomites will be closed in April. We've been in April and it was pretty quiet. A drive over a Dolomite Pass (Gardena Pass for example) is just as good as any cable car ride!

Paul

>and most of the local names are actually Germanic
Well, they don't speak Germanic (is that an official language?), they speak German. Been there and was able to understand their version of "Germanic" aka almost high German. Better than Swiss german anyway, even though their accent is somewhat "hill billy" style Farmers, lol.

Thank you everyone! Paul, I'm so happy you saw this and chimed in because I knew you had been to both regions. And I think I may be a little more lenient on where to stay. Usually ferienwohnungs are less expensive but if the prices aren't too high maybe it would be easier to just book two rooms. I will check out your suggestions!

I really want to stay in the Zillertal, but I'm wondering if maybe for this trip Hall would be a better location? If it were just my husband and I the Zillertal would win, but our friends have never been to Europe before and so we will probably daytrip a little bit more than I normally would. I know they really want to see Salzburg (I'm hoping they will consider training there by themselves for a day since we've been several times), and I want to see some of the Dolomites even if just for a day. I guess I need to figure out if that 30-40 minute drive from the Zillertal vallery is "worth" the extra driving or not.

Thanks much!!!!
Tracy

Paul, forgot to mention that I love your pictures! It makes me so excited. Now I'm even more torn though!! Hall looks gorgeous but it's hard to beat those fiews from the Bergland in Finkenberg. If we do end up staying in Hall I definitely want to make the drive to the Zillertal for a day.

Can I ask how the weather was in April? Were a lot of things closed?

Thanks!
Tracy

Hi Tracy,

Thanks for the kind words.

The Zillertal (Zell am Ziller/Mayrhofen)is about an hour or so from Hall in Tirol. The towns of Mayrhofen and Zell am Ziller felt more like "large villages" than towns. Just our observations. The scenery was great from Finkenberg!!! Our favorite (for scenery) of all the places we've been in Austria (Salzkammergut/Innsbruck area/Zell am See/Grossglockner area/Oetztal and so on).

I forgot to mention, we drove the Zillertal Hohenstrasse, which was a very nice drive into the mountains. Like driving a pass.

www.zillertaler-hoehenstrasse.at

The Dolomites may be very quiet in April. We went once the last week of April ('05) and found it to be that way. Some places were open, but definitely not "in season". Luckily, the spectacular scenery never "packs up" during any season.

Paul