Hello Fodorites,
My wife and I plan to travel in Austria and Germany this September. We will spend a few days bike touring the Salzkammergut and then are looking for a picturesque alpine town to spend 3 or 4 days. Our interests are day hikes and taking a cable car to a glacier, and Zell am See and Stubaital caught my attention. We may take public transport or rent a car and our onward destination is the Black Forest. If we rent a car we will pick it up across the German border from Salzburg to avoid the cross-country drop off charges. Any thoughts on either of these two areas for a base? Recommendations for moderately priced accommodations with alpine views are appreciated

thanks in advance!
Eric

I really enjoyed Zell-am-See, and the ride up the Grossglockner road, but if you were thinking about the Pasterze glacier, it was already a sad sight in 2006: https://kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/...ee/i-gGB8ttz/A

I visited the Stubai glacier as a day trip from Innsbruck, and it was in much better shape, but that was 2004.

I ended up going to Neustift and really the enjoyed it. I took the bus from Innsbruck and stayed at Hotel Bellevue - the glacier was visible from our room. As we stayed 3 nights we got a tourist card which served as a bus pass and 2 free lift rides every day.

For hikes, I would prefer Stubaital (or Oetztal, of course!)