Seefeld: A Little Idyllic Town in Tirol

When all the road trips and adventures of 2019 had come to an end, I took a moment and had a look at my travel bucket list for that year. Often when I look at unticked boxes next to the destination, I don't feel a lot of remorse - after all, I travel with the mindset "if it is meant to be, it is going to be." However, there was one box that did bother me: Seefeld in Tirol.

Seefeld is a little town in Austria where less than 5,000 people live. While it lives from tourism, it is unknown to the majority of people and makes you wonder why you would go there instead of a more popular skiing destination. I discovered its existence through the magic of Instagram and that it is André Lotterer's favoured sport's camp destination.

Getting to Seefeld is easiest with a car, since the closest airport is Innsbruck which is not a major airport. Thus, the town provides the perfect destination for a road trip to the country side. As such, it is also easy to reach because you simply follow the Autobahn A12 and then drive off at Zerl-Ost. Simply follow the road for half an hour and you have reached your destination. Be aware that in order to reach Seefeld you have to cross something that faintly reminds of an alpine pass - it is quite steep and cyclists are not allowed to use the road, furthermore trucks have multiple escape roads.

And when you have the skis packed securely in your car, it is also important that you don't leave your wallet behind. While Seefeld is very pretty, it is also quite expensive . When I went looking for a hotel on booking.com for four nights, the prizes started at around 400€ for anything decent. Of course, there is always a small little private room available but if you are already here, you should treat yourself as well. At least that was my thinking.

However, once you roll into town you can tell why it is so expensive. Seefeld is simply beautiful. It is the stuff you would usually find on a postcard. It look like one would imagine a classic Austrian alpine town. There are smaller houses, hotels and everything to a backdrop of beautiful mountains and trees.

The town is small and can easily be crossed on foot within half an hour. As it is an alpine town, prepare to walk some bits uphill as well - this can be a serious issue if you are a flat lander, or so I had been told. I dare to say that the hilly slide into the town centre is worth a visit.

The pedestrian area is home of the Wallfahrtskirche St.Oswald. After an eucharistic miracle the people grew so interested in this church that it became too small to bear such a mass of people Thus, it was re-built in 1432 into what you can see nowadays. The constructions took more than 40 years, and thus, the church had been finished by 1474.

In front of the church is also the Brunnen mit Maria Immaculata, which had been constructed in 1960.

Aside from these two constructions from the "older times", the city centre consists of modern buildings, mostly shops of all types, restaurants, and hotels. If you are looking for anything, ranging from postcards to skis, the city centre is going to be the place where you are going to find it.

When you walk up the slight hill towards the back of the church, you are going to find your way onto the Pfarrhügel. In its whole length, it contains 14 stations that represent the stages of the last supper. The stations are marked with boulder which way up to 23 tonnes as well as a lovely park bench to rest your weary bones should you try to move one of these boulders.

The Pfarrhügel also offers an view across the whole area. So it provides a quiet and idyllic place to soak in the view.

What is going to catch your eye when you are busy soaking in the view, is another church, far out that seemingly stands also. This is the Seekirchl - or Seekirche. It is Seefeld's second church, and it had been built from 1629 until 1666. The design is from the high baroque which is rare for Tirol.

However, its party piece is that the sun sets right behind one of its side and because it sits outside the town you can catch take beautiful shots of the sun looking out just from behind.

Seefeld does not only offer an opportunity to look at alpine beauty, it also has a small but mighty skiing resort to offer.

More of this here