Zell am See-Kaprun: Our summer tips

With the Zell am See-Kaprun summer card you already have a whole host of holiday advantages in your hand. You can read here what you should definitely experience with the summer menu.

Here we would like to give you a few suggestions for obvious things that you can experience directly from our house during your vacation.

Hike: Sonnenalm, Schmiedhofalm

The Sonnenalmbahn is more or less right next to our house and the Sonnenalm area is a particularly beautiful corner of the Schmittenhöhe in summer and winter. The high promenade was laid out as early as the end of the 1950s, shortly after the Sonnenalmbahn was built. This connects the summit of the Schmittenhöhe with the Sonnkogel and is considered one of the most impressive high-altitude hiking trails in Austria.

Take the trassXpress or the Schmittenhöhebahn to the summit of the Schmittenhöhe. The high promenade leads along the ridge towards the Sonnkogel and is not stingy with a magnificent panorama of the surrounding mountains and above all the beautiful view of the city and Lake Zell. The route is easy to master in around 45 minutes and is also suitable for families with children and inexperienced hikers. When you arrive at the Sonnkogel, you are spoiled for choice: you can either take the chairlift to the Sonnenalmbahn station, or you can go there directly on foot (another approx. 50 minutes).

Our favorite route, however, leads past the Sonnkogel lift over the eastern slope towards the Schmiedhofalm. This is a particularly worthwhile stopover. The following hike to the Sonnnenalmbahn takes about 45 minutes again and leads comfortably through woods and meadows to Blaickner’s Sonnalm, right next to the cable car station. If you haven’t hiked enough, you can replace the Sonnenalmbahn with a one-hour walk to get back to Pension Margarete.

This route can of course also be hiked in the opposite direction. But then things will go uphill!

Bike tour: With the e-bike to Maria Alm

Our pension was always a challenge for cyclists, as the road to our house is very steep, especially in the last third. With the development of ever more powerful e-bikes, this problem has been put into perspective. If you don’t fully rely on the electrically assisted drive, you should still have a few electrons in the battery at the end of the day in order to get back to Pension Margarete from the center of Zell!

A very nice tour leads from Schmittental along Lake Zell towards Maishofen. You turn off on the north shore of Lake Zell in the direction of Schloss Prielau. The following route leads in absolutely fantastic surroundings along various cycle paths to Saalfelden and on to Maria Alm. The beautiful little mountain village against the backdrop of the Stone Sea and the Hochkönig is worth a trip! It is worthwhile to choose different routes for the outward and return journey. A popular and beautiful resting place is the Kammer Castle in Maishofen. If the battery has reached a critical level on arrival in Zell am See, it can certainly be sufficiently recharged at one of the e-bike charging stations. In the meantime, you can enjoy an ice cream or dinner before heading back to Pension Margarete.

Walk: Köhlergraben promenade and forest promenade

The easiest way to get from the rear Schmittental at Pension Margarete to the center of Zell am See is by bus. But if you want to combine the way to the center with a short forest hike, you have two attractive options.

The shorter variant is the route over the Köhlergraben promenade. Behind the parking lot of the Schmittenhöhebahn a path leads to the former Waldgasthof Köhlergraben. A legendary ski jumping hill was located here until the end of the 1960s. Unfortunately nothing of that can be seen anymore, but there is a beautiful pond in front of the abandoned forest inn. If you take the forest path towards the middle station, after a few meters you turn left into the forest. At the point where the toboggan run begins in winter, a small path opens up to the right that leads above the toboggan run through the forest to Zell am See. The destination is the cityXpress right in the center of the village. A nice hike especially for warm days with rewarding views of the city and the lake!

The somewhat longer hike leads over the forest promenade to Zell am See. Those who choose this path are practically moving along the other side of the valley. First it goes from the Pension Margarete along the road towards Jaga-Alm. Where this road makes the first bend, a path leads into the forest. Follow these until you come out of the forest again. Here you have one of the most beautiful views of the lake and the peaks of the Hohe Tauern. Over the Sonnberg it goes along the road back to the town center.

A variant would be to follow the path to the Pfefferbauer. The restaurant is located with a magnificent view of the lake and offers excellent regional cuisine. From there you can walk along the street to the Zeller Friedhof, from where a path along the lake leads back into the city.