Tyrol
Where the Mayr cure became a medical category — and where “going to Austria for your gut” came from.
Why here
The case for Tyrol
- This is the birthplace of the modern F. X. Mayr cure as an international product. Lanserhof opened at Lans in 1984 and turned a nineteenth-century digestive cure into a rigorous, doctor-led programme with diagnostics attached.
- The tone is genuinely clinical rather than resort. A Mayr house runs a medical intake, blood work, manual abdominal treatment and a graded diet — and the well-known Austrian houses are unusually candid that the first three days are unpleasant.
- It sits at altitude above Innsbruck with graded walking on the doorstep, which the doctors prescribe rather than suggest, and it is two hours from most of Europe.
- The competition between the Tyrolean houses is real and useful: Lanserhof, Park Igls and the VIVAMAYR group have pushed each other on diagnostics for four decades, and the least resort-like of them is usually also the best value.
Checkable, not adjectival
- Lanserhof Lans opened in 1984 — the original house of the group that made Modern Mayr Medicine an international category.
- The cure derives from Franz Xaver Mayr (1875–1965), an Austrian physician whose diagnostic and dietary system underpins every house here.
- Lanserhof Tegernsee (2014) and Lanserhof Sylt (2022) are the group’s later flagships, in Germany.
- Park Igls sits above Innsbruck at roughly 900 m and is consistently the most clinically-toned and least expensive of the famous Austrian Mayr houses.
- A standard Mayr course is 7 to 14 nights; the houses themselves recommend 14 for a first cure.
The houses
2 houses in Tyrol
Medical clinic
Lans, above Innsbruck · Austria
Lanserhof Lans
The mother house of the Lanserhof group — the property that turned the F. X. Mayr gut cure into a luxury medical category.
FromUS$9,400Bookable with usMedical clinic
Igls, above Innsbruck · Austria
Park Igls
The most clinically serious and least resort-like of the famous Austrian Mayr houses — and consistently the best value among them.
FromUS$4,700Bookable with us
When to come
The months that actually work
May to September is the window, because the graded walking that the doctors prescribe needs open paths and long light. November is the Alpine Zwischensaison and much of the valley closes. Winter courses run and work perfectly well — you simply do the walking on cleared paths in the cold.
Book: May, June, July, August, September.
| Destination | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TyrolAustria | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: perfectly good | Mar: perfectly good | Apr: perfectly good | May: book this | Jun: book this | Jul: book this | Aug: book this | Sep: book this | Oct: perfectly good | Nov: we would talk you out of it | Dec: perfectly good |
Average daytime high, °C
- 3J
- 5F
- 11M
- 15A
- 20M
- 23J
- 25J
- 24A
- 20S
- 15O
- 8N
- 4D
A sheltered alpine valley at 600 m, with the clinics 300 m above it. Föhn winds make spring changeable; September and October are the settled months.
Getting there
Flights, routings and the transfer
Getting there
Innsbruck INN
Innsbruck — the clinics are in the hills immediately above it
- London & the UK
Direct to Innsbruck, heavily weighted to the ski season; Munich is the year-round alternative, two hours by road.
2 hours - Continental Europe
Direct to Innsbruck or Munich, or the rail network through Munich and Zurich.
2–4 hours - The Gulf & India
Direct to Munich or Vienna, then rail or road.
6–8 hours flying - North America
One stop through Munich, Frankfurt, Vienna or Zurich.
10–12 hours
- Transfer
- 20 to 30 minutes up the hill from Innsbruck airport to Lans, Igls and the Hungerburg. Two hours from Munich.
- Worth knowing
- The Innsbruck approach is a valley one and winter weather diverts it to Munich or Salzburg more often than any other alpine airport — the airline buses you on, but it adds three hours. If your programme starts the next morning, fly the day before.
On request
What else there is in Tyrol
Arranged on request and quoted separately. Each one carries when to take it — because a good day out on the wrong day of a treatment course is not a good day out, and no excursions list anywhere else will tell you that.
- NatureHalf day
The Nordkette by cable car
From the middle of Innsbruck to 2,300 m in twenty minutes on a Zaha Hadid funicular and two cable cars. The city is directly below your feet at the top.
Any time - Culture2 hours
The Goldenes Dachl and the old town
Maximilian’s golden roof of 1500, the Hofburg and the Hofkirche with its twenty-eight bronze mourners — the finest Renaissance monument north of the Alps.
On a rest day - CultureHalf day
Swarovski Kristallwelten
Twenty minutes east at Wattens. Divisive, spectacular, and the André Heller chambers are far stranger than the shop suggests.
On a rest day - NatureFull day
The Zillertal and the Achensee
A steam railway up the Ziller valley, or the lake steamer on the Achensee. Tyrol at its most postcard, an hour away.
Any time - FoodHalf day
A mountain hut lunch
Fifty minutes up on foot to a Jausenstation for Kaiserschmarrn and a view. On a modified-fasting programme this is a genuinely bad idea and we will say so — take it after.
After the programme
Add nights either side
The half of the trip a wellness agency cannot sell you. These are booked on the same invoice as the programme, with the flights routed to suit them.
- Salzburg2 nights · Either end
Two hours by rail, and the natural pairing with an Innsbruck stay.
- The Dolomites3 nights · After
Over the Brenner into Alto Adige — Alpe di Siusi, Ortisei and the best mountain food in Europe.
- Munich2 nights · Before
Two hours north, and often the gateway anyway. The Pinakotheken and the Englischer Garten.
What you can book
2 programmes here
Lanserhof Lans · 14 nights
The Mayr cure
Medically supervised digestive rest at the house that invented the category — and the first three days are genuinely miserable.
US$9,400demandingPark Igls · 10 nights
The metabolic week
The most clinical Mayr week available, at roughly half what the flagship houses charge.
US$4,700moderate
Practical
The unromantic part
- Getting there
- Innsbruck (INN) is twenty minutes away; Munich is two hours by road or rail and often better connected.
- The first days
- Expect headache and fatigue on days two and three. Taper caffeine at home for a fortnight beforehand and it is markedly easier.
- Insurance
- Austrian and German insurers occasionally contribute where a medical indication is documented. Ask before travelling; it is never automatic.
- What to bring
- Walking shoes. The prescription includes the hill, and the houses check that you are using it.