Latest Reviews for Kitzbuhel

Have just read a couple of reviews of Kitzbuhel, one for the Edelweiss too, so my week will echo other comments made.

Kizbuhel itself is a blend of old and modern. The old town is a great place to sit and while away time at one of the cafes. We chose the Cafe Langer and used it every day. The only problem with that was the Louis Vuitton shop above which in 2 moments of madness my wife accumulated over a £1,000 of purchases. That aside there's plenty to do. Must do's are the 2 gondola rides (both 13.50 euros each)The views and walking from the tops are fantastic. There are restaurants atop both which is an added bonus. We did our own thing on 2 days getting the train to Innsbruck, which is both busy and quaint at the same time (23.50 euros each), and Zell am See wich is similar type of place to Kitzbuhel with the added bonus of the lakeside walks.

We did 2 Excursions with Crystal. The Krimml waterfalls are a sight to see but requires an expert (fit) speedwalker to manage the top and back in the time we had there. Its around a 1,000ft ascent on steep zig zag paths.You can bus up but you miss the spectacular lower and middle falls. The only irksome thing about this trip was the tour guide who rambled on for the full length of the journey in both English AND German to please the few who were on the trip too.

We also went to Salzburg on coach as trains take at least 21/2 hours each way. Theres loads to see in the city from the cathedral to Mirabelle gardens, the fortess to the historic squares and generally busy old world streets and arcades.

Actually We had 3 trips out as on the Thursday crystal took us on a free 1/2 day trip to Kufstein, thowing in a visit to a schnapps factory and a first chance to part with our Euros.

Crystal reps were good Crissy has been there 10 years and knows all there is to know about the area.
THE HOTEL. Generally decent food. Our room was basic but adequate but we did have a balcony. The owners spoke brilliant English and were very friendly the 2 young waitesses were pleasant too.
Having said that,it must have Crystals minds not to mention in their brochure that the busy 24/7 railway line was only 30 yards away!!

I too was disappointed that we only reached the airport with 40 mins to spare on our return, therefore depriving us of a chance to buy ";cheapies"; and gifts.
Still I'd recommend the area 120% and defy any one not to fall in love with Austria. Realistically 7 days wasnt long enough Next time we'll take 10 or 11.
We booked this only 7 weeks prior to departure and paid over £450 (basic price total for 2 was £539) less than brochure price for same holiday.

The Hotel Jaegerwirt was a lovely hotel. The staff are really friendly and all speak excellent english. The rooms although basic are spotless clean and a nice size. We stayed in a corner room which had beautiful views of both The Kitzbuhel Horn and The Hakenbahn.

The food was excellent and the restaurant staff again were very friendly. I would recommend this hotel as being a great family run place to stay.

This was our first trip to Austria and we chose Kitzbuhel as we were not there just for the walking and wanted other things to do.

The flight was with Tyrolean Airways from East Midlands to Innsbruck and was excellent. A small plane with only 48 seats but excellent flight attendants and meal including free drinks. Landing at Innsbruck on a clear day was lovely coming down the valley between the mountains. We landed at 4.25 p.m. and had our baggage and were away on the coach by 4.45 p.m. I have never got out of an airport so quickly. The transfer is a bit long at 2 hours but if you fly to Salzburg I think it is a bit shorter.

We were very pleased with the hotel as it was only 3 star but was better than I had expected. We upgraded to a larger room with bath and balcony, this was really nice, traditionally furnished, very spacious and clean with a big traditional wooden balcony. This is a family run hotel, the staff speak english and are very pleasant. The food was good, again better than I expected, the dinner was a set meal although they do a vegetarian option. We enjoyed every meal. Safety deposit boxes are available at reception at a cost of 25 euros. The hotel is across the road from the bus station and main railway station. There is some noise from the trains but this did not bother us and the station makes it easy to travel to Innsbruck and other local small towns.

Kitzbuhel was fairly quiet the first week in July but it is apparently busier later in the month and August. We attended the Inghams welcome meeting which was informative not just trying to sell you the trips. We did one trip to Salzburg, very good, recommend you do Salzburg on a trip as although it is not far away it is not easy to get to by train takes a long time, only about 90 minutes by bus. There was a good selection of other trips and if we had been there longer than a week we would certainly have done some of them.

Kitzbuhel is a very attractive town with two gondolas giving you access to the mountains. Do these on a clear day, you do not need to be walkers, you can potter about, look at the views and go to the cafes at the top. Schwarsee Lake is just outside the town, this makes a pleasant walk from Kitzbuhel about 50 minutes. Takes about 30 minutes to walk round lake. You can get to the lake by bus or train. You can swim in the lake, there are boats for hire, a couple of cafes and a hotel. We had coffee and lunch at the Alpenhotel by the lake and would recommend this.

We visited Innsbruck on our own by train. The trains are very good but not cheap. Innsbruck takes about an hour and for two of us cost 47 euros. The old town in Innsbruck is very picturesque and we also visited the Bergisel ski jump on the edge of town.

We really enjoyed Kitzbuhel and would like to go back. This is a walker's paradise but there is plenty to do if you are not walking. There is also a cinema and a swimming pool in Kitzbuhel. Austria was not as expensive as we thought it might be, it is more expensive than places like Spain but no more expensive than Britain and probably cheaper in some cases. The Austrian people are lovely and the country is so clean.

We were lucky with the weather and did not have much rain but obviously where there are mountains you have got to expect rain and the weather can change very quickly.

Hotel Tirolerhorf Sport Hotel - kitzbuhel

The hotel has a 4 star rating and is highly recommended by Crystal. However we did not experience much of a 4 star treatment and were surprised how Crystal graded it so high.

First the transfer from the airport was supposed to be 1 hour and 45 minutes to the hotel; it ended up taking 2 hours and 30 minutes. We then checked in at the reception of the hotel, where we had first no acknowledgement followed by a cold welcoming by the receptionist (which later happened to be a waitress). She barely spoke English and looked like she could not be bothered. As we arrived a one o'clock, we asked is there was any lunch organised for us, and we were informed that the kitchen closed at one. Therefore no food was available at the hotel, even if we wanted to pay for it, which we were prepared to pay.

The room was fine and clean. The bad point is that the holiday brochure omitted to say that the hotel was next to a ";DUNG FARM";, and the smell was so appalling, one morning at breakfast it was so bad we had to leave the restaurant, this also caused a problem with flies, which over run the hotel.

We forget to pack-up our travel plug. We called the reception and inquired if they had any. The answer was no. We then asked if we could have an iron and ironing board. The answer was again was short and sharp NO! There was no need to argue because the answer was always negative.

Being on our holiday, we decided not to make a fuss about it and put it under ";language barrier";.

Food was average and not what we were led to believe by the brochure, which advise ";excellent cuisine";. The free wine was a good substitute for ";home brew"; and served in unlabelled clear bottle, and you could be sure that Franz our waiter always deflected our questions on where or what the rocket fuel was from as if it was a trade secret.
The free mineral water never bore their protective seals, even when we asked for it, which we assumed at the end that they must have kept refilling.

Every night with no exception you could be guaranteed at a very early stage of the service that there would be shortage of bread. And when asked we were politely but firmly told ";no more";.

The same applied for the breakfast open from 7.30 to 10.00am. At 8.30 there was no more croissants or bacon or bread. So unless you were down dead on 7.30 there were only the scraps left. Many other holidaymakers felt very strongly about that. One day we decided to bring it to the attention of the waitress. She was clearly upset and defensive, She could not make the correlation that 20 croissants were just not enough for the all breakfast catering for 60 people + and was trying to argue back at us, which was quite unnerving.
Be sure not to ask the waiting staff for any bread or croissants, as you will have a serious tongue lashing from the hotel owner (Inge) afterward, unlike Germans citizen who clearly enjoyed a much greater respect and customer care altogether.

The bar shuts at 11pm dead on time despite finishing your drink. The waiter boldly told us that he did not get paid after 11pm. In light of that argument we were frogmarched out of the lounge every night.
One night 8 holidaymakers and us asked if there was a TV in the lounge to watch the Football France vs England. The waiter told us that there was none and that we could watch it in our room or in town. We then decided to go in town (30 minutes walk).
The day after a couple told us that they watched the match in the lounge on a big screen.
When we questioned the waiter, he laughed and went. What is that about? What are you trying to tell us?

On our last day we were denied a breakfast because we were picked up at 7.00 while the breakfast was starting at 7.30am.

By the end of our stay we were clearly disillusioned and disgusted with the hotel customer care and management techniques, although the hotel in itself and Kitzbuhel were nice. A couple of honeymooners were totally dissatisfied and requested to the Rep an immediate transfer to an alternative hotel.

There is absolutely no way on the light of those events that we would recommend staying at that particular hotel.

We have just had a wonderful holiday at the above hotel in Kitzbuhel.

The hotel owners were wonderful and their hospitality was first class. Our room (for which we had paid a supplement) was very large and was more than adequate for our needs. Food was also very good and the menu was not repeated during our 11 nights. Always a good choice for your main meal. Absolutely nothing to complain about at the hotel which represented good value for money.

Kitzbuhel, a picturesque quaint town was very expensive for souvenirs and other shops. Lots of designer shops. Lots of very expensive cars driving around the town too!!

Our only disappointment with the holiday was the rep and the transfer to and from the airport which were nightmare journeys.
We arrived at Salzburg airport at 9.50 for a 10.20 flight home!!!

The rep told us on the coach on our way to the hotel, that Kitzbuhel was very expensive. She also told us that it was also very expensive to cash Euro travellers cheques in Kitzbuhel and would cost you 7-8 Euros per cheque!!!
At the welcome meeting, it was repeated about the 7-8 euro charge for cashing TCs. So for 50 euros you would get 42-43 back!! She then went on to say that they (the reps) would cash them for 2 Euros per cheque.
After the welcome meeting we took a walk around the town and found on the main St a bank (just around the corner from the Crystal office) which advertised ";Amex TCs cashed here commission free!! We obviously then cashed our TCs at this bank commssion free!!

We did not go on any of the excursions organised by the rep, instead we did our own thing. We took the train to Innsbruck and had a wonderful day there, train to Zell am See, and the train/bus to other litle villages.
The 2 cable cars in Kitzbuhel, Kitzbuheler horn and Hannenkham are definite musts. Simply breathtaking views from the top.

All in all a wonderful holiday which we would strongly recommend both resort and hotel although not Crystal and sadly we will not be giving them the satisfaction of our business for this year due to their appalling customer service in trying to book our 2005 holiday, but that is another story.