Innsbruck, Austria

We recently spent four nights in a small town called Fulpmes, just out of Innsbruck, which has been one of the highlights of our trip so far. Here are three reasons we love Innsbruck:

One: The setting

Fulpmes is in a picturesque alpine valley surrounded by dramatic mountains. To get to Fulpmes we took a scenic tram from Innsbruck which wound its way along the side of the valley.

From the balcony of our room we could see as far as the Stubai Glacier in one direction and the mountains surrounding Innsbruck in the other direction. The town is surrounded by several mountain peaks over 2,500m high. There are at least four gondolas within 40 minutes drive, taking people up to ski fields in winter and walking trails in summer. We were here in autumn, in some of the last weeks that the gondolas were operating for walkers.

The town itself is lovely, with alpine lodges and farm animals (including cows with cowbells!) We also encountered some very friendly horses on one of our walks.

We didn’t know how big Fulpmes would be, so we went to a supermarket in Innsbruck after getting off the train. Here’s our practical solution to shopping with heavy packs!

Two: The hostel

Doug’s Mountain Getaway was undoubtedly the best hostel we’ve stayed in. It’s almost ridiculous how many facilities there were for the price. A sauna, pool table, table tennis table, poker table, movie screen, board games, bar, Xbox and an old-school Nintendo64 (for Mario Kart) were available. If that weren’t enough, they were also installing a spa pool while we were there!

We had a couple of days of sun and a couple of days of rain in Fulpmes, but on the rainy days we were more than happy to relax at the hostel. In fact, we didn’t even manage to do half of the things on offer! Everyone who arrived, us included, wished they had stayed for longer. The rain-enforced chill-out time was just what we needed. We know it’s silly to think this way, but sometimes we need bad weather to make us just stay home and relax rather that get out and explore.

Doug is from England and is about our age. He decided to set up his dream hostel after studying nearby in Innsbruck. Also living at the hostel were a few of his friends who are helping him work on the property.

With five live-in staff and just 12 guest beds, the hostel has a great homely feel. We even played board games one night, having our first game of Settlers of Catan since leaving home. We were also introduced to a great new strategy game: Carcassonne.

We’ve realised how much we like smaller hostels. The atmosphere is much more personal and friendly than in larger places – we feel like we’re getting to know almost everyone in the place by the time we leave.

Three: The activities

We knew we only had limited sunshine time in Fulpmes, so one nice morning we set off for one of the coolest days ever. First we were picked up to go Tandem Paragliding from 1,700m up the side of the valley.

Neither of us had been paragliding before. We found that it wasn’t scary but surprisingly relaxing (with the exception of take-off and acrobatic spirals). The harness holds you in a sitting position, so it feels like you’re soaring around the skies in an armchair! As it was autumn the thermals weren’t great, but we still managed to get some uplift along the mountain ridges. Our pilots said that with good thermals they could stay up the whole day and even fly down to Italy and back!

Our pilot kindly dropped us off at a nearby gondola so we could head straight for our next activity for the day – walking to the top of Mount Serles, at 2,717m. There was an alpine coaster (a luge on rails) that we wanted to catch down the mountain which closed in just five hours. The posted time for our walk was seven hours… So, ever the ambitious optimists, we powered up the mountain as fast as we could.

The climb was fairly steep, with a few ladders and chains near the top. Here are some photos from the walk up. There’s nothing quite like standing on a mountain summit!

We had made it to the top in good time, but knew it was going to be tight to reach the alpine coaster in time. Feeling strangely energetic we power-walked back down the mountain. With half an hour to closing time, we still had a theoretical hour of walking to go. If we missed the alpine coaster we would have to walk the whole way home so, not willing to let go quite yet, we started running down the road. As we had already climbed and descended a total of 2,200 vertical metres this quickly stopped being fun! To cut a long story short, we took a wrong turn in our scramble to get down and ended up sitting, defeated and exhausted, at a junction two hours walk from home.

A moment later a tiny pickup truck came around the corner, so we waved it down and asked (in international gesture language) for a lift down the hill. Hilariously, our kind driver was the perfect stereotype of a lumberjack – complete with a huge beard and a set of antlers in the back-seat.

We had another short walk home and got back just before dark. Our muscles ached for the three days after this little adventure!

Why you should drop what you’re doing and come to Fulpmes

It says a lot for Fulpmes that, despite having a lot of rain, our time here was still one of the highlights of our trip so far. We could have happily stayed for a full week or longer. The town had the perfect combination of a stunning landscape, tons of activities and a great place to stay. We’re keen to find more places like this for the rest of our trip – if you have any recommendations then please let us know via a comment or email. Thanks!

Comments from WordPress

• Hay 2012-10-29T07:54:21Z

  Love this blog entry - you’ve totally inspired me to go there! (And to stay at that hostel!)

Written by Craig Drayton and Sally Robertson