Austria · Salzburg & Salzkammergut · Travel guide
Lake, glacier and the highest road in Austria in one place: what a week in Zell am See costs in summer and in winter, which card gives you the cable cars for free and when the glacier is really worth skiing.
Photo: Hooman Beings / Pexels
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Estimates for orientation, not booking prices. Getting there means train or car from Switzerland, return, per person. Hotels vary strongly by season: current prices are behind the links below.
Money & payment: You pay in euros (EUR). Cards work almost everywhere; mountain huts and sausage stands often want cash. Tipping is expected: 5 to 10 percent, by naming the rounded total when you pay. In ski resorts a visitor tax of EUR 2 to 4 per night is added to the hotel price. Getting there: By train (ÖBB Railjet), car or a flight to Vienna, 2 to 8 hours.
Nine options in three price ranges, each among the best-rated on Booking.com.
Budget
The youth hostel on the southern shore of the lake with its own beach, near Schüttdorf, with multi-bed and family rooms, breakfast included and a ski room. Ski bus 100 metres away, two kilometres to the centre. The cheapest address on the lake for families and groups.
Family-run guesthouse with rooms and apartments in Schüttdorf, 300 metres from the Areitbahn, simple, clean rooms with balconies. For skiers and summer guests who do not need the centre on their doorstep.
Family-run four-star house in the pedestrian zone on the Stadtplatz, three minutes to the lake and the cable cars, with a rooftop bar above the roofs. Rooms solid, location unbeatable, the cheapest way into the town centre. For anyone who wants to stay central and have the lake view from above in the evening.
Mid-range
Hotel right on the Esplanade by the lake with views of the water and the Kitzsteinhorn from many rooms, its own bathing jetty in summer and a small wellness area. Two minutes to the station and the old town, for couples and summer guests.
Large family hotel in the centre of Kaprun with indoor pool, sauna and half board, ski bus at the door, five minutes to the Tauern Spa. Rooms solid, kitchen generous, price fair, made for families on a ski week.
Long-established house in the old town with indoor pool, spa and half board, 200 metres to the CityXpress valley station of the Schmittenhöhe cable car and to the lake. Well kept, family-run, equally good for winter and summer guests.
Luxury
The grand hotel of 1896 on its own peninsula in the lake, with lake views from almost all rooms, a spa with lake access, a lido and a restaurant on the terrace. Classic alpine lakeside luxury two minutes from the station, at its best in summer.
Four-star superior hotel right at the thermal spa with its own access and hotel-only area, panorama pool with Kitzsteinhorn views, ski bus to the glacier cable car. For wellness holidays in winter or as rain insurance in summer; half board good, prices including the spa fair.
Five-star house between the old town and the lake with a large garden, award-winning cuisine, spa with outdoor pool and a service that has been among the best in Austria for decades. For couples and families who want the best in town and appreciate being two minutes from the station and the lake promenade.
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Three cable cars up to 3,029 metres with a viewing platform, glacier tunnel, cinema and views to the Grossglockner. Return CHF 55, included in the summer card, half a day; even in July take a jacket and sunglasses up top.
Zell's local mountain at 2,000 metres with the panorama over the lake and 30 three-thousanders, cable cars from the edge of town, return CHF 35, summer card included. At the top the Pinzgauer Spaziergang towards Saalbach or the short summit circuit. Two to six hours.
The highest pass road in Austria with 36 hairpins, the Edelweissspitze and the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe with the Pasterze glacier. Toll CHF 42 to 45 per car, guided day tour from Zell from CHF 60 to 90 including the toll. May to October, 5 to 6 hours, only in clear weather.
The highest waterfalls in Europe at 380 metres in three tiers, waterfall trail 1 hour 30 minutes to the upper tier, admission CHF 8. By Pinzgauer Lokalbahn from Zell in 90 minutes, free with the guest card. Half to a full day.
By bus and the Lärchwand inclined lift up to the Mooserboden at 2,040 metres: two dam walls, turquoise water, a guided tour through the dam and the Erlebniswelt Strom electricity exhibition. CHF 30, summer card included, June to October, half a day.
Large thermal spa with a panorama pool facing the Kitzsteinhorn, sauna village and children's world. 4 hours CHF 35 to 40, day ticket CHF 45 to 50, evening rate from 6 pm. After a ski day or in the rain; full in the afternoon in winter, empty in the morning.
Round trip from the Esplanade in 40 minutes around the lake with views of the Schmitten and Kitzsteinhorn, CHF 18, free with the summer card, or as a scheduled boat to Thumersbach and Schüttdorf. May to October, also in the evening with music.
Wooden walkway through a 320-metre-long, 32-metre-deep gorge of the Kapruner Ache, 30 to 45 minutes, CHF 8. Right on the edge of Kaprun, ideal as the start of the walk to the Klammsee or as a programme for half a rainy day.
Up to Krimml by local train and 55 kilometres almost entirely downhill through the Pinzgau back to Zell, or the lake circuit of 11 kilometres. E-bike hire CHF 40 to 50 a day, guided tours from CHF 60. May to October.
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The Pinzgau eats what the alpine pastures provide: Kasnocken, Pinzgauer Bladl, Schlipfkrapfen and Pinzgauer Bierkäse, a cheese that smells the way it sounds. Plus fish from Lake Zell and, in the huts, Kaiserschmarrn, which comes here the size of a frying pan. Prices are 20 to 30 per cent below Switzerland, less markedly in the ski huts, noticeably in the village inns of Kaprun and Bruck.
Small dumplings of flour, egg and water, tossed in an iron pan with Pinzgauer Bierkäse and mountain cheese, fried onions on top, cabbage salad alongside. The national dish of the valley, CHF 13 to 17 (about EUR 14 to 18) in an inn, CHF 15 to 19 in a hut.
Tip:One portion is enough after a ski day, not before. With Bierkäse it is stronger, with mountain cheese milder; ask.
Thin flatbreads of rye and wheat flour, fried in fat, filled with sauerkraut or quark, or sweet with lingonberries. Farmhouse food from the days before tourism, CHF 8 to 12 a portion.
Tip:Bladl are not available everywhere; where they are on the menu, they are usually home-made and good.
The lake is of drinking-water quality, and you can taste it in the fish: char pan-fried with buttered potatoes CHF 24 to 30, smoked as a starter CHF 12 to 15, whitefish (Reinanke) a little cheaper.
Tip:Thumersbach on the opposite shore is quieter, cheaper and has the view of Zell with the Schmitten behind it; cross by boat or bike.
Fluffy, caramelised, with raisins and Zwetschkenröster (stewed plums), served in the pan. In the huts of the Kitzsteinhorn and the Schmitten CHF 12 to 16 and easily a main course for two.
Tip:It takes 15 minutes, so order it with the rest of your food. With apple sauce instead of Röster it is cheaper and less exciting.
Half-moon pasta pockets with a potato and quark filling, boiled in salted water and served with brown butter and chives, the Pinzgau relative of the Carinthian Kärntner Nudel. CHF 12 to 15 as a main course.
Tip:Often only available on certain days or as the dish of the day; check the board at the entrance.
Lean, strong sour-milk cheese with a reddish rind, eaten with onions, vinegar and oil as a Brettljause (cold platter), CHF 9 to 13 with bread. A cheese that divides opinion; if you like Appenzeller, you will cope.
Tip:Vacuum-packed it travels home without trouble; just do not leave it lying around your hotel room.
The Wiener Schnitzel of veal costs CHF 22 to 28, the pork version CHF 16 to 20, with potato salad with pumpkin seed oil or lingonberries. In Zell big, good and in almost every inn the safe choice when the children will not have anything else.
Tip:Lunch menu with soup for CHF 13 to 16; in the evening the same schnitzel without soup for CHF 20 to 24.
Through markets and eateries with a guide, tastings included.
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Zell am See began around 740 as Cella in Bisontio, a monastic cell of the Salzburg bishops on the shore of the lake, and for over a thousand years remained a market town in the Pinzgau that lived from cattle, from the salt trade over the Tauern and from the copper of the Mitterberg. The lake itself is an Ice Age relic, four kilometres long, up to 68 metres deep, and so clean that it is of drinking-water quality. The turning point came in 1875 with the Giselabahn railway from Salzburg to Wörgl, which connected Zell to the world, and in 1927 with the Schmittenhöhebahn, one of the first passenger cable cars in Austria. Kaprun in the neighbouring valley was a farming village until the 1930s; then, under the National Socialists and with forced labourers, construction began on the Tauern power plants with the Mooserboden and Wasserfallboden reservoirs at 2,000 metres. They were completed in 1955 with Marshall Plan money, and "Kaprun" became the symbol of Austria's post-war reconstruction, complete with Heimatfilm and postage stamp. In 1965 the glacier railway to the Kitzsteinhorn opened, Austria's first glacier ski area. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road, built from 1930 to 1935 as a job-creation project, linked the Pinzgau with Carinthia and turned the country's highest mountain into a day-trip destination. On 11 November 2000 a train caught fire in the tunnel of the glacier railway and 155 people died; the funicular was never put back into service, and the memorial stands in Kaprun. Today Zell and Kaprun live as a twin resort from year-round tourism, with a remarkably high share of guests from the Gulf states in summer.
Zell am See has a railway station right on the lake, three minutes from the centre, and that is a big advantage over most ski resorts. From Zurich you take the Railjet to Innsbruck or Wörgl and change there for the train to Zell, 5 hours 30 minutes to 6 hours in all; some Railjets on the Innsbruck to Salzburg route stop directly in Zell am See. Sparschiene from CHF 35 (about EUR 37) one way, with the Half Fare Card for the Swiss section CHF 90 to 130 per person return. Postbus 660 runs from Zell station to Kaprun in 15 minutes (CHF 3, free with the guest card). By car it is 4 hours 30 minutes to 5 hours from Zurich via the Arlberg or the Fernpass and Kitzbühel, Austrian vignette CHF 12 for ten days. On the spot you hardly need the car in winter: ski buses run every 15 to 30 minutes between Zell, Schüttdorf, Kaprun and the valley stations and are free with the ski pass. In summer the car is practical for the Grossglockner and Krimml, but both can be done by bus and train too: the Pinzgauer Lokalbahn runs from Zell am See to Krimml in 90 minutes, and in July and August there are Postbuses from Zell via Fusch to the Edelweissspitze and the Franz-Josefs-Höhe for the Grossglockner. Hotel parking is usually free or costs CHF 10.
In summer, from mid-May to the end of October, as an overnight guest in Zell am See and Kaprun you receive the Zell am See-Kaprun summer card free from your hotel, and it is the reason the region is cheaper in summer than a first glance at the hotel prices suggests. It includes one ascent and descent per day on the Schmittenhöhe, Kitzsteinhorn and Maiskogel, the boat trip on Lake Zell, the lido, the Kaprun high mountain reservoirs with bus and lift, minigolf, museums and all the buses in the region. Priced individually: Kitzsteinhorn CHF 55 (about EUR 59), Schmittenhöhe CHF 35, reservoirs CHF 30, boat CHF 18. From the second day on you have saved a fortune, which is why in this area in summer a hotel is always better value than a holiday flat without the card (with holiday flats, check whether the landlord issues the card; by no means all do). Not included: Tauern Spa, the Grossglockner road, the Krimml Waterfalls and the Sigmund-Thun-Klamm gorge (CHF 8, worth it). In winter there is no free card, but there is the Zell am See-Kaprun ski pass covering the Schmittenhöhe, Kitzsteinhorn and Maiskogel: day pass CHF 70 to 78 depending on the season, six days CHF 330 to 370, children up to 15 about half, and online pre-sale gives 5 to 10 per cent off. The Ski ALPIN CARD extends this to Saalbach-Hinterglemm and the Schneeberg for around CHF 10 a day more, which pays off from three days.
The Kitzsteinhorn is Kaprun's glacier at 3,029 metres, reached by three cable cars from the Maiskogel car park (K-onnection) in 40 minutes. At the top is the Gipfelwelt 3000 with a viewing platform, cinema, glacier tunnel into the mountain and the view of the Grossglockner; national park rangers lead free guided walks in summer. Skiing is possible from October to early July, but honestly: in summer it is two or three short runs on firn snow, nice for a morning, not a ski holiday. The glacier is really good from October to December, when it is the only snow-sure area in the region, and in March and April, when the snow lower down gets soft. The area is wide, intermediate, with a snow park and freeride routes, 61 kilometres of piste in all, windy and often cold at the top. The Schmittenhöhe is Zell's local mountain at 2,000 metres with the cable car right from the edge of town, 77 kilometres of piste, gentler slopes, plenty of sun and the panorama over lake and Tauern that makes the Schmitten one of the most beautiful viewpoint mountains in Austria. For families and leisurely skiers the Schmitten is the mountain, for sporty skiers and snow certainty the glacier, and with the ski pass you have both. In summer: on the Schmitten the Pinzgauer Spaziergang to Saalbach (6 hours, a panoramic trail without much climbing, back by bus), on the Kitzsteinhorn the glacier walk with a ranger. The Maiskogel is the small family mountain with an Alpine Coaster (CHF 12 per ride) and drag-lift level skiing.
The Grossglockner High Alpine Road is 48 kilometres long, climbs through 36 hairpin bends to 2,504 metres (Hochtor) and leads to the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe with views of the Grossglockner and the Pasterze, the longest glacier in Austria, which honestly retreats further every year. The toll costs CHF 42 to 45 (about EUR 45 to 48) per car per day, motorbike CHF 32, slightly less with online pre-sale; open from early May to the end of October, closed at night. Go early, leaving Zell before 9 am, and you will have the hairpins before the coaches and motorbike groups; and make the detour to the Edelweissspitze (2,571 metres, cobblestones, magnificent). Plan 5 to 6 hours with stops; in rain or low cloud give it a miss, as all you will see is fog for CHF 45. If you have no car, book the Postbus in July and August or a guided tour from Zell (CHF 60 to 90, the toll is included on day tours). The Krimml Waterfalls at the other end of the Pinzgau are the highest in Europe at 380 metres, in three tiers, with a path that leads to the upper tier in 1 hour 30 minutes, admission CHF 8, the Haus des Wassers (House of Water) in the valley. Get there by Pinzgauer Lokalbahn from Zell (90 minutes, free with the guest card) and a short walk. In the morning you get wet at the lower fall; in the afternoon the sun stands in the rainbow. Both excursions in one day is not possible; give each one its own.
Zell am See has three locations. The old town on the lake with the promenade, station and Schmitten cable car within walking distance is the loveliest and most expensive, mid-range double rooms CHF 150 to 220 (about EUR 161 to 235) in summer, CHF 180 to 280 in February. Schüttdorf at the southern end is flatter, cheaper (from CHF 100) and has the Areitbahn as its own way into the Schmitten. Kaprun is a village of its own, quieter, more family-friendly, with the Tauern Spa and the glacier cable cars, and usually 15 to 20 per cent cheaper than Zell for the same category; with the ski bus and Postbus you are at the lake in 15 minutes. The high season is double: Christmas to Epiphany and the February holidays in winter, mid-July to the end of August in summer, with a minimum stay of seven nights in many houses. The honest times: January after the 7th (cold, empty, the cheapest ski weeks), March (sun, firn, glacier good), June (lake still cool, mountains clear, cable cars open, prices low) and September (lake warm, Glockner clear, Almabtrieb). The months between the end of the season in mid-April and Whitsun and between the end of October and early December are dead: cable cars closed, half the hotels shut. Visitor tax CHF 2.50 to 3 per person per night extra. Booking: winter holiday weeks in September, summer two to three months ahead, low season on the spur of the moment.
The Tauern Spa in Kaprun is one of the big thermal spas in Austria: panorama pool with a view of the Kitzsteinhorn, sauna village, children's area, 4 hours CHF 35 to 40 (about EUR 37 to 43), day ticket CHF 45 to 50, cheaper in the evening from 6 pm. In winter after skiing it is a must; in summer it rescues a rainy day. The Kaprun high mountain reservoirs are the underrated excursion of the region: by bus and inclined lift (the Lärchwand inclined lift, the largest open lift in Europe) up to the Mooserboden at 2,040 metres, two dam walls, turquoise water, dam tour, via ferrata, included in the summer card, otherwise CHF 30. June to October. The Sigmund-Thun-Klamm in Kaprun is a wooden walkway through a 32-metre-deep gorge, 30 minutes, CHF 8. At the lake: swimming at the Zell lido (free with the card, otherwise CHF 6, water up to 23 degrees in August), stand-up paddleboarding from CHF 15 an hour, a round trip by boat, and the lake circuit, 11 kilometres, flat, 2 hours 30 minutes on foot or an hour by bike (hire CHF 20 to 30 a day, e-bike CHF 40 to 50). The Tauern cycle path runs from Krimml through the whole Pinzgau to Zell and on to Salzburg, almost entirely downhill, one of the loveliest cycling weekends in Austria. For children: the Maiskogel adventure mountain and the Elisabeth Park on the lakeshore.
By Railjet from Zurich via Innsbruck or Wörgl, 5 hours 30 minutes to 6 hours, station right in the centre, CHF 90 to 130 (about EUR 96 to 139) return with Sparschiene and the Half Fare Card. By car 4 hours 30 minutes to 5 hours plus vignette. In winter you do not need a car; ski buses are included in the ski pass. In summer it is convenient for the Grossglockner and Krimml, but both can be done by bus and local train too, and the local train is free with the guest card.
Six-day ski pass CHF 330 to 370 (about EUR 353 to 396), mid-range hotel with half board CHF 130 to 180 per person per night in the low season, up to CHF 250 in the holiday weeks, ski hire CHF 150 to 200 a week, hut lunches CHF 15 to 25. Allow CHF 1,600 to 2,300 per person for a week including travel, towards the lower end in Kaprun or Schüttdorf rather than on the lake. That is around 25 to 35 per cent less than Davos or Zermatt.
Yes, and for families often more so than in winter: the summer card from the hotel includes cable cars, boat, lido and buses free, the lake is warm enough for swimming, and the Grossglockner, Krimml and the reservoirs are three big excursions on the doorstep. Glacier skiing in July is more an anecdote than a reason. The best summer months are June and September; in August it is full and expensive.
The toll is CHF 42 to 45 (about EUR 45 to 48) per car per day, slightly cheaper online, motorbike CHF 32. Open from early May to the end of October, during the day. Go early, from 7 or 8 am, before the coaches and motorbike groups arrive, and only in clear visibility; in fog you see nothing for your money. With the Edelweissspitze and Franz-Josefs-Höhe you need 5 to 6 hours. Without a car there are Postbuses and guided tours from Zell in July and August for CHF 60 to 90.
For skiing: January after the holidays and March, when snow, sun and price all line up, and the glacier covers December. For summer: June and September, when the cable cars are open, prices moderate and the roads clear. Christmas, the February holidays and August are the most expensive and the fullest. Mid-April to mid-May and November are the between-seasons with closed cable cars, when only the Tauern Spa is worth it.
Very. Children up to six generally ski free, up to 15 at half price, and the Schmittenhöhe and Maiskogel have practice areas and ski schools with a children's zone. In summer there is the lido, minigolf, Alpine Coaster, Sigmund-Thun-Klamm and the reservoirs, almost all included in the summer card, and the Tauern Spa has its own children's area. Hotels in Kaprun are geared to families, many with childcare, but noisier than the lakeside hotels in Zell.
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