Mountain Huts to stop at in Austria
Introduction
Walk in Austria and sooner or later you will come to a working mountain hut: one way to take in Alpine life with all your senses. An alpine walk with a stop along the way combines exercise with good food – inside the hut it smells of freshly baked bread, fried bacon and Bergkäse, the local mountain cheese. Many huts also serve an alpine breakfast, with milk, butter and cheese. A stop at a hut shows how long farming has been part of life up here, often for generations. Whether in Tirol, the SalzburgerLand or Styria, every region has its own huts and its own specialities. The alpine season usually runs from June to September, but opening times depend on the weather and the altitude of the individual hut, so it is worth checking with the hut or the regional tourist office before you set off.
Mountain huts in Carinthia
Alpine farming has a long history in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Kärntner Nockberge. Some alpine pastures in Carinthia have been worked for 400 years. With their sun-darkened timber façades and snug wood-panelled parlours, the huts serve Almjause platters and alpine breakfasts. When city dwellers discovered alpine walking in the early twentieth century, the first huts serving food and drink appeared here. The oldest of them is today's Alexanderhütte.
Mountain huts in Lower Austria
In the Wechsel region, working alpine pastures are also known as "Schwaigen". On the Raxalpe, the Schneeberg and around the Ötscher there are plenty of huts to stop at, with hearty mountain cooking and quiet corners to sit.
From the sun terrace the view runs across meadows, mountain peaks and grazing cows, while children have plenty of room to play up on the pasture.
Mountain huts in SalzburgerLand
The SalzburgerLand has around 165 Almsommer huts serving food for walkers who like to stop after their tour. On the menu you'll find Pinzgauer Kaspressknödel – hearty, well-seasoned cheese dumplings, pan-fried until crisp.
Some huts have a focus of their own: pushchair-friendly huts are easy to reach with a buggy and suit families with small children, mountain bike huts sit on their own trails, and art and culture huts host special events.
Mountain huts in Styria
If you're after real flavour – the kind alpine dairy farmers have been making from milk, herbs and time for generations – you'll find it on Styria's alpine pastures. Butter, cheese and Speck come to the table with real warmth. Styria counts 1,685 alpine pastures: farming you can still watch at work, hut by hut.
Mountain huts in Tirol
When the huts are spruced up, cattle, sheep and goats are out on the pastures and the scent of alpine herbs is in the air, the Almsommer – the alpine summer – has begun. Eating at a mountain hut after a walk is an experience in itself: the smell of the mountain air, the view, and that first drink after the climb.
Mountain huts in Upper Austria
Rustic alpine hut or modern mountain lodge – here you'll find what a rest stop calls for: fresh bread, well-seasoned Speck, strong Bergkäse. In the Kalkalpen, the Salzkammergut and the Mühlviertel in particular, huts are open for a stop, often family-run and kept much as they have been for generations. Whether at 1,500 metres or out among the alpine pastures, it's the view of the mountains, the sound of cowbells and the smell of Kaiserschmarren – shredded, sugared pancake – that makes the real refreshment before the walk back down.
Mountain huts in Vorarlberg
In spring, the animals move up from the farms to the Vorsäß – also called Maiensäss – a staging post at around 900 to 1,600 metres, before heading higher to the summer pastures in June or July. This grazing zone is used in spring and again in autumn, on the way up and on the way back down. Many Maiensäss have working huts and Jausenstationen, simple places to stop and eat. They give an insight into the life of the alpine dairy farmers.