Take your kids to the Austrian Tyrol in summer for fresh air, spectacular spa pools and the bliss of ZillergrundRock Hotel near Mayrhofen. Emma Kirkham can highly recommend.
ZillergrundRock Hotel, near Mayrhofen, Austria
It seems like a world away, but it’s really only an hour in a taxi, before we escape the hustle and bustle of Innsbruck and arrive in the popular Tyrolean town of Mayrhofen, where we’re planning a much needed bonding trip for me and my 14 year old son.
Top of our list is fresh air and a rest from the relentless noise of life for our busy family, and the first thing we noticed when we drove up to ZillergrundRock Hotel, was the brilliant blue sky overhead and air so crisp and clear we had forgotten what it was like to breathe in such freshness.
Read more: Innsbruck brings mountain and urban adventures to family summer holidays
Zillertal Valley ©Michael Huber
ZillergrundRock Hotel nestles into Austria’s Ziller Valley
The hotel itself is nestled snuggly into the Ziller Valley landscape and its striking architecture and eco credentials are the culmination of the work of five generations of the Pfister family.
What you can’t miss as you check-in, is that you are surrounded by water, not only the Ziller River that meanders its way through the grounds of the hotel, but the impressive 360-degree rooftop pools. We could immediately tell that ZillergrundRock was serious about this relaxation business.
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Event Sauna, ZillergrundRock Hotel, Austria
Rooms with private saunas raise the summer mountain bliss bar
Pleasant surprise number one? We have been allocated one of the many rooms with its own private sauna. This is great news for my son as the saunas here are ‘textile free zones’ and you have to be 16 to enter. So while he is enjoying the peace and quiet of his in-room spa, I get to experience the Event Sauna with its impressive views of the valley below.
Alternatively, venture into the otherworldly ZillergrundRock Event Sauna
Markus, the resident Sauna Master, lulls you into a false sense of security with his calm and gentle manner, then he ups the heat and starts waving a huge sauna fan, and suddenly the temperature turns nuclear. This is all I need to justify ‘a little lie down’. But, if you are more of a heat-head, you can do a sauna crawl round the hotel, stopping off at the outdoor Finnish Sauna in the log cabin and then onto the BIO Swiss Pine Sauna for mild heat and its body cleansing pine aroma.
The Pfister family’s love of saunas is matched only by their love of food, and from sea bream with fennel to sour cherry Bavarian cream, all of it here is local and fresh.
Read more: Zillertal has all the summer feels for a Tyrolean Alps family adventure
Suspension bridge, Olpererhütte hike, Zillertal
Hiking in Tyrol is a life affirming experience, even for kids
Everything is also on hand to encourage heading out into the mountains, so we caught a mini bus to the village of Hintertux where we ‘enjoyed’ a life affirming hike up to a viewpoint where, thankfully, there’s a café so we could catch our breath before the steep descent back into the valley.
ZillergrundRock Hotel gives you free to use e-bikes. Don’t be shy!
Another highlight of our trip was the freedom to use the hotel’s e-bikes that make it a dream to get out and about and visit the local area. The town is made for families, with well-maintained cycle and hiking paths that criss-cross the valley. Local attractions include the FunSportStation at Penken, with its water playground and mountain scooters, and for younger children, Zillertal Dairy and Show Farm, is a short distance from Mayrhofen and well worth a visit. The kids will love the petting farm and the mini-tractor track.
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Rooftop pools, ZillergrundRock Hotel ©Michael Huber
ZillergrundRock Hotel will be seeing us again, soon
The rest of our days are a blur of cycling, swimming and eating far too much good food, so we both slept like logs and read actual books rather than staring at our phones. It was the perfect digital detox/precious time together before the busy GCSE years start. As well as a reminder not to leave it so long before breathing this type of fresh air again.
Read more: Six mighty mountain holidays to thrill your adventurous kids this summer
How to plan this family holiday in Austria
How to get there
Direct UK flights to Innsbruck from 2 hours
Innsbruck Airport to ZillergrundRock Hotel from 1 hour, 20 minutes
Where to stay
ZillergrundRock Hotel, Family Room (2 adults 2 children) from £630 per night with breakfast and dinner
