Austria's Alpine Treasures: Mountain Trails, National Parks and High Peaks
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Given that it is a German-speaking nation, I have been left wondering why Austria was left out of the 1870 German reunification overseen by Prussia. Apparently, it would appear that Prussia wished to dominate the new German state, so Austria was kept out of it since the Habsburgs who ruled the place at the time once also ruled over all Germany as part of the Holy Roman Empire. In that light, it looks as if Prussia wanted no competition in the newly unified Germany, and even Bavaria was put under its subjugation.
With its isolation from other German states, Austria turned its attention to its dual monarchy with Hungary and the Balkan peninsula, setting it off on a road that would lead everyone to World War I. That was not the end of turbulence in the twentieth century for reparations were needed after that conflagration, and it lost its territories in Eastern Europe too. Both of those meant an economy under pressure and the political mood darkened, as it did in Germany too. Fascists were to come to prominence, and the Nazi annexation of the Anschluss had its Austrian supporters too. It was the only occasion in modern times that a Greater Germany (albeit not the Austria-dominated one that the Habsburgs would have had in mind) can into being, and it was not to be a happy one for many.
After World War II, Austria regained its independence, though it took until 1955 for the country to gain full sovereignty with the condition of military neutrality that precludes full membership of NATO even today. The Nazi was recalled in its own way by The Sound of Music, and that film was made in much happier times than the period in which it was set. Politically, the country has been very stable since the war with consensual politics brought about using a proportionately representative voting system, though that consensus is fraying at the edges a little lately.
First Places to Look, and a First Incursion
Its relative political stability makes going to Austria to savour its urban and rural landscapes less daunting. That the former includes heritage from the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire makes it especially alluring. For instance, both Vienna and Salzburg still retain grand buildings from this era, and that is what makes them such outstanding cities to visit.
As stunning as these city destinations may be, it is the Austrian Alps that ensure the country's inclusion here, and the official national visitor portal Holidays in Austria makes a good place to start. Then, there are regional counterparts to this too. Vienna has been mentioned already, and other regions include the easternmost Burgenland, Carinthia in the south, Upper Austria, Salzburgerland, Styria, the illustrious Tirol and East Tirol together with the westernmost Vorarlberg.
Each region then has its own delectable areas. For instance, Carinthia has Grossglockner Heiligenblut, Donau Niederösterreich and Lower Austria. The first of these features the famous Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse (or High Alpine Road), a privately owned toll road that is open for part of the year. Salzburgerland has more than the city of Salzburg, with Hochkönig together with the villages of Bruck and Fusch being among its other delights. In Upper Austria, there is Pyhrn-Priel, Salzkammergut and Danube Upper Austria.
A feature in Country Walking highlighted the attractions of Zillertal in the Tirol for walkers, so this piqued my interest in the area and a visit featured as part of my first-ever trip to the Tirol along with wanderings about Innsbruck that took in the Nordkette rather than others like Patscherkofel, so there is more to sample there yet. This became my first taste of the Austrian Alps and cable car travel, which unnerved me, and having one on the Penkenbahn coming to a complete if momentary halt on the way down did not help matters. Nevertheless, I still could steel myself for future cable car excursions, and I now know why so many movie fight scenes are staged in them to elicit more in the way of suspense. As it happened, Mayrhofen in the Zillertal was quiet when I visited on a day trip from Innsbruck and I wonder if the timing had anything to do with it, for it was on a Sunday and rain rather than sunshine was what the forecast offered.
There are so many other delights in the Tirol that longer stays are needed to do any justice to the area. My own encounter was a short one, and it pained me that I did not have more time because valleys like Stubaital and Ötztal were tempting. After those, there are places in the east like Alpbachtal, Kitzbühel along with the nearby Kitzbüheler Alpen, and Wildschönau. In the west, there is St. Anton am Arlberg with the Tiroler Zupspitz Arena in the north (strangely, there is another website with the same name covering the same area, so some get very enthusiastic about this place). Each of these probably needs a few days of exploration in their own right, so it is easy how even setting aside a week for a first visit only scratches the surface of what is to be found in this part of Austria.
Then, there are always things that you find when you actually spend time somewhere. Achensee is a case in point and there is a delightful steam railway that gets you there from Jenbach while the Karwendel Bergbahn gives a leg up to those who fancy walking among lofty heights. Of course, exploration does not stop when you leave either, and I have read an article in Active Traveller about Wilder Kaiser so that gets added to the list and there could be more to follow. It is easy to see how return visits could happen again and again.
Places to Stay
Austria appears to offer various options when it comes to places to overnight. Looking through this list of websites could give you a steer so long as things do not appear overwhelming: Tiscover, Austrian Hotel Reservation, Hotel DE, Camping, Almhütten, Farm Holidays, Kinderhotels, Bio Hotels, Wanderhotels and Wanderdörfer. The first three on the list cover the more conventional hotel offerings, and the last three offer a variation on that theme that allows guests to feel that bit closer to nature. In between, you get camping, mountain huts, farmhouse accommodation and even specifically child-friendly places to stay.
Travel
Unless rail or sea travel is an option, getting to Austria from afar is sure to involve air travel. Though now owned by Lufthansa, Austrian is the national flag carrier with a hub at Vienna airport. Since it is not the only airline serving Austria, Skyscanner remains worth a check. There are other airports at Salzburg and Innsbruck, with the latter getting more international flights during the skiing season. If Tirol's capital were served year-round like this, it would be very useful for alpine walking trips.
For getting to Tirol, Munich's airport makes a good place to arrive before continuing by rail, and that is what I did on my first trip there. A combination of DB's S-Bahn together with the EuroCity rail network shared with ÖBB works well with a single change at München Ost train station. All in all, the journey takes just over two hours if you go via Kufstein. Alternatively, you can make use of transfer services by road offered by the likes of Four Seasons Travel, and they will get you directly to places like Kitzbühel.
Though ÖBB has a good rail network with high-speed RailJet services, it still takes over four hours to get to Vienna, so it feels as if you are going well east only to come west again if you go to Innsbruck via Austria's capital city. If you do go and visit Vienna and there are plenty of reasons to do so, its City Airport Train is operated by ÖBB and Wiener Linien is the main operator of public transport services in the city if you fancy spending longer there.
Like their Swiss counterparts, ÖBB Postbus operates bus services that extend the reach of the company's transport services and complement the rail network to increase service frequency and the number of destinations that are served, too. Along with regional trains, they also form part of Tirol's VVT network.
Special Places
Many if not all of Austria's regions feature some form of mountainous country, and large lakes like Lake Neusiedler make up for the fact that this is a landlocked country. For an example of one in mountain country, there is another near Zell am See Kaprun and its location takes my fancy.
There also are a number of National Parks, and the Hohe Tauern National Park is one that gets much attention. After all, there are a number of websites with one dating from 2012, a later one that comes under the auspices of Salzburgerland and another again that comes under the umbrella of the Carinthia region. If this were not enough, the National Park is shared with Tirol too. Its highlights are Austria's country top, the 3798-metre high Grossglockner. The latter is open only during daytime hours from May to October or early November because it reaches around 2400 metres in altitude, so it is dramatically affected by winter weather. Even so, the underlying route was used for centuries before the road was built and Kaiser Franz-Joseph made his way here and the first ascents of the Grossglockner itself involved senior Austrian clergy.
Of course, there are other National Parks too. Some like Gesäuse National Park in Styria, Kalkalpen National Park in Upper Austria or Nockberge Biosphere Park in Carinthia are mountainous, so Alpine scenery is a major attraction. As if to prove that there is more to Austria than the Alps, others are very different. For instance, Donau-Auen National Park conserves wetlands around the River Danube. Conservation especially remains the theme with the Thayatal National Park, and it is a rewilded valley that is being managed here and one with a resident wildcat population too. Neusidler See Seewinkel National Park is very different again, and it has a partner on the Hungarian side of the border with Austria. Neusidler See is a large inland lake with smaller salt lakes, meadow and pasture land round about it, and conserving all of these led to the creation of the National Park over twenty years ago.
Walking
In similar countryside within the U.K., explorations on foot arouse my interest, and it is the same with Austria, so the ÖAV, Alpenvereinaktiv and AACUK websites of the Austrian Alpine Club or Alpenveiren Österreich are of interest too. Austria has a good reputation for waymarked trails and its longer trails include the 320 km Eagle Walk around Tirol, the 1200 km Arnoweg, the 350 km Salzburger Almenweg and the 100 km Stubai High Trail. As if that were not enough, there is more to be found on on-tour.at with bergfex.com, so there may be a lifetime's multi-day trekking to be enjoyed. For those seeking the top of the Grossglockner or other mountains in the Alps, then are mountain guides based in Heiligenblut whose services may be retained.
Cycling
It may have much in the way of mountainous terrain, but there also appears to be a lot for the recreational cyclist in Austria too. For route ideas, you can look through Radtouren and specific examples that I have seen include Danube Cycling Path, Lake Constance Cycle Path and Salzburger Almen-Tour. The last of these appears to be a higher level mountain bike tour, while the others are gentler affairs. For those not wanting to bring their own bikes, Intersport is a pervasive chain of sports and outdoor pursuits equipment shops offering bike rental.
