Hotel Tyrol

I sit outside Hotel Tyrol starting this review, being served coffees and our last drinks as we wait for the bus to Salzburg. If your priorities for a hotel are like mine - spa facilities, food, helpful but not overly social staff - shortlist this! Staff are certainly a highlight with Susan, Tom, Tomas, Tom and Julia all being very attentive when they need to be, but distant enough to not kick off my social anxiety. There’s a family vibe to it all, a massive amount of pride in the food, it’s relaxed and … it’s just really nice. There was no weak meal, not really even a weak dish (other than Austrian dumplings that I still don’t understand!) with a good variety of fruit, cold salads, and of course the main courses that were full of flavour and well seasoned. The modern metallic-looking pools, indoor and outdoor, and the surrounding areas are perfectly clean and have the massage jet functions you will certainly welcome after a day of walking up/down Hohe Salve and the other lesser routes. We have not used the saunas or steamrooms as they need to be booked and are only available between 16:00 and 19:00. I don’t know if any treatments are available; we were certainly not offered any. The gym is full of new hardware and well equipped. Soll walking / hiking routes are not as plentiful as in other nearby resorts but a more leisurely walk with the hotel-provided 87 yo guide Mathias on Monday mornings was most enjoyable after the mid-station to peak hiking of the day before. And many other relatively demanding walks are available a short bus journey away though the walk to Scheffau is an easy and very pleasant path walk. Soll itself is quiet in June and only a few of the bars and restaurants are open currently. We feel as if we have the place to ourselves - our hotel is fairly quiet, the town is deserted - which on a plus side means no queues and full flexibility in being able to get outside tables in coffee shops and bars at night. Soll may not be for everyone but we have thoroughly enjoyed it. And the Hotel Tyrol has played a large part in that.