Going for Golf

Austria - Put the skis away

Rasmushof

Austria more or less invented the spa town, and its therapies are among the most advanced in the world. The 144-bed Royal Spa Kitzbühel Hotel, at Jochberg, is the Tyrol’s only ‘Leading Hotel of the World’ and has everything modern architecture and hospitality can provide. In spa terms that means 3,600sq-m at three levels and a huge variety of treatments on offer.

Kitzbühel’s range of accommodation is unequalled in the Alps. The 150-bed Grand Tirolia Golf & Ski Resort has a 1,500sq-m Green Room pampering every bodily element, three restaurants, and it stands right on the Eichenheim course with the first tee just a few steps from the lobby. It owns the course as part of a great architectural venture. Local wood and stone were heavily employed in its construction. A €40m investment, the hotel is also well-known for its restaurant which was recently awarded ‘Best Restaurant in the Tyrol’. Here, and at the Royal Spa Kitzbühel Hotel, there are ample facilities for business conferences.

The four-star Hotel der Bär at Ellmau, eight kilometres north of Kitzbühel, is a smaller, traditional, 55-room establishment, gold-listed by Conde Nast Traveller, and more a sample of family hospitality. Guests speak highly of Josef Seebacher’s epicurean table, and the warmth of Family Windisch’s welcome. As with most such places, there are ample swimming and spa opportunities in a pleasantly countrified surround.

The entire area makes walking a simple, lung-cleansing pleasure. Kitzbühel’s chalet homes are garlanded with flowers, and there is plenty to see inside the walled inner town, from window shopping – some of the arrangements are an art form – to church and museum interiors. Mountain hiking and biking, angling, swimming, tennis – Kitzbühel boasts a top European event each July – hang-gliding, bungee-jumping, ballooning, and, of course, climbing, are all popular activities, made more available by an extensive range of cable cars and lifts. Hahnenkamm and Kitzbuehlerhorn gondolas give ready access to wild flower path or mountain restaurant. Many Britons know a good thing. After the Germans they are the most numerous visitors to the town.