Tirol, Austria General overview
 

For those who'd rather be spectators than participants, there are all kinds of winter sports competitions. These include ski jumping competitions on Innsbruck's Bergisel, downhill ski races on Arlberg's Kandahar or Kitzbuhel's Hahnenkamm, and various cross-country races like the Ganghoferlauf in the Leutasch area near Seefeld, the Koasalauf near Kitzbuhel or the Dolomitenlauf in Lienz. For those who think the winter is never long enough, Tirol's five glacier ski areas (Tux, Stubai, Oetz Valley, Pitz Valley and Kauner Valley) are open for skiing all year round.

Tirol's reputation as the "land of mountains" is well deserved: there are 3000 kilometers of mountain hiking trails, 160 mountain huts open to guests and 75 lifts to carry even the not-so-athletic up to the summits. When it comes to water sports, there are 86 outdoor public pools and 40 lakes for swimmers to enjoy.

There's never a dull moment, what with golf, tennis, rafting, horseback riding, mountain biking, hanggliding, fishing, summer toboganning runs and much more to choose from. Those interested in culture can visit beautiful historic old towns and some 80 museums concentrating on areas as diverse as folk culture, mining, the Olympics, Alpine clubs, and local history. Kramsach has a suberb collection of authentic old farmhouses that were carefully dismantled and then rebuilt true to the last detail on an open-air site.

The court church in the imperial residence in Innsbruck, the nearby castle at Ambras, the magnificent Cistercian monastery in Stams, and the fortress at Kufstein are all reminders of Tirol's rich cultural past. Programmes such as the festival week of old music in Innsbruck and the Ambras castle concert series have ensured Tirol's place on the European cultural calendar.

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