From time to time we try to discover the Hinterland in our home country Austria. This time we were in Saalfelden Leogang located in Salzburg (Pinzgau).

For 3 days (June 2015) we were discovering the best things to do in that area and here is our sum up.

Travel to Salzburger Land from Vienna

From Vienna to Salzburg it’s very convenient to hop on the train at Westbahnhof in Vienna and travel to Leogang in about 4 hours. Westbahn and ÖBB are the 2 operators, but be careful with the ticket. Westbahn is a private operator and so the ÖBB ticket is not valid there and vice versa.

We picked the fancy new hotel “Mama Thresl”

and have to say we were quite blown away from the first minute in there. A big part of the hotel is build with wood and you can smell this amazing odor from the first minute you step trough the main entrance.

The sauna area is amazing and also the view from the balcony of most of the rooms.

 

On our first day we could participate a “vital hike”, on the “path of tranqulility” which is happening once per week and is free for everyone.

It’s about 1h 15 minutes and was more exhausting than we thought it would be. Part of the game is to stop every 15 minutes and do some exercises with the guide. On the end of the route you are rewarded with a stunning view on the whole valley.

The highlight of the day was the visit of the (complete) wooden hotel Forsthofalm. Excellent food and excellent wellness possibilities here with a stunning view. The prices are quite juicy but as far as I can tell and experienced you get what you paid for and the quality is outstanding.

 

Day 2 – Bike tour and Arola or Swiss Pine Pillow

Leogang and the whole area around it is heavily focussing on Bike tourists in the last few years and has even a worldcup Mountainbike Downhill race stop on the world tour. So during summer they offer a great variety of different mountainbike routes for every skill.

We could rent our bike at Sport Mitterer which is super close to the ski lift station. Here you can also get all kind of bikes fitting to you skill set.

Sinnlehen Alp

First stop on our bike trip was the Sinnlehen alp , where we could take a look at the local cheese production, which was super interesting. The view up there was again stunning.

Next stop: Tribuser (Schnaps) distillery were the owner showed us her beautiful garden were she uses every tiny bit in her distillery. Looks like a full time job to keep this huge garden in shape. There was also a tasting session, but we tried to taste only a few drops of these wonderful schnaps variations to keep on biking.

At the center of Saalfelden we visited the Wiener Roither dirndl dress and traditional clothing manufactury located in a nicely decorated old building.  Besides the clothing they also offer the possibility to make you own small herb pillows. We choose the swiss pine filling and experience the healthy effects of it now every night.

Tonspuren concert series

The highlight for our second day at Saalfelden Leogang was the Herber Pixner project concert at the top station of the Asitzbahn. Amazing musicans mixing jazz and blues influences with traditional austrian music. Every summer they have a concert series called Tonspuren up there. If you have the chance to visit on, do it, the concert experience up there it’s worth every penny.

Day 3 – Flying Foxx – Bladl – TEH Spices trail

In the morning we went up again to the top station to get a guided tour  at Alte Schmiede and Asitzbräu. Two of the most beautiful alpine restaurants I have ever seen. Usually there are these concrete palaces located close to the mountain top slopes which don’t really have a lot of charm, but these two are just in their own league.

Asitzbräu has an fully operational beer brewery setup inside and tons of interesting stuff to look at, only topped by the interieur of the Alte Schmiede which is even more crazier and tastefully decorated and stuffed with old stuff every museum would get jealous of.

After that it was time to show how brave we are and who has the guts to try out the Flying Foxx. With a top speed up to 140km/h you can “fly” for 1,6km. For me it was not that impressive anymore cause I have been paragliding before, but I could see everybody else really loved the experience. It’s quite pricey, so If you have done paragliding or skydiving before you can skip this one.

A typical regional food is “Bladln” which are like super thin pancakes. Hard to describe. Just order them.

As almost everything here is focussing on “back to the nature” there is also a certified course to learn about the healing powers of all herbs growing in this region and how to use them. We were introduced to this super interesting topic by a certified trainer and she showed us which herbs we just can pick up and chew on them.

In the afternoon we had the chance to visit the mountain hut village Priesteregg. Not really in our price range but nice to look at :). But we could afford to get an excellent meal at the close by Huwi’s Alm restaurant. Like they say on there website, they have truly mouthwatering Austrian specialities.

After this perfect meal at Huw’s Alm we were surprised by a artistic show at Mama Thresls. 3 young woman put on a stunning show which they do every thursday and friday night we heard. Crazy stuff for a hotel but very entertaining.

So that’s it from our short visit at Saalfelden-Leogang. Check out this area if you are around. It was quite cool for us to discover all these developments towards back to the nature, full wood hotels, regional food and entertainment for tourists.