Seefeld

Our big trip for 2012 was a cross-country ski trip to the picturesque mountain village of Seefeld, Austria. After many past trips to the Swiss and French Alps for downhill skiing we decided that we’d try something a bit different this year. We’ve become fans of cross-country skiing in recent years for a variety of reasons including the lack of crowds, the solitude, the relative safety, and the ease of travel compared with the bulkier, heavier gear required for downhill skiing. We’ve done a fair amount of cross-country skiing in the States, mostly while we lived in Park City UT but also during trips to Jackson Hole WY, Whitefish MT, and Jackson NH. None of this prepared us for both the quantity and quality of trails that we found in Seefeld. If you’re even remotely a fan of cross-country skiing a visit to this place needs to be on your bucket list …

We learned about Seefeld via the Internet while researching possible European as well as US destinations with good cross-country skiing. This research, combined with the lack of snow in the US this winter, made Seefeld the obvious choice for us. Located in the Tyrolean Alps just south of Germany, Seefeld sits on a plateau high above Innsbruck. The mountain location in combination with the surprisingly level and long valley floor makes Seefeld ideal for cross-country skiing.

Seefeld boasts nearly 300 km of cross-country ski trails as well as three downhill ski areas. The cross-country skiing is arguably some of the best in Europe (if not the world) as this area hosted the Nordic combined and cross-country skiing events for both the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics, the 1985 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, and numerous world cup events.

From a practical standpoint, Seefeld is conveniently located on a major rail line with easy connections to Munich airport so the inbound and outbound travel are very easy. It’s only 11 miles away from Innsbruck by rail, so quick day trips to this famous city are always an option as are trips to other rail destinations accessible from the Innsbruck Bahnhof.

We very much enjoyed our Austrian adventure as well as the town of Seefeld.  We found the people to be warm and welcoming, even when our extremely limited German language skills failed us and we reverted to speaking English. It’s interesting to note that we saw far fewer Americans on this trip than on previous trips to other areas in Europe. We didn’t knowingly see any other Americans until we were on the train back to Munich on Saturday – and that was perfectly fine by us.

It seemed to us that Austria has a very low profile in terms of visible tourism, as in there weren’t shops selling tourist items on every corner. At first this seemed a bit odd, but it made everything seem just a bit more real. If you’re looking for logo’ed caps, T-shirts, or sweatshirts you’re going to the wrong place. Overall we found Austria to be a more relaxed version of Switzerland with comparable (albeit a bit more pastoral) scenery and a much more reasonable price tag!

We’ll definitely plan on making a return trip to the Tirol region of Austria, perhaps even in the during the Spring or Fall when we can see the beautiful countryside clad in something other than white …