Merano

We stayed one night in Merano on our way from Austria to Lake Como. With such a short time, we didn't explore much, but we stayed at the Windsor Hotel -- http://www.windsorhotel.it/en. It was lovely and parking was available. We walked around a bit, had dinner and gelato and enjoyed the raging river that flows through the town.

I'm not sure if this is okay, but this is the link to my blog posting about that piece of our "drive the Alps" trip in 2011 -- http://travelswithtrout.blogspot.com/2011/10/europe-2011-dolomite-road-merano-to.html.

Thanks, Lo! I would be going by train, but the views look amazing!

Very nice town, and surprisingly sophisticated. We enjoyed taking a small cable car up to a hiking trail / promenade to visit Castle Tirol.

Thanks, Mike! I was trying to scope out the hiking possibilities, among other things, so that's good info.

We stayed for several nights in Merano a few years ago and loved it. We have been looking for an opportunity to go back. We loved having both great Austrian and Italian type food and drink, a spa town of amenities, the beautiful river and mountains nearby, the excellent hiking trails in the vineyards and abundant apple orchards. There are nice hotels within walking distance of the train station. There are many farmhouse stays and agriturismos in the hills on the outskirts of town. Another fun looking activity that we saw many people doing was to go to an upper town or village and rent bicycles to ride down the river path to Merano although we didn't do this during our stay. We've come close to returning to Merano a couple of times but haven't made it back yet. Have a wonderful time!

Thanks, Mona! It sounds idyllic. Did you visit that big botanical garden at the castle?

We never made it to the Castle. This will be something for our next trip! What we really enjoyed were the Waalweg walks described on their tourism website: http://www.meran.eu/en/nature/the-waalweg-trails/

From Merano you can make an extremely scenic drive through the high mountain passes between Italy and Switzerland, in a route through the Stelvio and Umbrail road passes.

Thanks, Mona and Andre! I'm getting really stoked about those trails.