Perched on a hilltop high above Inntal Valley for half a millennium, this imposing Renaissance-style castle has been built by the Taenzl Brothers around 1500. To honour their clients, the House of Habsburg, they erected ornate Habsburg Hall with a wall painting that depicts the enormous family tree of Habsburg. Later, the Fugger Family, a…
2 min. Reading time
Meadow lasagne instead of food from the microwave, chamois dumplings instead of fast food and wildflower soup instead of everyday mishmash. These taverns use products from their own gardens, fields and stables for cooking. Some of the innkeepers hunt their own game, while others fish trout to order from the waters behind their establishment.
3 min. Reading time
Splish-splash! A sound enjoyed by many hikers. Especially at the end of an exhausting tour, when they like nothing better than cooling off in a mountain lake – an abundance of which can be found in Tirol. The following refreshing walks are highly recommended:
2 min. Reading time
A young woman has turned her dream of living in the mountains into reality and made Ötztal her new home. This is the story of Vreni Meijerink, one of Tirol’s 739,000 inhabitants.
6 min. Reading time
Many people imagine that a mountain hut consists of nothing more than a wooden shack with an outhouse. This preconceived notion is nonsense, of course, as these Alpine Association lodges well demonstrate. Some are so beautiful that they are listed as historical monuments; others inspire with their sustainable and modern construction: in other words, first class architecture.
3 min. Reading time
Naturally, any summer family foray in Tirol must begin with a gondola ride as the ski resorts of Tirol are transformed into hubs for family fun during the warmer months. Here are five on-mountain adventure zones that will put kids over the moon when they hit the ski resorts in summer.
4 min. Reading time
Like many sports, mountain biking has its own terms. Single track, for example, describes a type of mountain biking trail that is approximately the width of the bike – the narrow, snaking trails where rides get fast and fun. It is often smooth and flowing, but may also feature technical rocky sections, go over tree…
3 min. Reading time
Ever wondered what those numbers and letters beside the route names mean? Climbing grades are a mysterious dark art for most, only the craggy hardest rock jock spends their evenings in the pub discussing these runes. The scale progresses upwards; the higher the number, the harder the problem. Letters ‘a’ ‘b’ ‘c’ and ‘+’ can…
3 min. Reading time
The Iceman’s name is not Ötzi. The Iceman’s name is Kilian Scheiber. A Vent-native, this mountain guide has bagged the peak of Wildspitze for more than 400 times – although it was not exactly what you would call love at first sight between him and the highest mountain of North Tirol (and Austria’s second tallest).
9 min. Reading time