About Me
All you need is a good Guide
Monika Gründhammer
As the founder of MONI’S HAMMERTIME Tour Guide Service Tirol,
I warmly welcome you to my homepage.
Austria Guide
About Me
I am Monika Gründhammer – a qualified tour guide, state-certified Austria Guide, and mountain hiking guide. Born in Tyrol and raised in the mountains, nature is more than just a backdrop for me – it is home and inspiration.
For over 15 years, I have accompanied guests on flight, ship, train, and bus tours worldwide, from city tours to adventurous hikes. In doing so, I combine tradition with a modern perspective on cultures and people.
What is important to me? Authentic experiences, encounters on equal footing, and the joy of creating unforgettable moments together. Traveling is not just a profession for me – it is my passion and my dream job.
I now wish you much enjoyment while browsing and reading my homepage.
Your Tyrol Enthusiast
Monika
Qualified Tour Guide
After my studies in Innsbruck and my training as a state-certified flight instructor, I was eager to explore the world. Therefore, I decided to complete the training to become a certified tour guide. On Princess Cruises’ cruise ships, as a German-speaking onboard hostess, I was able to experience the beauties of this world firsthand and thus supervise extraordinary long-distance group tours. I visited fascinating places such as Moorea, Bora Bora, Tahiti, and Hawaii. I also traveled to Australia and New Zealand. Further on to Iceland, where glaciers and volcanoes meet, and with Hurtigruten’s postal ships, I traveled to Norway’s smallest fjords. What an exciting time….
Back home, I managed bus tours in Tyrol, Bavaria, South Tyrol, and Switzerland. Additionally, round trips throughout Austria with the most beautiful stops in the various federal states were on my itinerary.
My References & Qualifications
✓ Abitur in Innsbruck
✓ Bachelor’s degree in Biology
✓ Training as a state-certified paragliding instructor
✓ Cert. Tour Guide, state-certified Tourist Guide and Tyrolean Mountain Hiking Guide, trained Natopia Nature Guide
✓ Travel agency qualification exam passed
✓ Working as a tour guide since 2010
✓ Active as an independent entrepreneur in the tour guide business since 2014
✓ Supervised and led numerous domestic and international tours in the last 14 years
✓ Station Manager in London, Apulia, Gran Canaria, and Calabria
✓ Onboard Hostess for German-speaking guests with Princess Cruises
✓ Tour Manager for various tours on the Hurtigruten postal ship for Trendtours
✓ Repeated supervision of Wikinger Reisen on the MS Norröna
✓ Tourguide in Edinburgh and Glasgow for Wind&Cloud Travel
✓ Tour Guide/Manager for senior travel groups for Eurotours, Stoll Reisen, Traveleurope, and Travelpartner
✓ Repeated travel group supervision at the Music Autumn and Brass Band Festival in Ellmau/Tyrol
✓ Supervised various paragliding training trips in Bassano, Castelluccio, Turkey, Slovenia, and Meduno
✓ 2024 supervised safari tour in South Africa, tour in Iceland, and hiking trip in Crete with Peter Habeler
✓ TECH University Master’s degree/Art History (ongoing)
I look forward to welcoming you and your groups to Tyrol and its surroundings and am, of course, available worldwide as travel support for your groups.
Your tour guide looks forward to numerous inquiries,
MONIKA GRÜNDHAMMER
Allow us to introduce: Your Moni’s Hammertime – Team
Our German-speaking team of tour guides, mountain and hiking guides, and licensed Austria Guides will guide you on your Tyrol or Austria trip through one of Europe’s most fascinating countries. With passion! This should be evident in almost all sentences and stories. Additionally, we constantly further our education and also travel privately with the greatest fervor to have a few secret spots up our sleeves.
Moni, Gunnel, Angelika, and Elisabeth
What sets us apart?
As licensed Austria Guides, we all have completed a two-year full-time training at Wifi Tyrol. From art, culture, and customs to geographical knowledge and excursions in North-East and South Tyrol, Salzburg, and Vienna, everything is included. Continuous further education is also not a foreign concept, furthermore, all our Austria Guides are self-employed and are required to have registered their own business registered.
In Austria, guiding in cities is exclusively permitted for state-certified guides and requires a trade license!
Our Services
Our guides are also available in multiple languages, and we cover common foreign languages such as English, French, Italian, and Spanish.
I would be happy to put together your perfect guide team, especially for larger groups and incentive trips. We cater to the needs of your group and are also happy to assist in advance with the perfect daily schedule, city tour, or route for your desired destination.
I look forward to hearing from you to put together the perfect program with the suitable guide/guides for you and your group.
Your Moni from Tyrol
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
I would like to express my sincere thanks for the excellent tour guiding. The weather was wonderfully beautiful, & it was great to experience these moments too. Upper Austria with Weiermaier Reisen works excellently. And I’ve never had a tour guide like Moni before. So thank you, thank you. I hope we see each other more often on tours and hikes. I wish you all the best and that we stay healthy. Regards, Sepp!
Sepp Hofer from Garsten/Upper Austria
NEWS 2025
Here I will keep you updated on exhibitions, interesting personalities, sights, and general highlights!
Enjoy browsing…
Natural History Museum in Vienna
As part of my private online Master’s degree program in Art History at Tech Global University, I was able to visit the Art and Natural History Museum in Vienna at the beginning of April 2025. The focus was on the Venus of Willendorf in the Natural History Museum and the Egyptian Exhibition in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Venus of Willendorf
Nevertheless, I must say that the Venus of Willendorf and the figure from Stratzing particularly captivated me.
This Venus is the most famous of those existing and was discovered in 1908 by archaeologist Josef Szombathy in an area near the Austrian town of Willendorf. The work dates to the late Aurignacian period. It measures eleven centimeters and was made from a type of stone not found in the Willendorf area, which is why it is assumed that it might have been produced in another region and later brought to the area.
But not only the Venus of Willendorf, but also the figure from Galgenberg (also known as Fanny vom Galgenberg) is a Venus figurine made of green serpentine, named after its discovery site near Lower Austrian Stratzing. Both figurines held a special fascination for me.
The Venus of Willendorf is a Venus figurine, discovered in 1908, approximately 11 cm tall and around 29,500 years old, from the Gravettian period. It is on display as Austria’s most famous archaeological find at the Natural History Museum Vienna.
Venus of Galgenberg
The statuette was found during the ongoing excavation on September 23, 1988. The stone sculpture is 7.2 cm tall and weighs 10 g. Its age is even dated to 36,000 years. Incredible!!!
For more information, here is an interesting PDF from my Master’s degree program, which delves deeper into the various figurines and ways of life.
Egyptian Exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum
Also incredible was the Egyptian Exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, directly opposite the Natural History Museum. The Egyptian era with its art treasures is incredibly exciting, and a visit to the museum is definitely worthwhile.
One thing is certain: Egypt with Cairo, a Nile cruise, and the new archaeological museum next to the Pyramids is still high on my to-do list….
Attached are a few more impressions of the exhibition in Vienna!
I hope you enjoyed my small art contribution, and I look forward to the next highlight when I travel to the Perigord region in France. There I will visit the Upper Paleolithic Lascaux Cave and, of course, report back to you.
Until then, all the best, your world explorer,
Monika
Living Tyrolean Customs…
Visiting Helene Bachler in Brixen im Thale in Tyrol.
Yesterday, I visited a dear acquaintance. Helene Bachler! I accidentally came across her a few years ago when I was searching the internet for Tyrolean dialect sayings for my guests.
Lo and behold, that’s how I came across dear Helene. No sooner said than done, I contacted Helene back then, and we had a first, very pleasant meeting at her home in the beautiful Brixentoi. At that time, I acquired her first book “A bissl vabog´n owa nix dalog´n” and was thrilled by the response from my guests. Especially the “clever husband” and the “Packtä” were very well received.
Helene was not idle in the meantime, and a second highly recommended read emerged! With the book “z`Brixen zommtrogn”, she once again succeeded in creating an extraordinarily amusing work, which I can only highly recommend to you.
Helene Bachler Profile
Helene was born in Hopfgarten im Brixental, grew up in Kirchberg, and is married in Brixen im Thale. Her daughter lives in Westendorf, so it’s safe to say that she knows several stories about every village in the valley.
If you are interested in purchasing the book “z`Brixen zommtrogn”, you are welcome to email Helene. Helene is happy to send her great book worldwide!
Order email to Helene: a.h.bachler@aon.at
Cost: €20 plus shipping costs
*Upon request, the book can be gladly signed by Helene.
Reading sample from Helene’s book “z`Brixen zommtrogn”…
Photographs of the Region
Beautiful photographs of the region were taken by Herbert Laiminger, who also lives in Brixen im Thale.
Many thanks to dear Helene for providing your texts, and a heartfelt thank you to Herbert for the wonderful photos, a dream. (©copyright: Herbert Laiminger)
And so that my readers can also enjoy something from the beautiful Brixentoi region, attached are a few excerpts of the most beautiful photos, some of which also appear in Helene’s book.
All the best…
Your Tour Guide, Monika
Did you have a Hammertime with me and my guide service?
Then please let us know here; we look forward to your feedback!
Your Moni & Team!
