Family-run hotel in the Zillertal Valley Mountains, rivers, rich green farm fields, dedicated bike paths, friendly people and fabulous food – this is cycling in Austria. In September 2018 we spent a week pedalling from Innsbruck to Salzburg.

It is possible to join a guided tour with other cyclists, or sign up for a self-guided tour where your accommodation is pre-booked for you, however Evelyn and I decided to head out on our own.  As photographers we need the independence of being able to stop when and where we want. Cycling between Innsbruck and Salzburg can be done in five days but we stretched it to seven to give ourselves more flexibility for creating images.  By going from Innsbruck to Salzburg, rather than the other direction, we were heading downstream following the rivers. That meant we averaged an easy 60 km/day.

We rented bikes from Crazy Bikez in Innsbruck.  Their service was great, setting up excellent bikes to fit us and providing helmets, panniers and a GPS unit with the route pre-loaded. Once we had stuffed the panniers with anything we would need, we left our suitcases with Crazy Bikez and for a reasonable charge they delivered our suitcases and picked up their bikes when we arrived in Salzburg.

Our route out of Innsbruck followed the Inns River as far as Jenbach where we turned for a gentle climb up the Zillertal Valley.  At Zell am Ziller we loaded our bikes onto a hikers bus and hitched a ride over a gruelling pass into the valley that would lead to Salzburg. On this part of the trip we went past the beautiful Zell am See lake and the waterfall at Krimml.

The Austrian countryside is ideal for cyclists and hikers with a network of dedicated and mostly paved trails or little-used farm roads. On the weekends you will find entire families out either cycling or walking.  E-bikes are becoming common and can be rented, however we used traditional bikes. Although people with e-bikes could pass us going up hills, by the end of the day we would often finish ahead of them.  Whenever we needed a break, a welcoming gasthaus would be close at hand serving excellent food and drink.  Since we were riding in the off-season we did not book accommodation in advance and always found a wonderful family-run hotel, two of which had been in the family for 500 years.

Innsbruck and Salzburg are worth extra days at the start and end of the trip.  They are always full with tourists so in those cities we did book accommodation in advance. Our timing was perfect for Innsbruck where we enjoyed boisterous evening celebrations during the autumn wine festival in the narrow streets of the old town.

This was our second cycling trip in Austria.  We’re already looking forward to going again.

posted by Ted Nodwell