PERHAPS I'm being fanciful but SalzburgerLand sounds like something out of a fairytale to me. Travelling through this Austrian region's emerald valleys dotted with quaint chalets, all slightly unreal in their perfection, did nothing to dissuade me of that notion.

The Province of Salzburg radiates out into the Alps from its eponymous, Mozart-birthplace city. At its rural heart, the mountain-cradled lake resort of Zell am See might be better known to Britons as a ski base but this is the European connoisseurs' secret summer mountain scene, as fabulous stripped to its green nakedness as it is in all its powdered glory.

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Forget Lake Geneva or the Italian lakes; all too obvious. Zell offers the same kind of placid, elegant gentility without the crowds and high prices, along with considerably more accordion playing, something the town was alive with as I arrived.

Nothing says get out and explore like an oompah band under your hotel window and with a day of scorching sunshine we could almost have been in the Med.
My base was the Hotel Fischerwirt, a cosy family-run inn on one of the main pedestrianised streets. It had a chalet-style interior full of blonde wood and an all-inclusive tariff that included breakfast, dinner and unlimited schnapps from the bar.

Even better, it was a five minute walk from the shore of Lake Zell, the two-squaremile lake that flows out to the Black Sea and is apparently so pure you can drink the water. It is said to reach a balmy 24C in summer, although a bracing dip in the swimming area as pleasure boats chugged by revealed this to be slightly optimistic.

The town is a charming place with a small medieval centre, the occasional clanging church bell and balconies exploding with geraniums.

Shady streets are lined with shops selling everything from gnarly salamis and potent cheeses to cowbells and sauna ladles.

On the doorstep of Zell am See is the Hohe Tauern national park, a mountain range that includes the towering megaliths of the Schmittenhöhe and Kitzsteinhorn.
You can even ski on the latter's glacier in the summer, catching the Gletscherjet 1 cable car to the top. From here, I played I-spy with the peaks; keen eyes can spot 30 of at least 10,000ft from here. Austria's highest, Grossglöckner, sits almost next door and there are 83 walking routes in the area.

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The weather being changeable, I'd been forced to revise my plans to hit the most famous trail, the Alexander Enzinger Weg, a ridge-top route south of Zell am See taking about four hours.

Instead I decided to explore the newly opened Gipfelwelt 3000 centre, atop the Kitzsteinhorn. The sleek educational centre comprises a flashy modern complex with restaurant and small cinema at the top from which you descend through a 1,200ft tunnel blasted from the mountain's heart to the viewing platform. Here you can try to spot the Hohe Tauern "big five": the chamois, griffon vulture, ibex (below), golden eagle and bearded vulture. Sadly, due to mist, there wasn't so much as a curly horn or tufty tail on the day I went.

The mountains had given me altitude, so now it was time to explore some more down-to-earth thrills. There are plenty. The glacier-cut Sigmund-Thun Klamm gorge offers great walking with striking rock formations, eddies and whirlpools, while you can also visit Europe's highest waterfalls, the Krimmler Falls, cascading over a 1,250ft series of rock steps.

SalzburgerLand is also big on summer sports.

I opted for a spot of white-water rafting down the Salzach River. Tumbling over the froth for two hours was invigorating but the water was a little more soothing at the Tauern Spa, the valley's wellbeing centre.

Austrians take their spas very seriously and this complex has treatment rooms, 10 different saunas offering infusions of herbs, honey and glacier ice (three with swimwear, the rest challenging you to throw off your British reserve), a children's spa and 12 pools.

All is contained in a vast space-age compound of glass and wood.

You can stay there or come as a day visitor, joining hordes of Austrians of all ages, bristling with health on a "journey to the inner realms", as the brochure bumf informed me.

The spa's aim is to provide you with a feeling equal to the wellbeing you get standing on a summit, wind whistling through your hair. I'm as much of a fan of a Jacuzzi as the next woman but even with a nice view of the Kitzsteinhorn, there's no chance of that coming close to the real story here.

GETTING THERE:
Crystal Summer (0871 230 8180/crystalsummer.co.uk) offers seven nights at Hotel Fischerwirt (fischerwirt.com) from £645pp (two sharing), all-inclusive.
Price includes return flights from Gatwick to Salzburg and the Zell am See-Kaprun summer card for complimentary local travel and discounted activities.
Zell am See Kaprun tourism: zellamseekaprun.com Salzburg tourism: salzburg.info/salzburgerland.com