Date: 31 July 2020

There is more to hiking in Vorarlberg than just exercise. The area offers plenty of delights for your taste buds, too: alpine tours, culinary hikes and high-altitude breakfasts await.

Mountain breakfast

Many of Vorarlberg’s alpine regions are perfect for foodies wishing to start their day in the mountains. In the Montafon region, we recommend the Schafberg Hüsli in Gargellen, where you can take in the views and sample the regional Sura Kees cheese at 2,130 metres above sea level. The restaurant is open every day until 13 September. And if you don’t fancy the hike up, the cable car will take you there in comfort. For one of the valley’s most beautiful vistas, head to the Rellseck alpine inn above Bartholomäberg. It opens its doors to hungry hikers every Wednesday morning.

The Frööd restaurant in the nearby Brandnertal valley offers a flavoursome start to your day right next to the mountain station of the Panoramabahn cable car. Between 9 and 10 am, it serves a lush breakfast spread featuring bread, cold cuts, regional cheeses, Vorarlberg Riebel (a sweet cornmeal dish) and a cheeky glass of prosecco. Head a bit further into the valley to find the Melkboden alpine inn and enjoy tasty cuisine every weekend until 25 October. You can reach it on foot or take the Palüdbahn cable car.

The Seekopf mountain restaurant on the shore of the Zürsersee lake is open throughout the summer for the first time this year, serving up a breakfast worthy of royalty every day until 10.30 am. Enjoy it with complementary, spectacular views of the Arlberg region. If you choose to start the day with a mouth-watering mountain breakfast at the Kaltenberghütte mountain hut, you will probably stick around for a while after clearing your plates. Once you have filled your belly with home-made delicacies from jam and honey to freshly baked butter plait, a sun lounger by the lake awaits you. Why not rent it for a whole day?

At the foothills of the Kanisfluh, a striking summit in the Bregenzerwald region, lies the alpine inn Edelweiss am Öberle. Combine a hike at sunrise with one of the best mountain breakfasts in the region – incredible. The Diedamskopf mountain towers above Au and Schoppernau at a height of around 2000 metres. It is a popular destination for a mountain breakfast, which will be served between 8 and 11 am every Tuesday and Wednesday until 9 September. The cable car starts at 8 am.

Culinary hikes

The Bregenzerwald region is a popular setting for hikes that spoil your taste buds as much as they tax your muscles. You can choose from five routes that combine a hike with breakfast, lunch and dessert in select inns and restaurants. The ‘Picture-perfect Villages and Sweeping Views’ tour leads you around Schwarzenberg, for example. Head from the Hotel Restaurant Berghof Fetz to the Brüggele alpine inn before enjoying your well-deserved sweet treat at the Café Angelikahöhe. The hike involves four hours of walking. For 47 EUR per person, the package also includes the bus ticket and a detailed description of the hiking trail on top. You can book the hike from Bregenzerwald Tourist Board until the end of October.

The ‘Culinary Summer’ hike in the Grosses Walsertal valley takes you from the mountain station of the Sonntag-Stein cable car across two mountain pastures and back. At each stopover, you are served one course of your meal: from the Alpe Steris to the Breithornhütte on Alpe Oberpartnom to the biosphärenpark.haus. Expect 3.5 to four hours of hiking. The package costs 30 EUR per person; the cable car ticket is not included. Available every day until the beginning of September.

The ‘From the Pastures to Your Plate’ hike takes you on a culinary trip through the Kleinwalsertal valley. Every Thursday, the former chef Herbert Edlinger, winner of a Gault-Millau award, takes interested hikers to explore a network of farms and restaurants. You even get to pick and sample wild herbs along the way. At Alpe Melköde, take in sweeping views of the Hoher Ifen mountain and sample local delicacies from mountain cheese and butter to Landjäger sausages. The highlight of the day is a cooking session in the mountains. Available until 24 September, 29 EUR (drinks excluded) per person. The ‘World’s Tastiest Dead End’ is another sumptuous tour of the region. It takes around five hours and takes you to three „GenussWirte“ hotel restaurants: Neue Krone, Birkenhöhe and Sonnenburg. For 40 EUR per person, you get a magnificent three-course menu with two hikes in between.

Alpine hiking

Between Lake Constance and the Silvretta mountains, cheese is more than a popular food. It is a part of the region’s cultural heritage. In these parts, a craft perfected over centuries goes hand in hand with modern production processes. Nine thousand cows graze on 130 mountain pastures. Before they arrive, the cattle move to high-altitude pastures called Vorsäß (mid-elevation pasture) in the early summer. In midsummer, they move on to the higher pastures. Hikers can follow their trails and sample fresh cheese, butter and milk on site. Some routes are particularly rewarding:

‘Around the Rote Wand mountain’ lets you scale more than 900 metres difference in altitude. The hike starts at the Formarinsee lake in the Zugertal valley. It was voted the most beautiful spot in Austria on the Austrian TV show ‘9 Plätze – 9 Schätze’ in 2015. One of the stops along this long route, which takes around six and a half hours to hike, is the Laguzstüble, where you can also buy products produced on the pasture to take home.

The Schönenbach circular hike in the Bregenzerwald region is of medium difficulty. Spanning ten kilometres, it takes you to two alpine pastures (Vorderer Unterspitz and Almisgunten) before you head back to the Jagdgasthaus Egender inn. The tradtitional Vorarlberg Kässpätzle served here are among the best in the country, as the good people of Vorarlberg will be happy to tell you.

For a perfectly idyllic landscape, head to the Nenzinger Himmel on foot or on the hiking bus. You will be walking the border triangle of Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein for about four hours, passing the Panüelalpe and Setschalpe pastures on the way. The Gamperdona alpine inn is especially popular with children thanks to its fresh alpine ice cream.

An easy-going, two-hour hike takes you to the unspoilt Gemsteltal valley. Head out from the village of Mittelberg-Bödmen in the Kleinwalsertal region to traverse impressive mountain and rock vistas and three alpine pastures. Until the end of October, hungry hikers get to fill their bellies with delicacies such as Kaiserschmarren, sausages and home-made cheeses.

The Maisäß Ganeu mid-elevation pasture is one stopover along the round trip through the Garneratal valley in the Montafon region. The hike starts at the midway station of the Versettlabahn cable car. From here, ascend 200 metres of altitude to the Garneraalpe pasture. The landscapes are quite literally picture-perfect: the director Joseph Vilsmaier filmed “Brother of Sleep” here in the 1990s, an adaptation of the eponymous novel by author Robert Schneider from Vorarlberg.

Hikers in the Großes Walsertal valley need good stamina. The hike from Sonntag-Buchboden takes around nine hours, passing the Ober-Überlut pasture along the way. Other sights include the impressive Metzgertobel valley with its many waterfalls and the Kessischlucht gorge, a stunning natural monument.