Driving to Zell am See and Kaprun: the vignette, the Kufstein exit and the Grossglockner
Do I need an Austrian vignette to drive to Zell am See and Kaprun?
On the routes the resort publishes, yes: Zell am See-Kaprun sends drivers from the west down the A12 to Wörgl and from the south up the A10, and says a vignette is needed on Austria's motorways. From Germany it can be avoided by leaving the A12 at Kufstein-Süd, where the exempt border stretch ends, and continuing on federal roads. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road south of the region is closed from the start of November to the start of May.
The resort's own routes use charged motorway
Zell am See-Kaprun lists four approaches by car: from the north on the German motorway from Munich, from the south on the A10 Tauern Motorway, from the east on the A1, and from the west on the A12 Inntal Motorway to Wörgl, then federal roads.
The western one is the trap for a driver from Germany. The A12 is exempt only from the Kufstein border to the Kufstein-Süd junction, and Wörgl lies beyond it, so the resort's own route puts you on charged motorway from Kufstein-Süd to Wörgl.
Coming through Salzburg is charged too, from a different point. The A1 is exempt from the Walserberg border to Salzburg-Nord, but the A10 is not, and the charge runs from where the A10 leaves the A1 to the Pongau junction near Bischofshofen, where the B311 turns west towards Zell am See.
Leave at Kufstein-Süd and the vignette is not needed
A driver who leaves the A12 at Kufstein-Süd never enters charged network. From there federal roads run through St. Johann in Tirol to Saalfelden and the B311, which is the second of the three vignette-free routes Saalbach-Hinterglemm publishes, and Zell am See is on the same B311 a few kilometres further south.
If the week includes one motorway day, to Salzburg or Innsbruck, a 1-day vignette covers it. For motorway on both the outward and the return drive, a 10-day Austrian vignette is the product that fits.
The Grossglockner is shut, the Felbertauern is open
The Grossglockner High Alpine Road, the summer road south from the Fusch valley, is open from the start of May to the start of November. Its operator says it is closed through the winter months because the snow makes it impassable, so it plays no part in a ski week.
The winter road south is the Felbertauernstraße from Mittersill to East Tyrol. Felbertauernstraße AG, which runs it, says it is open all year round, 24 hours a day, and that no vignette is required to use it, though it charges its own toll at its toll station. That station sells the Austrian 10-day, 2-month and annual vignettes too.
A day trip south to East Tyrol therefore goes through the Felbertauern tunnel and pays that toll. It does not go over the Grossglockner in any month of the ski season.
Kitzsteinhorn starts in autumn, and the car can stay put
The Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun runs its free ski buses from October until May, so the season here starts before the national winter tyre window opens on 1 November. The car parks at both the Kitzsteinhorn valley station and the Maiskogel valley station are free.
Overnight guests in the region also get the Guest Mobility Ticket in their room rate, which the resort says covers all public transport in the state of Salzburg: buses, trains and the Pinzgau local railway. Park once on arrival and leave the car there.