I'm planning on spending a few days in South Tyrol in April to visit the
Archeology Museum in Bolzano. The "iceman" found near the Austria-Italy
border 10 years ago is there. I will be traveling from Venice and may drive.
Does anyone have experience with that city, hotels, etc ? How about driving
over the Brenner Pass to Innsbruck ? Distances and road conditions in
April? Any suggestions on hotels in Bolzano ? Frommer does not mention it.
The distances are not great and I am thinking of driving but am interested
in weather conditions in late April.

Thanks for any suggestions.

MIke Kennedy

Hello, I just drove across Brenner in December with no weather problems from
Innsbruck to Bolzano. Don't know about hotels there though as I stayed in
Mieders, just outside of Innsbruck.
"Michael Kennedy" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > I'm planning on spending a few days in South Tyrol in April to visit the
    > Archeology Museum in Bolzano. The "iceman" found near the Austria-Italy
    > border 10 years ago is there. I will be traveling from Venice and may
drive.
    > Does anyone have experience with that city, hotels, etc ? How about
driving
    > over the Brenner Pass to Innsbruck ? Distances and road conditions in
    > April? Any suggestions on hotels in Bolzano ? Frommer does not mention it.
    > The distances are not great and I am thinking of driving but am interested
    > in weather conditions in late April.
    > Thanks for any suggestions.
    > MIke Kennedy

Michael Kennedy wrote:
    >
    > I'm planning on spending a few days in South Tyrol in April to visit the
    > Archeology Museum in Bolzano. The "iceman" found near the Austria-Italy
    > border 10 years ago is there. I will be traveling from Venice and may drive.
    > Does anyone have experience with that city, hotels, etc ? How about driving
    > over the Brenner Pass to Innsbruck ? Distances and road conditions in
    > April? Any suggestions on hotels in Bolzano ? Frommer does not mention it.
    > The distances are not great and I am thinking of driving but am interested
    > in weather conditions in late April.
    >
    > Thanks for any suggestions.
    >
    > MIke Kennedy

Mike,

I've overnighted in Bolzano once and driven up and over the Brenner Pass
several times. I can't recall the name of the hotel; it was 10 years
ago. The first time I drove over was in a January; it was clear, and
mighty cold. April weather ??? As I recall there was a tunnel which
dumped you out just on the outskirts of Innsbruck.

The valley up to Brenner is full of vineyards.

John Bermont
--
------------------------------------------------------
* * * Mastering Independent Budget Travel * * *
http://www.enjoy-europe.com/
------------------------------------------------------

"Michael Kennedy" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > I'm planning on spending a few days in South Tyrol in April to visit the
    > Archeology Museum in Bolzano. The "iceman" found near the Austria-Italy
    > border 10 years ago is there. I will be traveling from Venice and may
drive.
    > Does anyone have experience with that city, hotels, etc ? How about
driving
    > over the Brenner Pass to Innsbruck ? Distances and road conditions in
    > April? Any suggestions on hotels in Bolzano ? Frommer does not mention it.
    > The distances are not great and I am thinking of driving but am interested
    > in weather conditions in late April.
Ice Man - Oetzi - is in South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. Official website:
http://www.archaeologiemuseum.it/f06_ice_uk.html
Brenner Autobahn south of Innsbruck rarely closes for bad weather, and any
snow is quickly swept away. There is a toll, in addition to the Austrian
vignette for using their autobahn. You can avoid the charge by using the
Brenner Pass instead, and it's blocked only in exceptionally heavy snowfall.
Bolzano is an interesting place, very German (bilingual). I don't have
specific hotel recommendations as I haven't stayed there for many years, but
I know there are masses of reasonable Gasthäuser and Pensionen in and around
the town.
Don't miss a drive through the Dolomites to Cortina. Spectacular scenery!

Alec

On Sat, 22 Feb 2003 05:35:19 GMT, "Bruce" wrote:


    >"Michael Kennedy" wrote in message
    >news:[email protected]...
    >> I'm planning on spending a few days in South Tyrol in April to visit the
    >> Archeology Museum in Bolzano. The "iceman" found near the Austria-Italy
    >> border 10 years ago is there. I will be traveling from Venice and may
    >drive.
    >> Does anyone have experience with that city, hotels, etc ? How about
    >driving
    >> over the Brenner Pass to Innsbruck ? Distances and road conditions in
    >> April? Any suggestions on hotels in Bolzano ? Frommer does not mention it.
    >> The distances are not great and I am thinking of driving but am interested
    >> in weather conditions in late April.

Can't find the top post to reply to, sorry...

We were in Bolzano for a few days in November of 2001. We drove there, though
not over the Brenner: we came in from the Udine area, through the Dolomites
National Park. A note if you find yourself going this way: the drive should
ideally be done in the daytime if the temperatures are anywhere near freezing,
as the road can be narrow, winds a whole lot, has some pretty intimidating
hairpin bends as it climbs up through the mountains, and ices without warning
where the sun doesn't fall during the daytime, and as night comes on and the
temperatures drop. If April conditions are anything like November, I would
think the Brenner would still be likely to ice up at night, though maybe Luca
and some of our Italian contributors can correct me on this or give better data.

Bolzano itself divides into a sort of industrial area near the motorway, and the
older, central area -- relatively small and extremely beautiful, and very
scenic, with the Rosengarten range of the Dolomites hanging over it (you can
take buses from Bolzano up through Val Gardena to the ski areas and valley towns
like Wolkenstein). There is a small spread of hotels in various price ranges
which you can investigate at various websites including
http://www.suedtirol.info/navigator/...01&Language=En
(this is a general-information site: you can do online booking here:
http://www.suedtirol.info/navigator/...=3&Language=En).

We were able to splash out a little and stay at the Parkhotel Laurin, which is
the biggest and most-starred of the older hotels in town
(http://www.laurin.it/en/) and lies about two minutes' walk from the main train
station. A beautiful, luxurious place, but decidedly not cheap. (If we go back
to Bolzano any time soon, nice as the Laurin was, we also want to try its
younger, more modern affiliate the Hotel Greif, which is a few minutes away in
the direction of the town's central square, and looks out on it
[http://www.greif.it/]. Not that cheap either, but more of a "boutique hotel"
with every room different and some rooms with saunas, etc.) Some of the other
hotels I was considering staying at on that visit were the Alpi and the
Luna-Mondschein (two- or three-star). You might want to check some of the
discount hotel booking sites like http://www.groovytravel.net (which I use a
lot) to see what kinds of prices you can get.

Anyway, the city's a pleasant place to spend a few days. You can easily daytrip
up into the mountains either by bus, or driving yourself: the Dolomite Road
starts in Bolzano and is spectacular. Or you can just hang out. There are many
good restaurants and cafes, a good daily outdoor market, and there's extremely
tempting shopping...very fashionable stuff, especially in terms of clothing, and
the prices are good. The default language seems to be German, though you hear a
fair amount of Italian too, and English sometimes works, especially in the
shops.

Have a super time there!

Best -- Diane


The Owl Springs Partnership / County Wicklow, Ireland
http://www.owlsprings.com / http://www.youngwizards.net

Alec wrote:

    > Brenner Autobahn south of Innsbruck rarely closes for bad weather, and any
    > snow is quickly swept away. There is a toll, in addition to the Austrian
    > vignette for using their autobahn. You can avoid the charge by using the
    > Brenner Pass instead, and it's blocked only in exceptionally heavy snowfall.

On the Italian section of the Brenner highway there is a toll. As the
Austrian section (Brenner-Innsbruck Süd) is also a toll highway, the
vignette should not be required, as long as you don't drive past
Innsbruck Süd.

-- -----------------------------------------------------
Luca Logi - Firenze - Italy e-mail: [email protected]

My husband and I just spend a night in Bolzano in January. We drove up
from Venice. No problems. We stayed at the Hotel Greif. It was right
on Walther Square and provided easy walking around that part of town in
the evening. Note that you can't drive right to the hotel, there is no
road access since the Square is pedestrian only. You have to park in the
one town lot that is underground (I can't remember the name, but the
hotel could let you know). It has access to the Hotel via an elevator.
The hotel was pretty cute, if you're into eclectic modern art. Our room
was "decorated" with little plastic animals and people glued to the
walls and ceiling in "scenes" with some hand painting of the walls
around the scenes. We had a chuckle over it.
We drove the Dolomites road from Bolzano through to Cortina d'Ampezzo.
It was probably the most beautiful drive and scenery I've seen!!! Be
aware that this road will make just about anyone carsick. By the time I
got to Cortina, I was one sick puppy. And, we even stopped several
times!! I've never seen a road with so many 180 degree switch backs!
From Cortina, we took the road back out to the Autostrada (I think the
A22) and continued on to Innsbruck (Igls, actually - we got off at the
Patsch off ramp). It was a full day of driving from Bolzano to
Innsbruck, but it was worth it! We had a car with all season tires on
it, so we weren't too concerned with snow on the road. There really
wasn't any and the roads weren't icy. But, I would advice checking the
road conditions before heading off that way. My husband had checked on
the roads before we headed out (I don't know how, though).
If you want to take the Autostrada/Autostrasse all the way, it's
supposedly about 1.5 hours from Bolzano to Innsbruck. On the Italian
side, there seem to be different methods of toll collection. On the
A22 part, we paid when we left the road. On the part from Lugano to
Milan, we didn't pay until we got on the road to Malpensa Airport. Now,
we did buy the Austrian Vignette for the car - the last gas stop on the
Italian side sells them. It was only like 7 Euro or so, so not a big
deal. When we got on the Autostrasse at Patsch to go to Garmisch, even
though we had a Vignette, we had to pay a toll. So, beware that you are
going to get hit for tolls in different ways.

Hope this helps.



Michael Kennedy wrote:
    > I'm planning on spending a few days in South Tyrol in April to visit the
    > Archeology Museum in Bolzano. The "iceman" found near the Austria-Italy
    > border 10 years ago is there. I will be traveling from Venice and may drive.
    > Does anyone have experience with that city, hotels, etc ? How about driving
    > over the Brenner Pass to Innsbruck ? Distances and road conditions in
    > April? Any suggestions on hotels in Bolzano ? Frommer does not mention it.
    > The distances are not great and I am thinking of driving but am interested
    > in weather conditions in late April.
    >
    > Thanks for any suggestions.
    >
    > MIke Kennedy
    >
    >
    >