My son was surprised to meet another boy with the same name on the first day of his holiday in Austria, especially as it was a llama. “Alex, this is Alex,” said Ruth, who keeps a flock of these placid beasts on her Tyrolean farm. She was to guide us up the valley for a gentle two-hour trek and barbecue, with our own llama each.
“I don’t think I could eat a whole llama,” joked my husband, but the animals needn’t have worried. While Ruth assembled the portable barbie and the children gathered sticks for fuel, the llamas were tethered to the trees for their own picnic. We lunched on sausages, steak and bread, typical Austrian fare.
The llama trek was one option on our Alpine family activity holiday. As full-time working parents we spend all day on our bottoms looking at computer screens. Our children get plenty of exercise, but it’s pounding London’s pavements, or in parks and playgrounds. They have a knack of making foreign holidays an excuse to go back on the Euro diet: pizza, pasta, chips, ice-cream and fizzy drinks. What could be a healthier holiday alternative than fitness and fresh mountain air, staying on a farm?
Our base was the village of Scheffau. In winter it is part of Austria’s largest ski area; in summer it offers outdoor activities galore. Climbing and walking, obviously, but adrenalin junkies could try wild water swimming (like white water rafting without the raft) or canyoning, which includes crossing rivers on a rope and other methods too scary to contemplate. Families on our package try gentler pursuits such as rafting, walking, a climbing-taster, mountain biking, cycling, riding, a day at a water centre — and, of course, the llama trek.
But even a healthy holiday on a plate isn’t all plain sailing when when the party consists of a 10 and 4-year-old, plus two adults. Mountain walking, however gentle, especially at 30C (86F), soon palled, even with llamas for company. Little Suzanna particularly enjoyed the ride in a seat on Dad’s bike, but the path followed the busy road along the valley floor, the only blot on a stunning landscape. “My cycle route into the West End is quieter,” he grumbled.
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Rafting hit the spot, however, thanks to our guide, an extremely jolly fellow called Ingo, who was once the chief buckle-buyer for Birkenstock sandals until he decided he needed a change of lifestyle. “Vorwärts!” he would yell as the large inflatable rubber dingy hit the rapids, no more than a few ripples really, and we would paddle earnestly, the children squealing in moc terror as the spray came over the bows.
Nature could not compete, however, with the man-made joys of the water centre, with its network of interconnecting indoor and outdoor pools in a beautifully kept park. Even I managed the sedate twirly blue slide. The enclosed orange one, with thumping disco music and flashing lights, was deemed awesome by Alex, and his father demonstrated his athleticism and courage by going down the yellow vertical one, though not head first.
Peeved to find that my designated activity was sitting on a bench keeping an eye on our non-swimming girl in the toddler’s pool, I muttered to myself that we might as well have gone to Milton Keynes. A glance through the plate- glass windows raised my spirit: Milton Keynes dwarfed by mountain peaks rising into clear blue skies? The view from our apartment across the valley to the Kitzbüheler Alps was equally uplifting. Behind stood a nature reserve, the Wilder Kaiser (Wild Emperor) range, the melting snow revealing its magnificent granite crags. Tinkling cowbells provided a permanent soundtrack. The indigenous architectural style is cuckoo clock, and if Julie Andrews were to come skipping across the meadows the urge to yodel would be irrepressible.
Our hosts, the Kaindl family, are dairy farmers and every morning Manuela left fresh milk and fresh organic bread from the local bakery outside our door. Although the only shop in the village is a Spar mini-market, fruit and vegetables are supplied from the nearby Inn valley. The girl at the deli counter knew which of the many cheeses and hams were produced on local farms, and other regionally made foods such as delicious raspberry jam were labelled as such. In summer there’s a weekly farmers’ market.
As we arrived back one evening, Manuela approached us cradling something in the front of her T-shirt. It was a bundle of squeaking, wriggling puppies, eyes still shut, from Dixi the cow dog’s six-day-old litter. Our son, an allergy sufferer, has never been able to have pets at home and he developed a touching evening ritual of “putting the rabbits to bed”, shutting the gate of their garden run securely. Dixi’s maternal instincts didn’t stretch to rabbits; she had recently got in through a hole in the fence and demolished several bunnies.
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This contact with nature in the raw is a far cry from activity holidays based in specially built centres, where even if there is much else to see or do, you feel obliged to stay on site and get your money’s worth. Our programme left us free to do our own thing on some days. That included visiting a bee centre where the owner is fanatical about the health-giving properties of the products, and the shop sells the centre’s own honey. And we heard about how one family distils schnapps the traditional way from their own apple and pear trees.
One evening we took a ten minute drive up to the Hintersteinersee, a pine-fringed lake, its shores dotted with a few guesthouses and restaurants. We dined on roe-deer steak and venison goulash, topped with swirls of whipped cream, while the children ate schnitzel and chips. In fact, they ate schnitzel and chips most nights, washed down with Almdudler, the local herb lemonade, which tastes like mild ginger beer. Thank goodness most restaurants have salad bars, and that I resisted a portion of luscious apple strudel: I never eat puddings; I just “share” everyone else’s. Strange, then, that I put on 4lb in seven days.
Even on a damp misty evening, the Hintersteinersee cast a spell, and we returned when the skies were pure blue to swim and paddle in its fabulous turquoise-green water, deliciously cool when the temperature hit 30C again. We lunched on cranberry pancakes at the family-run Hagenhof, a lakeside guest house approved by the Biobauernhof organisation, Austria’s network of “ecological” farms. The restaurant serves home-grown salads; no agricultural chemicals are allowed in the valley. Beef and yoghurt are from their cows and the bread and jams are all homemade. If you really wanted to get away from it all, this would be bliss.
Need to know
Hilly Janes and family travelled to Austria with Minster Travel service; www.minster-alpine.co.uk; 0161-969 5603
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A week’s family activity holiday, including self-catering accommodation, car hire or airport transfer and activities, is from £249 for a child (5-10), £349 for a youth (11-15) and £399 for an adult (16 upwards). Children under five go free in some cases, depending on accommodation. For further information, e-mail guests@minster-alpine.co.uk
Salzburg and Munich airports are about 90 minutes from the UK by low-cost airline. For full details and fares, visit www.easyjet.com; www.ryanair.com; www.britishairways.com; www.flybmi.com
From hiking to biking: more healthy family holidays
Cornish Tipi Holidays offers traditional family camping set in a former quarry that now has a freshwater lake plus copious flora and fauna. Stay under canvas in a community setting or in your own clearing, and enjoy outdoor fires, open skies and easy access to nearby beaches.
www.cornish-tipi-holidays.co.uk
Responsible Travel has an extensive range of trips that are child and eco-friendly. Stretch their legs with hiking and mountain biking in Wales, or expand their horizons with night canoeing in Slovenia or jungle walking in Malaysia. The website also offers useful advice on travelling with children. www.responsibletravel.com
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Holiday on a UK farm and let the family see what life is like for those who help to produce their food. The Farm Stay network has numerous rural retreats, and the Graig Farm group of farmers offers accommodation on its organic farms. www.farmstayuk.co.uk; www.graigfarm.co.uk
The Place, Camber Sands, is a hotel on a two-mile sandy beach in East Sussex where you can ride, kite and windsurf, or just blow away the cobwebs. The Place has spacious family rooms and a brasserie serving fabulous locally produced organic food, with proper home-made stuff on the kids’ menu. www.theplacecambersands.co.uk
Kids in Tow is an excellent online directory of active holidays suitable for children. The site has links to tour companies offering everything from adventure holidays in Botswana to horse riding on Dartmoor. www.kidsintow.co.uk
FRAN YEOMAN
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