Munich · Germany · Kosher-friendly, in the Jewish quarter
Staying near Jakobsplatz, Munich
Hotels in Munich's old town within a few minutes of the Ohel Jakob synagogue and community centre, five minutes from Marienplatz.
No kosher kitchen — listed for where it stands, not for its food.
- Unusually central for a European kehilla — the shul, the community centre and the Jewish Museum are one complex right by Marienplatz, so a hotel by the sights is also a hotel by the shul.
- This is the base for the Alps. Neuschwanstein is two hours, the Zugspitze an hour and a half, and there is nothing kosher at either — carry the day's food from here.
- Confirm what is open for the days you are travelling; Munich's kosher provision is real but small.
Distances measured from Ohel Jakob synagogue, St.-Jakobs-Platz, not from the building itself.
Vienna · Austria · Kosher-friendly, in the Jewish quarter
Staying in Leopoldstadt, Vienna
The 2nd district, across the canal from the old town — Vienna's Jewish quarter before the war and again now, with the kosher shops and shuls back in the same streets.
No kosher kitchen — listed for where it stands, not for its food.
- Unusually convenient: Leopoldstadt is a bridge away from the Innere Stadt, so a hotel by the kosher food is also a hotel near everything a visitor came to see.
- The Boyaner Rebbe — the Pachad Yitzchak — is buried in Vienna and is listed on this site; the Zentralfriedhof is out to the south-east.
- Vienna is the natural gateway for the Hungarian and Slovak kevarim: Preshburg is an hour by train, and Kerestir about four hours by road.
Distances measured from Leopoldstadt, Vienna's 2nd district, not from the building itself.
Innsbruck · Austria · Ordinary hotel, well placed
Staying in Innsbruck for the Tyrol
The one alpine city with a proper town centre, a shul, and a cable car to 2,334 m starting five minutes from the old town — and no kosher shop of any kind, which is the thing to plan the trip around.
No kosher kitchen — listed for where it stands, not for its food.
- Say the hard part first: there is no kosher shop or restaurant in Innsbruck, and none anywhere in Austria outside Vienna. What Innsbruck has is a kehilla of about a hundred people, a shul rebuilt in 1993 on the site the old one was destroyed on in 1938, and everything else a town has.
- Two ways to eat here, both listed on this site. Kosher Tirol coordinates prepared meals and Shabbos food across Tirol and the Salzburg province in season. Otherwise Munich is about two hours by road and has a full kosher quarter.
- The position is the argument. The Nordkette cable cars leave from the middle of town, the Zillertal and the Stubai are short drives, and the Brenner puts the Dolomites within reach — so one base does the Austrian and the Italian Alps both.
- For Shabbos, arrange with the community well in advance rather than assuming. A hundred-member kehilla is not set up for unannounced visitors, and the shul's times are not something to guess at.
- Listed as an ordinary hotel city. Innsbruck makes no kosher claim and none is implied — the hotels here are hotels.
Distances measured from Innsbruck synagogue, Sillgasse 15, not from the building itself.
Salzburg · Austria · Ordinary hotel, well placed
Staying in Salzburg for the Austrian Alps
The city at the mouth of the mountains — Hallstatt, the Eisriesenwelt, the Grossglockner and the Krimml falls are all day trips from it, and it has a shul and a Chabad house where Vienna is a day's drive away.
No kosher kitchen — listed for where it stands, not for its food.
- The position is the entire argument. Every Austrian entry on this site except Vienna and the Nordkette is within a day of Salzburg, and nothing else in that half of the country has a kehilla at all.
- There is no kosher shop here — there is none anywhere in Austria outside Vienna. What there is: the community synagogue on Lasserstraße, in use since 1893, and Chabad of Salzburg, which does Shabbos and yom tov meals on advance registration and is listed on this site. Register early rather than late.
- The community covers three federal states from here and runs to a couple of hundred members. Treat Shabbos as something to arrange weeks ahead, not days.
- Kosher Tirol, also listed here, delivers prepared meals across the Salzburg province as well as Tirol, which is the other way to eat on a week out in the Pinzgau.
- Listed as an ordinary hotel city. No kosher claim is made by anything here and none is implied.
Distances measured from Salzburg city centre, not from the building itself.
Zell am See · Austria · Ordinary hotel, well placed
Staying at Zell am See for the Austrian Alps
The best-placed town in the Austrian Alps for a week of driving out and back — the Krimml falls, the Grossglockner road, the Eisriesenwelt and a glacier are all day trips from it — and the food all has to come to you.
No kosher kitchen — listed for where it stands, not for its food.
- Every Austrian mountain entry on this site except the Nordkette is reachable from here in a day, which no other town in the country manages. That is the reason to be here rather than anywhere prettier.
- There is no kosher provision in the Pinzgau and none anywhere in Austria outside Vienna. Two ways round it, both listed here: Kosher Tirol delivers prepared meals and Shabbos food into this valley in season, and Chabad of Salzburg does Shabbos meals on advance registration.
- Order the food before you book the hotel, not after. A valley with no shop is a valley where the meals are the fixed part of the plan and the hotel is the flexible one.
- There is a lake, with lidos and open public bathing and no separate arrangement of any kind. Worth knowing before choosing a hotel on the shore for the swimming.
- Listed as an ordinary hotel town. No kosher claim is made by anything here and none is implied.
Distances measured from Zell am See, on Lake Zell, not from the building itself.