The head of the Zillertal
Drive or ride east from Innsbruck along the Inn valley, turn south at Jenbach, and the road follows the Zillertal upstream through a string of villages — Fügen, Zell am Ziller, Hippach — until the valley narrows and the mountains close in properly. That last town, at around 630 m, is Mayrhofen: the biggest settlement in the Zillertal and the practical base for almost everything at the southern end of the valley.
It is worth being precise about what Mayrhofen is and is not, because the names around it get blurred in a lot of trip planning. Mayrhofen is a town, with hotels, a pedestrian centre, and its own local ski areas on the Ahorn and Penken mountains directly above it. The Hintertux Glacier is a different place: a separate ski area another 20-odd kilometres further up the valley, past the side-villages of Hintertux and Vorderlanersbach, reached by a dedicated glacier road.
Mayrhofen is where you sleep and eat; Hintertux is where you go for a few hours or a full day, most often by car or one of the ski buses that run up from town. The two get treated as one and the same in a lot of casual trip talk, and it is a mistake worth avoiding when you are booking accommodation or working out a day’s driving.
The other name to keep separate is the Achensee. It sits further north, near Jenbach, and it is Tyrol’s largest lake — a completely different kind of place, built around water and the historic cog railway that climbs to it, with none of Mayrhofen’s glacier-and-valley character. The two are covered on their own pages for a reason: conflating a lake resort with a valley ski town does neither one justice, and it produces bad itineraries.
Getting there from Innsbruck
The distance from Innsbruck to Mayrhofen is roughly 65 km. By car, the route runs along the A12 motorway to Jenbach and then follows the Zillertal road (the B169) south into the valley; allow about 50 to 60 minutes outside peak traffic, more on a busy Saturday changeover day in ski season. The A12 requires the Austrian motorway vignette, and winter tyres are compulsory in wintry conditions between 1 November and 15 April, which covers most of the season anyone is driving up for skiing.
By train, the journey has two legs. The mainline from Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof runs east to Jenbach, a trip of well under half an hour, and at Jenbach you change onto the narrow-gauge Zillertalbahn, which climbs the length of the valley to Mayrhofen. Counting the connection, the whole trip typically takes somewhere in the region of an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half — a pleasant, scenic way to arrive without a car, and one that also serves every village along the way if you want to break the journey.
Once you’re in Mayrhofen itself, a car stops being essential for day-to-day life: the village core is walkable, valley buses connect the surrounding towns, and many stays include a regional guest card covering local transport. Where a car earns its keep is for the Schlegeis dam road, for reaching Hintertux at your own pace, and for exploring side valleys that the bus network does not reach as conveniently.
Winter: valley skiing and the glacier above it
Mayrhofen’s own slopes are split across two local mountains, the Ahorn and the Penken, both reached by cable car from the edge of town — this is what most visitors mean by “skiing in Mayrhofen” rather than skiing at the glacier. It is honest valley skiing: a solid, varied area with terrain for most levels, plus a reputation among freestyle and freeride skiers for its terrain parks and off-piste lines.
The bigger draw for a lot of winter visitors, though, is what sits further up the valley: the Hintertux Glacier. Its headline feature is that it operates through the whole year, which sets it apart from the Stubai Glacier closer to Innsbruck — the two are often compared, and the comparison is covered in detail on its own page rather than repeated here. For a Mayrhofen-based trip, the practical point is simpler: Hintertux is a separate excursion, not an extension of the village’s own ski area, and it needs its own transport time and its own lift ticket. Staying in Mayrhofen and mixing valley days on the Ahorn or Penken with one or two trips up to the glacier is the common local pattern for a longer ski stay.
One thing Mayrhofen is not part of is the Olympia SkiWorld Innsbruck pass that covers the mountains directly around the capital — Nordkette, Patscherkofel, Axamer Lizum and the rest. The Zillertal ski areas, Mayrhofen’s own slopes included, are ticketed separately, so anyone planning a trip that mixes an Innsbruck base with a Zillertal ski day should check passes and transfers rather than assume one ticket covers both.
| Where | What it is | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Ahorn / Penken (Mayrhofen) | The town’s own local ski area | Winter only, roughly December-April |
| Hintertux Glacier | Separate glacier ski area, further up the valley | Year-round |
| Innsbruck’s Olympia SkiWorld | City-region pass (Nordkette, Patscherkofel, etc.) | Winter only, separate from the Zillertal |
For anyone weighing up a village to stay in for a multi-day ski trip, the Zillertal and Achensee three-day itinerary sets out a workable split between valley and glacier days without over-promising on either.
Summer: hiking toward the Schlegeis
With the snow gone, the emphasis in Mayrhofen shifts almost entirely to the valley and the high ground above it. The best-known target is the Schlegeis reservoir, a turquoise, glacier-fed lake held behind a dam at the head of a side valley south of Mayrhofen, with hiking routes fanning out from the dam wall into glacier scenery.
It has its own dedicated page for route detail and practicalities, but for a Mayrhofen stay the short version is: allow most of a day, drive or bus up the toll road to the dam, and treat the hike from there as the main event of the day rather than a stop on the way to somewhere else. Some routes require a toll for the private access road, and the road itself can close outside the main summer season, so it is worth checking before setting a fixed plan.
Closer to town, the Ahorn and Penken cable cars keep running through summer for hikers and mountain bikers rather than skiers, giving quick access to marked trails and, on the Ahorn side, some genuinely gentle family walking that does not demand a full day’s fitness. The valley floor itself is good cycling country — flat, well signed, and linking the string of Zillertal villages along a dedicated path, which makes a half-day out of the saddle an easy add to a hiking-focused stay; the Zillertal cycling guide covers routes and rental logistics in more depth.
Timing matters more than in most Alpine valleys with this much altitude range. High routes around Mayrhofen and toward the Schlegeis are usually reliably clear from late June, and by September the weather window is starting to close again at altitude — the seasonal hiking guide for Tyrol is worth a look before booking a hiking-heavy trip at either edge of the season.
In and around the village
Mayrhofen’s own centre is compact and genuinely lived-in rather than purpose-built: a pedestrian core with shops, restaurants and a handful of historic Gasthöfe, plus the kind of local infrastructure — supermarkets, a health centre, a proper church — that marks it out as a real Zillertal town rather than a ski-village stage set. It is also the valley’s transport hub for the Zillertalbahn and the regional bus network, which makes it a sensible base even for people who plan to spend most of their days elsewhere in the valley.
For an easy half-day that does not depend on weather, the open-air farmstead museum near Kramsach, a short way back down the valley toward the Inn, makes a good change of pace from mountains and lifts — it also runs a family-friendly outdoor escape game through the museum grounds:
an outdoor escape game through the open-air farmstead museum near KramsachParagliding is one of the more distinctive things to do from Mayrhofen itself, launching from the slopes above town with the whole floor of the Zillertal opening up below:
a tandem paragliding flight over the mountains above MayrhofenA similar flight also runs from nearby Fügen, further down the valley toward Jenbach, as an early-morning option for anyone based lower in the Zillertal:
an early-morning tandem paragliding flight from FügenBoth flight locations, and the broader case for doing this in the Zillertal rather than elsewhere in Tyrol, are covered in the Mayrhofen tandem paragliding guide; the activity sits under paragliding in the site’s activity listings if you want to compare it against flights from Innsbruck or the Stubai valley.
Whitewater sports also have a presence in this part of Tyrol, mostly on rivers further west toward the Ötztal and the Imster Schlucht rather than directly around Mayrhofen; the whitewater rafting category is the place to check current operators and put-in points if that is on your list for the same trip.
Where Mayrhofen fits in a wider Tyrol trip
Because it sits a genuine hour or more from Innsbruck rather than a quick day-trip distance, most visitors treat Mayrhofen as a base in its own right for a few nights, rather than a stop on a day out from the capital. That said, the road and rail links back down the valley are easy enough that a single well-planned day trip from Innsbruck is realistic if the glacier or the Schlegeis is the only item on the list.
Within the wider Zillertal, Achensee and lower Inn valley area, Mayrhofen anchors the southern, mountain end, while the Achensee anchors a distinct, lake-based identity further north; the Zillertal page and the Zillertal and Achensee three-day itinerary both lay out how the towns along the valley — Fügen, Kramsach and Jenbach among them — connect into a single trip without doubling back on yourself.
For travellers deciding between a Zillertal base and an Innsbruck-area one purely for glacier skiing, the Stubai Glacier versus Hintertux comparison is the direct answer on which glacier suits which kind of trip, and the Stubai Glacier page covers the alternative base close to the capital.
For the activity overview of everything bookable around Mayrhofen and the valley beyond it, the things to do in the Zillertal hub groups paragliding, hiking, cycling and the glacier day trips in one place.
Mayrhofen: frequently asked questions
Is Mayrhofen the same place as the Hintertux Glacier?
No. Mayrhofen is the valley town, sitting at around 630 m at the head of the Zillertal. The Hintertux Glacier is a separate ski area further up the valley, reached by road past the villages of Hintertux and Vorderlanersbach. Many visitors base themselves in Mayrhofen and travel up to the glacier by car or bus for the day.
How do I get from Innsbruck to Mayrhofen?
By car it is about 65 km along the A12 motorway and the Zillertal road, roughly 50-60 minutes. By train, take the mainline from Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof to Jenbach, then change to the narrow-gauge Zillertalbahn for the run up the valley to Mayrhofen; the combined journey is around 1h15 to 1h30.
Can you ski at Hintertux in summer?
Yes. The Hintertux Glacier is one of the few ski areas in the Alps that stays open year-round, which is its main distinction from the Stubai Glacier closer to Innsbruck. Mayrhofen’s own valley skiing, by contrast, is a winter-only proposition like most resorts in the region.
Is Mayrhofen part of the Olympia SkiWorld Innsbruck pass?
No. The Olympia SkiWorld Innsbruck pass covers the mountains directly around the city, such as the Nordkette, Patscherkofel and Axamer Lizum. Mayrhofen and the Zillertal ski areas, including Hintertux, are ticketed and passed separately.
How is Mayrhofen different from the Achensee?
They are both in the same broad region east of Innsbruck but are not close to each other and have distinct identities. The Achensee is Tyrol’s largest lake, further north and reached via Jenbach, with a lake-and-cog-railway character. Mayrhofen is a mountain and glacier base at the southern head of the Zillertal, with no lake of its own.
Do I need a car in Mayrhofen, or is the Zillertalbahn enough?
The Zillertalbahn and connecting valley buses cover Mayrhofen and the villages between it and Jenbach well, and many hotels include a regional guest card with free transport. A car becomes more useful for reaching the Schlegeis road, side valleys and early starts up to Hintertux, but it is not essential for a village-based stay.
What’s the best time to visit Mayrhofen if I’m not skiing?
Late June through September is the reliable window: high trails toward the Schlegeis are usually clear by then and valley activities are running at full swing. May and November are the local shoulder season, when some lifts and huts close for maintenance, so check opening dates before planning a trip around them.
