FV Kaprun village and amenities
TR Transport
WA Walking
OW Our walks
Walk Photos
Welcome to our Kaprun page, where we give detail on the resort, transport and the walks we did on our holiday.
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OH Our holiday
FV Kaprun village and amenities TR Transport WA Walking OW Our walks |
Walk Photos |
If you have any questions or suggestions to improve information given, please e-mail D and J.
Kaprun was our summer holiday destination in 1993.
Our holiday was arranged by Enterprise Lakes and Mountains, this company no longer exists, but the resort is served by Inghams and Crystal. Alternatively you could make your own way - fly to Salzburg, train to Zell am See (c1.75 hrs) then postbus to Kaprun.
We stayed at the Pension Rieder on a bed and breakast basis. We had our evening meals in the local restaurants. Our favourites were the Hotel Medio (now the Hotel St Florian) and the China Restaurant (on Schulstrasse). We also had good meals at the Hotel Orgler and the Hotel Antonius.
Kaprun lies in the Kapruner valley, near the lake resort of Zell am See.
Kaprun is quite a spread out, however most of the amenities are in the central area. The main street, W.Fazakas Strasse, is a pedestrianised area. In the central area you will find shops, banks, the post office and the tourist office.
Set back from the main street is the Optimum sports centre. This is a modern building with both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, sunbathing areas, saunas, steamrooms and cafe. There is a discount with the guest card that will be given to you by your hotel. Once a week there is a free slide show at the Optimum, about the national park. Also once a week there is a concert by the village band and choir held in the park outside the Optimum.
Kaprun is a very good excursion centre, when we were there they were keener to flog the excursions, and did not promote the walking. The trips can be done through the reps, although there are plenty of places in Kaprun where excursions can be booked. The resort is well situated for trips to Prague and Venice, but they make for a very long day out.
Kaprun is fairly quiet in the evening - most entertainment is in the hotels. There is a Kegelbahn (Austrian Bowling) - when we were there due to past problems they weren't too keen on the English - hopefully this is no longer the case!
Kaprun is served by one bus route which runs between Zell am See and the end of the Kaprun valley. The connections at Zell are normally very good, and we rarely had to wait for more than 10 minutes. There are two stops at Zell where connections can be made - the railway station, and the bus station. Another important connection stop is about 5 minutes out of Kaprun and is called Furth-Kaprun. This is used when travelling to and from Krimml, Mittersill and Uttendorf. It is very well organised there is a subway linking the bus stops on either side of the road, the Krimml bus waits for everybody to cross before going.
When we were there the best value was to buy a National Park bus ticket which was valid for 10 consecutive days. The ticket was valid on all the post buses in quite a large area. You could certainly do two of the most popular excursions using this ticket - the Krimml Waterfalls and the Grossglockner Alpine Road. These alone made the ticket worthwhile.
We have searched the internet and cannot find any details of the National Park bus ticket, so can not confirm its existence. There is a 'hike and swim' pass, this covers buses, cable cars in the Europa Sport region. Details can be found from the Schmittenhohe and Kitzteinhorn web pages.
For us, the main reason for going to Kaprun was the walking. To make the best of the area you will have to plan. If you have a cable/satellite TV in your room, then you will be able to receive the views from the top of the Kitzsteinhorn, and the Schmittenhohe.
We recommend the Kompass map 030 at scale 1:30000 for Zell am See and Kaprun - this will cover most of the walks. Kompass map 38 Venedigergruppe is also useful to have. There are other walking maps available. The Kompass maps are similar to our OS maps in price, although they aren't as detailed.
Most of the walks will require use of the local post buses. These tend to run from early morning to tea time, there may be no services after 5 or 6pm - even though it will be light to about 9pm.
The hike and swim pass would be useful if you were going to use the Schittenhohe and Kitzsteinhorn cable cars. If want to go further afield to the Krimml Falls and the Grossglockner Road, then the National Park bus ticket would be best, assuming it is still available.
Kaprun is situated in the Kapruner valley which runs south from the resort. This leads to an area called the Hohe Tauern National Park. The park contains the highest mountain in Austria, the Grossglockner and Grossvenediger. Just north of Kaprun runs a wide valley from east to west called the Pinzgau.
The walking medal for Kaprun was not that difficult. We managed the gold in 4 walks. So we also tackled the Zell am See walking medal and merited silver.
Kaprun is only at a height of about 800m, with most of the surrounding peaks being 2,000 to 3,000m high. If the weather is good we would recommend taking advantage of the cable cars to gain the height. We were unlucky with the weather so we didn't use them much.
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W1 Maiskogel
W2 Salzburger and Krefelder Huts W3 Heinrich Schwaigerhaus W4 Gleiwitzer Hut W5 Schmittenhohe |
W6 Hundstein Ridge Walk
W7 Erlhofplatte W8 Krimml Waterfalls W9 Hollersbachtal W10 Einzingerboden and the Weiss See |
| This is a good walk to do on your first day. It is Kaprun's local hill, and will help you orientate as there are excellent views. The Maiskogel is 1,700m, so it is more than 3,000 ft of ascent. It is served by a cable car - but we ambled up. The most pleasant way is via the Klamm gorge (small charge) and lake. The hut at the top is the Glocknerblick (1675m), one of the huts required for the walking medal. | |
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| Toll both at start of Klamm gorge. | Finding our way - sometimes Jackie gets the map. |
| These can be done by catching a bus from Kaprun to the Wustelau Inn (871m). A path leads from here to both huts. Its about 1,400-1,500m of climbing, the path is well marked and can be followed in poor weather (as we did). Both of these huts are required stamps. The Salzburger Hut (1867m) is only small with outside seating only, the Krefelder Hut (2295m) is a large hut and does good food. Alternatively you can take the bus to the Gletscherbahn station, and then the unique cable car to the Alpin Centrum, you can walk down from here to the huts and the valley. The weather was misty so no photos worthy of inclusion. |
| Three stamps in a day. This walk is a must for a good day as the views are excellent. You catch the bus from Kaprun to the terminus at Kesselfall. Here you have to pay to take the bus and lift to the Mooserboden lakes. When you get to the terminus you are at 2,000m - the booking office has the stamp for the walking card. Take the path across the dam, and up to the Heinrich Schwaigerhaus (2,800m), this was a pleasant hut, with good food. We had excellent views on the way up. Don't forget to stamp your card. Return the same way to the terminus. If you have time walk down to the Ebmattenalm, for another stamp, and a cool drink of milk. The bus picks up from here on the way down, and this avoids the queues at the top. | |
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| View over Mooserboden. | Heinrich Schwaigerhaus. |
| This is a long walk - it took us about 8 or 9 hours to do, but it is an excellent walk with good views. This walk involves crossing over the ridge to the east of Kaprun. First take the bus to Zell, and then catch the Grossglockner bus to Fusch. From Fusch( 860m) take the path up through the woods to the Gleiwitzer Hut (2,174m). The hut is only small and has outside seating, with limited choice of food. From here the path follows below the ridge and crosses over, descending past the Imbach waterfalls and onto Kaprun itself. This was the day Jackie saw three adders - even though Dennis was meant to be ahead to flush them out of the way. With this was we had enought stamps for the Kaprun gold medal. | |
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| Fusch. | Approaching the hut. |
| This is the hill to the west of Zell, and is very popular, there are lots of places to eat and drink, and numerous paths. We climbed up it twice, once walking up all the way from the bottom, and the second using a cable car for part of the way. We'll describe the second walk as it was the better of the two. Take the bus to Zell bus station, then take the bus to the Schmittenhohe cable car, and ascend to the Sonnenalm (1,400m). There is a pleasant path up through the woods to the Schmiedofalm (1,750m). From here take path 10a below the Sonnkogel to the top of Schmittenhohe 2,000m, and then descend to Pinzgauer hut. This is a pleasant hut that serves good food. From here you can walk down through the woods back to Kaprun. We revisited the Schmitternhohe several years later when we walked from Saalbach. | |
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| View. | Hochzeller hut. |
| This is a very good walk on the ridge to the east of Zell's lake. Take bus to Zell & then take the Thumersbach bus to the Ronachkopflift, this is a chair lift, and isn't expensive. Take the lift to the top (1,326m). Then its a well defined forest road to the Hundstein (2,116m). The Statzerhaus hut is on top of the hill, but it was too busy for our taste. Go along the ridge to the Schwabelband (2,011m) and descend from here to Thumersbach. Very good views, especially of Grossglockner, and the Lienzer Dolomites. We would recommend an early start. | |
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| Schwaldenwand ridge. | Statzerhaus hut. |
| From Zell (760m) walk around the lake to Thumersbach, then ascend through woodland to the Erlhofplatte (1,373m) - from here you can walk down to the village of Bruck. You can then walk back to Kaprun along the Pinzgauer Radwanderweg - a cycle and footpath that stretches the whole length of the valley. | |
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| Fire hydrant. | Stamping point. |
| These are well worth a visit. Take the bus from Kaprun, change at Furth and then take the Krimml bus to the terminus. From here it is a short walk to the falls. There is a small entrance fee, which goes to the Austrian Alpine Club. There is a path to the top of the falls (circa 400m of ascent) which then continues up the valley. There are plenty of places to buy food and drink. The falls are well worth seeing but can be overcrowded - especially the lower falls. Typically the organised excursions did not allow sufficient time to go beyond the lower falls. | |
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| Waterfall. | Signs. |
| On the south side of the main valley are many side valleys with rivers running down from the main ridge. These valleys make for a easy when the weather isn't very good. We walked up the Hollersbachtal from Hollersbach (circa 400m of ascent). | |
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| Boundary sign. | Senniger alm. |
| This is an area reached by bus from Uttendorf (change at Furth). The bus takes you to the cable car station at Einzingerboden. The cable car takes you to the Weiss See at 2,300m. There is a large hut at the top station the Rudolfshutte (2,308m) There are some good walks from here and we would think excellent views. It was a whiteout the day we went up, so we only walked 10 minutes from the top before scampering back to the top station. You can either do a circular back to the Weiss See, and take the cable car down, or walk down from the Weiss See past the Tuernmoos See and the Grunsee. Grunsee is the middle station which has a self service cafe serving very good Kaiserschmerren and Germknodel. Because of the conditions we got the cable car down to the middle station and walked down from there. | |
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| Our summer holidays! | Grunsee. |
This page was last updated on 14th March 2009.