Sustainable Winter vacation – Part 2

You plan to visit the Alps, but you don’t want to stand in lift queues and then race down the crowded slopes? Snow tours, sledding, cross-country skiing – there are so many, great alternatives to actively enjoy the snow.

Deep snow skiing is the epitome of freedom for you? In Sölden there are numerous spots where you can live out your passion for free riding. If you stay in one of the great apartments of the LENI MOUNTAIN Appartments & Chalet in Sölden, you’ll be right in the middle of the snow sports action in no time. Special free ride guides will show you the best slopes in the area. You can also have fun on sleds in Sölden. The newly built, illuminated toboggan run leads from the middle station of the Gaislachkoglbahn to Sölden. With a length of 7.2 km, it is one of the longest toboggan runs in Austria.

Winter hiking or off to the forest sauna

If you prefer it a bit quieter for your winter vacation, you will find an extensive network of beautiful winter hiking trails in the area around the Biohotel Grafenast in Pill. The family-run, bio and eco hotel is the ideal starting point for relaxing winter hikes with a view of the magnificent mountain scenery and the Inn Valley. After a day of hiking in the snow we recommend to unwind in the hotel’s forest sauna. Or in the cozy rooms, built according to strict criteria of sustainability and ecology.

The magical backdrop of the Tyrolean Oberland also makes the Summit Lodges in Pfunds a special address for your winter vacation. In the sustainable cozy log cabins in Canadian style you can relax after an active day in the snow. Or how about a snowshoe tour? A technically easy to do route is for example the beautiful ‘Pfundser Tschey’. On the relatively short route, you climb up 550 meters in altitude to reach the summit of Pfund’s local mountain, Frudiger, at an altitude of 2,136 meters. In any case, you should plan plenty of time for a rest at the summit cross, from where you have a fabulous view.

Ice and cross country skiing in winter landscapes

Or you prefer runners. From mid-December to early March, Lake Weissensee becomes an ice-skating paradise. It is the only one of Carinthia’s large bathing lakes that regularly freezes in winter, and with up to 12.5 km, becomes the largest natural ice-skating rink in Europe. On average, every five years, the deep eastern part of Lake Weissensee also freezes also providing an ice-skating track about 24 kilometers long. You have direct access to the lake from the beach area of the Genießerhotel Die Forelle. In the evening, sustainable and creative cuisine awaits you here in the hotel restaurant, which has won several awards.

All cross-country skiing fans will come to their taste at the Eco Park Hotel Azalea in Val di Fiemme. Some spectacular routes run along the Marcialonga track through the popular cross-country skiing area. Of course, you can also discover the snow-covered villages far from the ski slopes on snowshoes: The vegan-vegetarian family hotel Eco Park Hotel Azalea in Cavalese organizes once a week from the hotel a guided snowshoe hike to the most idyllic places of the Fleimstal.

Sledding down the mountains

Bright blue skies, bright white peaks: even without boards, winter vacation in Berchtesgadener Land is simply wonderful. No matter whether you hike through the snow-covered forest or visit the game feeding in the Berchtesgaden National Park. The Berghotel Rehlegg recommends the racy pleasure of whizzing down the “Hirscheckblitz” on a toboggan. Of course, you can rent sledges for the toboggan run at the hotel. Afterwards, you are being pampered at the spa with Rehlegg’s own herbal cosmetics.