We are travelling to Munich after a stay in Venice. Verona hotels are almost all booked, so looking for a good place to explore for 2 nights before heading to Munich. We are 2 adventurous, fit empty nesters. Verona, Innsbruck, Tyrol, or someplace else? Doubt we'll rent a car for these two days...Thanks
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8138 posts
Innsbruck would be a great place to stay.
We love getting up on the mountain side above Innsbruck and just rambling from village to village in a rental car. You could even head toward Salzburg and spend the night. Return the rental car there and take the train into Munich's center city.
Posted by
Washington DC
27093 posts
Before crossing the border into Austria, the Venice-Munich trains runs through a valley with easy access to some lovely villages up in the Dolomites. The cities of Bolzano (larger) and Bressanone (smaller) are the most prominent stops on that route.
While those cities both have very pretty historic districts and Bolzano has a number of nice museums, including the one housing the Iceman, the usual recommendation is to stay up in one of the mountain villages. Ortisei is a favorite, but there are certainly other options. It's not hard to get up to one of the villages; buses run pretty frequently from near the train station in Bolzano. There's also bus service from Bressanone, but it's a bit less convenient since the bus station is a somewhat longer a walk from the train station, and the old town is a bit beyond the bus station.
There are lovely walks accessible from the mountain villages, including some nearly flat walks at considerable altitude that you can reach via mountain lifts.
Only you can decide whether you're prepared to jump through that many hoops for a stay of just two nights. To me, it would be a more attractive option during the summer (when the valley cities can be hot-hot-hot) than in April, but others here can probably provide comments on visiting the area during shoulder season if that's when you're traveling.