Best Dog-Friendly Hotels in Innsbruck

Before you go

What happens when you get there

Dogs at dinner, ask for the Stube

The main dining room and the breakfast buffet are people-only almost everywhere in Tyrol. The hotels that solve it keep a separate Stube or winter garden for guests with a dog. Bon Alpina, Gaspingerhof, Theresa and the Alpeiner all name both meals, and at Theresa and Gaspingerhof the places are limited and need reserving. Jagdhof has set dog tables in the restaurant. Outside the hotels it's easier: there's no Austrian federal rule keeping dogs out of restaurants, and Tyrolean Gasthäuser and mountain huts are generally happy with a leashed dog under the table.

Spa and pool

A no at every single property in this set, without exception, from the four stars in the city to the five star spa resorts. Don't plan on a compromise. The Alpeiner is the only house that writes down what to do instead, which is that the dog waits in the room while you use the spa, and Der Böglerhof and the ElisabethHotel take the same position. Everywhere else, ask what they expect you to do with the dog for that hour.

Trams, buses and trains

Dogs travel free across the whole Verkehrsverbund Tirol network, which covers the Innsbruck trams and city buses, the regional buses out to Igls, the Stubai and the Zillertal, and the Stubaitalbahn. There is no dog ticket to buy. In return a lead and a muzzle are both compulsory, and that's a real rule rather than a formality. On ÖBB trains it's different: a small dog in a carrier travels free, but a dog outside a carrier needs a lead, a muzzle and its own ticket at 10 per cent of the full adult fare, minimum EUR 2, and must stay on the floor.

Mountain lifts

The Nordkettenbahnen from Hungerburg up to Seegrube and Hafelekar carry dogs free on all sections with a lead and a muzzle, though not into the Alpenzoo at the intermediate station, so that's an either-or. The Stubai glacier takes dogs in the gondolas only, never on chairlifts or drag lifts, and hires muzzles at the valley station against a EUR 25 deposit. Dogs on a lead are allowed in all the Stubai glacier restaurants bar the Gaststube Schaufelspitz. The Zillertal Arena lifts carry dogs free on every lift with a lead and muzzle. Ski Juwel in Alpbach charges EUR 5 for dog transport and it isn't covered by the guest card. Neither the Patscherkofelbahn in Igls nor the Mayrhofner Bergbahnen publishes a dog rule, so ask at the window and arrive with a muzzle either way.

Lead rules and off-lead meadows

Under Tyrolean law a lead or a muzzle is compulsory in public places inside built-up areas, and both where crowds gather, on public transport, at schools, on play areas and in shopping centres. Innsbruck adds a lead requirement on marked paths on the Nordkette and around Vill and Igls, and a two-metre maximum lead around crops outside settlements from 1 March to 15 October. Off-lead is allowed at the city's marked dog meadows, open 7am to 10pm on weekdays and 9am on Sundays and holidays: Egerdach in Reichenau, Karwendelbrücke and Pulverturm in Höttinger Au, Pechepark in Wilten, both Roßaupromenade sites and Kranebitten. Dogs are not allowed at the Baggersee bathing area, in the public pools or in cemeteries.

Cattle on the alm

This is the one real safety issue in Tyrol and it isn't a formality. Cattle are turned out onto the alms from roughly late May to mid September and walking paths run straight across grazed pasture. Mother cows with calves will charge a dog, and people have been killed in Tyrol walking a dog through a herd. Keep the dog on a short lead, stay on the path, go round at a wide distance, don't startle the animals or turn your back on them, and close gates. The one counter-intuitive instruction is the one that matters most: if a cow actually comes at you, let the dog off the lead immediately. The dog can outrun a cow, and tied to you it can't, so the cow follows it back to you.

Paw care

Two seasons, two problems. In winter, grit and salt on the Innsbruck pavements and treated village roads crack and burn pads, and snowballs pack between the toes on a long walk, so rinse and dry the paws afterwards and check between the pads. In summer, the scree and limestone above the treeline on the Kalkkögel and the Nordkette is sharp and hot on pads that have spent the year on pavement, and the Zirbenweg is exactly where people overdo it on day one. Build up over a few days, go high early and carry water, because there's very little shade up there and none on the glacier.

Vets

Tyrol does not run a permanent 24-hour small animal clinic in Innsbruck. It runs a monthly rota of practices on out-of-hours duty, coordinated at tierarzt-notdienst.tirol. Save two numbers before you travel: the weekend and public holiday emergency line on +43 676 885 088 2444, covering Saturday midday to Monday 7am, and the small animal emergency line for Innsbruck on weekday evenings and nights, +43 664 255 92 53. Expect to pay on the spot, sometimes in cash, and expect a call-out to cost two to four times a normal consultation. For routine care, Tiergesundheitszentrum Innsbruck is on +43 512 281146.

Best walks

The Zirbenweg is the one to plan a day around, a near-level stone pine path running along the Patscherkofel ridge at about 2,000 metres from the top of the Patscherkofelbahn, with Sporthotel Igls, Bon Alpina and the Grünwalderhof in Patsch all within reach of it. On the other side of the city the Nordkette takes you from Hungerburg to Seegrube and Hafelekar. In town, the Inn promenade runs past Hotel Mondschein's door, the Sill gorge path is ten minutes from the NALA, the Hofgarten gives shade in the centre and the woods around Schloss Ambras start behind the Bierwirt. Up the Stubai, the WildeWasserWeg and the Grawa waterfall are the set pieces. In the Zillertal the valley floors of the Zillergrund, the Stillupgrund and the Zemmtal give hours of near-flat walking beside water, and the Zillertal cycle path runs level along the river through Zell am Ziller and Fügen. Around Alpbach, the Kundler Klamm gorge, the Berglsteinersee loop, the Steinbergalm and the Gratlspitze are all short drives, and the Galtenberg valley walks start where the tarmac ends at Inneralpbach.

When to go

Late May to June and September to October are the sweet spot if the trip is being planned around the dog. The lifts are running, the alms are quieter, cattle pressure is lower at either end of the grazing season and the dog fees don't change. Watch the closures. Several houses are two-season and shut for a few weeks in late April and May and again in November, and Der Berghof in Alpbach takes no dogs at all over Christmas and New Year, from late January to late March or at Easter. The Stubai glacier is the earliest opener, usually mid October. High summer is when paws suffer most on hot rock above the treeline, and full winter is when the road salt does the damage, so the shoulder months are kinder in both directions.