Tyrol travel guide
Straddling one of the main routes between northern Europe and Italy, Austria’s third-largest province has a long and proud tradition of offering hospitality to travellers. But rather than passing through, today’s visitors come to stay, revelling in what many consider to be the country’s finest alpine scenery, a classic mixture of rugged peaks, shining glaciers, verdant valleys, rushing rivers and cheerful villages. Tyrolean towns too are of exceptional interest, from historic little places like Hall to the mountain-girdled capital Innsbruck. The locals are also a special bunch, with a strong sense of history and local identity that expresses itself in the everyday wearing of traditional dress and the enthusiastic observance of old customs.
Places to visit and things to do in Tyrol
Alpine Innsbruck
Innsbruck is a beautiful Alpine city and Tyrol's capital.
The Brenner Pass
From Innsbruck, a main road, a trunk rail line (opened 1867) and a motorway (completed 1969) lead to the Brenner Pass (1,375m/4,510ft), about 40km (25 miles) to the south. The motorway passes over the 190m (625ft) Europabrücke, for many years the highest bridge of its kind on the continent and today a popular bungee jumping location.
To either side of the main valley are attractive mountain villages such as Igls, the site of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. The lowest crossing of the Alps and one of the busiest, the Brenner marks the watershed between rivers feeding the Danube and eventually the Black Sea and those discharging into the Mediterranean. The best diversion from the main route leads up the Stubaital to the southwest. The valley’s villages nearly all boast fine churches built in the 18th century by a local parish priest, Franz da Paula Penze, but most visitors come here less for the architecture than for skiing on the Stubai glacier.
Historic Hall
A string of fine old towns follows the valley of the Inn downstream, many of them built on the proceeds of medieval salt and silver mining. Outstanding among them, within sight of Innsbruck, is Hall. The town’s small and beautifully preserved historic core is built on rising ground a short distance north of the river, its focal point the Oberer Stadtplatz. The buildings around the irregularly shaped square testify to Hall’s late medieval golden age when it was one of Austria’s foremost cities.
Winter sports and summer walks in Kitzbühel
There are plenty of smaller winter and summer resorts scattered around, but the undisputed star of the whole recreational region in northeastern Tyrol is glamorous Kitzbühel. Once a copper and silver-mining town, and still with a couple of attractive old streets lined with typical old Tyrolean houses, Kitzbühel has made its modern fortune from winter sports. Skiing began in the late 19th century, the prestigious Hahnenkamm race in 1931. The gentle, rounded Kitzbühel Alps provide dozens of runs as well as relatively undemanding summer walking and cycling, while the bars and boutiques of the town offer plenty of glitz at all times.
Achensee lake
High above the town of Jenbach in the valley of the Inn, flanked by the Karwendel mountains to the west and the Rofan range to the east, the 10km (6-mile) -long Achensee is Tyrol’s largest and loveliest lake, attracting holiday-makers and water sports enthusiasts in great numbers. A road winds up from Jenbach, though a jollier alternative is to take one of the veteran steam trains of the rack-and-pinion Achenseebahn which climbs up to the village of Maurach near the southern end of the lake. From Jenbach, another steam train, as well as more frequent diesels, runs the length of the Zillertal, deservedly one of the most popular and most developed of Austria’s Alpine valleys.
