Austrian Alps

There is no sea here, but there is a real lake-bathing culture. The warmest water is in Carinthia in the south, where the Wörthersee, Millstätter See, Ossiacher See and Faaker See can reach 24°C to 27°C in July and August. Towns such as Velden and Pörtschach organise their summers around lakeside lidos with lawns, piers and diving boards. The Salzkammergut lakes, the Wolfgangsee, Attersee and Mondsee, are clear and beautiful but a few degrees cooler, and high mountain lakes such as the Achensee stay chilly.

The swimming season runs from about June to early September. The 'beaches' are mostly grass and gravel lidos rather than sand. A summer stay on a Carinthian lake can be a real bathing vacation, but anyone after sand and salt water should look elsewhere.

The cooking is filling mountain food: Kaiserschmarrn, Tyrolean Gröstl, Kasnocken and Käsespätzle, dumplings in broth, smoked Speck and Alpine cheeses. It tastes best on a terrace of a mountain hut after a hike or a morning on the slopes, washed down with Zirbenschnaps (pine schnapps) or a local beer. Salzburg adds a proper café tradition with cakes and Salzburger Nockerl. Innsbruck has the widest range of everyday restaurants.

At the top end, the Arlberg resorts, Kitzbühel and Salzburg have serious fine-dining kitchens built on Alpine produce, game and lake fish. Day to day, though, the cuisine is narrow, and in the big ski villages many menus look much alike. Come to eat well in a mountain setting rather than for variety.

The region's heritage gathers in a few strong places. Salzburg has the richest: a baroque old town under the Hohensalzburg fortress, the cathedral, the Residenz, Mozart's birthplace and the gardens of Mirabell and Hellbrunn. Innsbruck has the Golden Roof, the Hofburg, the Hofkirche with its bronze statues of Habsburg ancestors, and Ambras Castle above the town. Hallstatt and the Dachstein-Salzkammergut landscape form a World Heritage site built on thousands of years of salt mining.

Around these are the spa architecture of Bad Ischl and Bad Gastein, the Admont abbey library, Hohenwerfen fortress, and baroque village churches in almost every valley. The sights are good but spread out. A visitor sees them by moving between towns, not by staying in one dense city.

Going out here means après-ski, and Austria does it with more noise and stamina than almost anywhere in the Alps. In Ischgl, St Anton, Saalbach, Sölden and Mayrhofen, the slopeside huts fill in the late afternoon with ski boots on the tables and Schlager on the speakers. The party then moves into the village bars and clubs, which run late through the winter season, from December to April.

Outside the ski season the picture changes. Innsbruck's student population keeps a modest bar scene going all year, and Salzburg's evenings tend to end after a concert and a glass of wine. Summer resorts go quiet early. Choose a big ski village in winter if a night out matters.

This is mountain country of the highest order. The Hohe Tauern national park surrounds the Grossglockner, Austria's highest peak, with glaciers, high Alpine pastures and the Krimml waterfalls. Tyrol's valleys, the Zillertal, Ötztal, Stubaital and Paznaun, lead up to glaciers and high summits. The Arlberg, Kitzbühel and Ski Amadé areas give some of the most extensive skiing in Europe, from about December to April.

In summer the same lifts serve a dense network of marked trails and staffed huts, via ferratas, mountain-bike trails and long valley cycle routes. The lakes of the Salzkammergut and Carinthia add sailing, rowing and paddling against limestone peaks. Innsbruck is the easiest base, with high mountains straight above town, but almost any valley gives direct access to serious Alpine terrain.

From Salzburg, the Salzkammergut is the classic outing: Hallstatt on its lake, St Wolfgang, the imperial spa town of Bad Ischl and Gmunden. Across the German border, Berchtesgaden and the Königssee are close, and Munich is about an hour and a half by train. Werfen with its fortress lies just south.

From Innsbruck, the medieval mint town of Hall in Tirol, Schwaz, tiny Rattenberg with its glassworks, and Kitzbühel's old centre are all easy. Bavaria's royal castles at Füssen and South Tyrol's Bolzano and Merano are reachable in about two hours over the passes. Salzburg and Innsbruck themselves make good day trips from bases in the valleys.

The Austrian Alps are built for families. Many resorts, notably Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis, the Zillertal and the Salzburg valleys, run gentle nursery slopes, children's ski schools and childcare as a matter of course. Hotels designed for children, with playrooms, pools and kids' clubs, are a long-established Austrian speciality.

In summer the lifts open onto themed adventure trails, play areas on the mountain, summer toboggan runs and lakes with shallow lidos. Innsbruck's Alpine Zoo, Swarovski's crystal world near Wattens and the Hellbrunn trick fountains in Salzburg fill rainy or rest days. Villages are safe and clean, with short distances. The main limits are that there is little for children in bad weather beyond pools, and that steep terrain asks for sturdy legs and a pushchair suited to gravel paths.

The main valleys are easy to travel. Trains run through the Inn valley via Innsbruck, between Salzburg and the Gastein valley, and over the Arlberg to Vorarlberg, and connect with Postbus lines that climb into side valleys. Many resorts give guests a card covering local buses and sometimes lifts, so a car is not essential for a stay in one valley.

Between valleys it is slower. Mountain roads are excellent but winding, some side-valley buses run only a handful of times a day, and Saturday changeover days in the ski season bring heavy traffic on the routes into Tyrol. Resort villages are walkable, while combining lakes, towns and passes in one trip is easiest by car.

Shopping here centres on traditional dress and mountain craft. Salzburg's Getreidegasse, with its wrought-iron guild signs, and Innsbruck's old town and Maria-Theresien-Strasse have makers of dirndls, lederhosen, loden coats and felt hats alongside the usual high-street chains. Kitzbühel and Lech carry a small set of luxury fashion and jewellery boutiques for their winter clientele.

Elsewhere it is ski and mountain gear, carved wooden figures and nativity cribs from Tyrolean valley workshops, cut crystal from Wattens near Innsbruck, schnapps, mountain cheese and Mozartkugeln. Christmas markets in Salzburg, Innsbruck and the lake towns add seasonal crafts in December. It is pleasant for a few purchases with local character, but nobody comes for a shopping vacation.

This is not a cheap region. In winter, lift passes, ski hire, lessons and hotels in the famous resorts add up quickly, and the smartest Arlberg and Kitzbühel addresses are among the most expensive in the Alps. Salzburg's hotels are dear during its summer festival.

A visitor can soften this. Family-run guesthouses and farm stays in quieter valleys, smaller ski areas away from the big names, and summer stays in Carinthia or the lesser-known parts of Tyrol cost noticeably less. Half-board is common and helps keep food costs predictable, and guest cards often bundle local transport and some lifts.

For a few weeks each summer this region holds some of the most sought-after stages in classical music. The Salzburg Festival, in July and August, brings leading orchestras, singers and directors for opera, concerts and the open-air Jedermann in front of the cathedral. At the same time Bregenz stages opera on a vast floating stage on Lake Constance. The Schubertiade brings chamber music to the Vorarlberg villages of Schwarzenberg and Hohenems over several weeks between spring and autumn, and Erl in Tyrol holds opera festivals in summer and winter.

Outside those stretches the offer is far smaller. Salzburg keeps the steadiest calendar, with Mozart Week in January, an Easter festival, concerts at the Mozarteum and the Landestheater. Innsbruck has the Tyrolean State Theatre and an early-music festival in August. The ski resorts have almost nothing beyond après-ski bands, and in the valleys live music means brass bands, folk evenings and church concerts. Plan around the festival summer if music is the reason for the trip.

Wellness is a pillar of the Austrian Alpine vacation. Bad Gastein is a Belle Époque spa town on a waterfall, known for its warm radon springs and healing gallery inside the mountain. Neighbouring Bad Hofgastein has a large thermal bath, and Bad Ischl was the summer spa of the Habsburg court. In Tyrol, the Aqua Dome at Längenfeld puts outdoor thermal pools in front of the Ötztal peaks, and Carinthia has Bad Kleinkirchheim.

Beyond the thermal towns, nearly every valley has hotels with extensive sauna worlds, steam rooms and quiet rooms, and the Austrian sauna tradition is taken seriously. Combine that with mountain air and slow days, and the region suits rest well, especially in the quieter months of early summer and autumn.