Discover the Ötztal and its magnificent Tyrolean landscapes

THEÖtztal is a long alpine valley located in the Tyrol. Famous for its glaciers and ski resorts, it has become one of the main tourist centres of this Alpine region. It alone brings together a large number of clichés of the Tyrol and it is definitely worth a stay. Easily accessible from the Inn Valley which flows along the main valley of Tyrol, it is also an ideal mountain destination for tourists staying in Innsbruck which is only about fifty kilometers away.

Without further ado, let's set off to explore the sixty or so kilometers of this magnificent and verdant Ötz Valley, in German, Ötztal ou Oetztal, to the Timmelsjoch (Passo del Rombo), point of contact with the South Tyrol in Italy.

The village of Ötz gave its name to the valley.

When you leave the Inn River valley, which is bordered by the road, motorway and railway line, and head southwards, you get the impression that an imposing mountain range is about to block your path. In reality, a torrent, the Ötztaler Ache, has carved out a passage after the glaciers have done most of the work.

It takes only a few kilometres of a winding road overlooking the deep course of the Ötztaler Ache torrent to reach the first wide, cultivated and very flat valley. Forests cover all the slopes of the mountains, on both sides, but the green fields in summer or white in winter leave a feeling of a wide and airy valley.

It doesn't take long to reach the first large village, and it is not the least important, because it is the one that gave its name to the whole valley: Ötz.

Coming byInnsbruck, just before leaving the Inn axis, one may have noticed a large castle on the foothills of the mountains, south of the river. This was Petersberg Castle, residence of the Counts of Ötz for five centuries, who owned this valley. The village of Oetz (it is also written this way) was therefore their fiefdom, and their town in which all agricultural activity was concentrated. We can still see today the important economic activity of the village which developed around the center in which pretty houses typical of the region remain, including the Gasthof zum Stern with its highly decorated 16th century facade. We will also appreciate the slender silhouette of the church bell tower, typical of Tyrol.

Ötz, at an altitude of 800 meters, is also a major tourist center. In summer, the Piburg lake, whose waters are, it seems, the warmest in the Tyrol, attracts holidaymakers and hikers. At 900 metres above sea level, it is easily accessible by a short walk. In winter, when the ice sets, there are ice skating rinks and a hockey field on its surface. The site, surrounded by fir trees, is absolutely wonderful.

More Ötz, despite its low altitude, is also one of the access points to a ski area. A cable car at the exit of the town allows you to reach Hochoetz at an altitude of 2020 meters, panoramic summit, on the ski slopes also accessible from Ochsengarten on the road to the pass of Kuhtai. 40 kilometers of slopes starting from the village! It is one of the favorite ski resorts of skiers from Innsbruck.

In summer, there are paths that run along the slopes of the Rosskopf, which overlooks the town.

Let's continue on our way.

Längenfeld, whose Aqua Dome is the thermal centre of the Ötztal

The valley first narrows and allows you to cross a first drop, then it crosses a few villages which stretch lazily on the flat bottom of the valley, including Österreuthen with its preserved architecture, before reaching a second important tourist center: Length field.

The village of Length field nestles around its church, against the mountain, in a sunny position on the edge of a large basin occupied by fields. In winter, freezing mists float above the snow cover. A small stream, the Fischlbach, cuts the village in two. The church with its slender bell tower decorated with frescoes serving as a frame for the clocks stands in the middle of this village which has now become an important spa centre since the exploitation by the modern and futuristic installation of the Aqua Dome.

A beautiful wellness center with outdoor hot pools, rich in mineral salts. You can stay there and enjoy the facility late in the evening, under the stars in winter, or come for the day. The prices are high, but the experience is simply extraordinary. In other words, when passing through the Ötztal, you cannot miss this opportunity.

At an altitude of 1200 meters, Length field is a magnificent mountain site, surrounded by peaks that culminate at over 3000 meters above sea level. You can get a good view of it from the small plateau of Oberburgstein (at just over 1400 meters above sea level) which can be reached by a short hike from the valley, crossing a pretty suspension bridge.

Head towards the upper part of the valley.

Sölden, village and international ski resort in the Ötztal

The road leaves the flat Längenfeld basin and heads deeper into the mountains. A winding gorge leads to the most important tourist centre in the Ötztal: Sölden.

At 1350 meters above sea level, the bottom of the valley Sölden, narrower than the wide basins of the previous villages, is almost entirely occupied by dwellings. There is still a Tyrolean soul, certainly, but one feels here the strong tourist development linked to skiing. Many luxury hotels, opulent residences, individual chalets at exorbitant prices constitute the majority of the housing in Sölden. Even the church, the school and the cemetery have been modernized. Everything is done for skiing, and to facilitate the movement of tourists. Urban elevators in the form of funiculars connect the lower part of the village to the higher districts which are scattered along the mountainside up to the hamlet of Hochsolden at an altitude of over 2000 metres, which has become a ski resort in its own right.

From the village center of Sölden where shops, restaurants and bars with an intense nightlife line the promenade, we can even see a sort of concrete viaduct suspended on pylons, built to support the arrival of a ski slope returning to the lower station of the cable car. Unusual!

There is to Sölden, undeniably a more bling-bling atmosphere than in the rest of the valley, but this is what certainly gave it the nickname of millionaires' valley. the ÖtztalThe presence of many stars and the organisation of the first ski competitions of the season in autumn help to put Sölden in the spotlight.

There are 140 km of ski slopes, served by around thirty ski lifts which take skiers up to an altitude of 3247 metres, which are available to skiers.

Although the Ötztal is a land of glaciers, from Sölden, the mountains, which are well over 3000 meters high, often appear very rocky above the green slopes that stretch towards the sky. Nevertheless, winter and summer, the landscape remains very beautiful, very wooded and the small chalets scattered in the valley make the atmosphere less artificial than the center of the resort. It is a very nice stopover for a stay in the deepest part of theÖtztal. To admire the glaciers, you have to go up by gondola to Gaislachkogl, at over 3000 meters. From there, the view of the Ötztal glaciers is breathtaking.

You can get a glimpse of it through the webcams you you can watch through this link.

But this valley has not finished surprising us, let's continue the discovery. Let's continue the path until Zwieselstein, at the foot of the mountains. To continue, we have the choice between two directions, that of Timmelsjoch, towards Italy, or that of Vent, dead end. Let's visit the latter first.

Ventertal, the most isolated valley in the Alps!

There is no official title that awards this title, but after visiting a large part of the valleys of our Alpine massif, the village of Wind deserves at least the podium in this competition. And that's all its charm.

After the splendors of Sölden, the road climbs very slowly, without bends, from the 1450 meters of Zwieselstein to the 1900 meters of Vent, on the mountainside, dominating by a few dozen meters the torrent which descends from the glaciers of theÖtztalIt is on the south-facing slope that this thirteen-kilometre road was built, which only passes through a very small village, Heiligkreuz, with a name that smells of traditional Tyrol, very religious, the word meaning "Holy Cross".

Almost no farms, practically no houses, dense forests, steep slopes, until an unexpected opening: a wide valley dominated by the pyramidal silhouette of the Hörnle, occupied by a few houses and a small church.

The ideal place for a retreat in silence and nature!

On closer inspection, we notice that the church of Wind has a bulbous bell tower, that the few houses are in reality mostly hotels or large farms offering rooms or apartments, and that there is a chairlift right in the middle of the village. Wind is now a small ski resort with two ski lifts for beginners and this chairlift that gives access to a small ski area in the sun that climbs to an altitude of 2650 meters. You can also go sledding on a five-kilometer track! In summer, it is the kingdom of hikes, towards the glaciers or the passes that allow you to get closer to the many glaciers, in particular those of Weisskogel, which at 3700 meters above sea level is the summit of Tyrol, and the Similaun where the glacial mummy named Ötzi.

Ötzi is the name given to a prehistoric man whose naturally preserved mummy was discovered in 1991 in the Alps, on the border between Austria and Italy, restored by the Similaun glacier. He lived about 5 years, during the Copper Age.

His body was found in a glacier, allowing for exceptional preservation of his fabrics, clothing and equipment. He wore a grass cape, skin shoes, a leather coat and tools including a copper axe, an unfinished bow and a quiver full of arrows.

The study of his body revealed that he was in good physical condition for his time, but suffered from arthritis and intestinal parasites. He was murdered: an arrow lodged in his left shoulder and a violent blow to the head suggest a sudden attack.

His case is fascinating because it provides a rare insight into the lifestyle, diet and survival techniques of European peoples at the time. It is now on display at the Musée d'archéologie du Tyrol du Sud in Bolzano, Italy.

More recently, the passes between the Vent Valley and South Tyrol were used until very recently.

So, Wind seems today to occupy a dead end, deep in theÖtztal, on the edge of the Tyrol. But for many centuries the inhabitants of Vent traded and exchanged more frequently with their friends from the upper Val Senales (Schnalstal), today Italian, in the South Tyrol. Vent was therefore a place of passage, which explains the richness of the decorations of the baroque church, the presence of the small older chapel on a hill overlooking the village and the network of paths which go into the very narrow valleys (Niedertal and Rofental) which seem to have come straight out of a fantasy film (the Lord of the Rings, for example...).

Apart from enjoying the silence of the mountains and practicing mountain sports, there is not much to do in Vent, and yet, this bucolic place has a crazy charm. If you stay in the Ötztal, you have to jump to Wind.

Let's return by the same road, since there is only one to Zwieselstein.

Obergurgl, skiing in winter and the road to Italy in summer

You have to climb a big bend and go through a long tunnel to pierce the valley of the Gurgl Ache, the torrent that we follow along the road that leads to the Timmelsjoch (Passo del Rombo). Once again, the landscape widens and becomes much more welcoming upon arrival at the village of Untergurgl, located at an altitude of 1800 meters. The village is wedged between the road and the mountain, leaving a vast space available for fields and pastures in summer, and for magnificent cross-country skiing trails in winter. These run along the torrent for a few kilometers then climb up a hill, just like the road which is not very far away, to reach the first houses of the very modern tourist resort from Obergurgl. At 1927 meters, Obergurgl welcomes its visitors in a landscape where the larches become scarce and give way to alpine pastures. In the background, stand the Gurgl glaciers, in the glacier complex of theÖtztal.

Here there is a mixture of well-renovated old houses and residences with modern architecture. The "ski resort" effect is felt, but the place remains very harmonious. In winter, skiers can count on 110 kilometers of slopes enjoying exceptional snow cover between November and May. The highest point is at an altitude of over 3000 meters. The resort ofObergurgl is connected to that ofHochgurgl, which is 2150 meters above sea level and a few bends higher, is the highest resort in Austria. With a much less harmonious architecture and far from the standards of beauty to which Tyrol has accustomed us, it looks more like those high-altitude resorts in the French Alps, built in the 70s, but with facades brightened up by bright colors. It is the ideal location, at the start of the slopes for a winter stay, but it is not a typical destination to aim for for a discovery stay in Tyrol.

The road continues along the treeless, steep slopes of the Timmelstal. The landscape then becomes that of high mountain roads, rocky and rough, with an arrival at the pass, the Timmelsjoch at about 2500 meters, after a few last bends. The road then descends by rapid bends towards the Val Passiria (Passeiertal), in the direction of Merano/Meran, in Italy.

The Ötztal, a valley with many facets

From the bucolic sweetness of the first villages to the bustling atmosphere of Sölden, passing through isolated valleys where time seems to have stood still, theÖtztal reveals a condensed version of the Alpine soul. This valley, shaped by glaciers and centuries of history, offers a diversity of landscapes and experiences that make it an unmissable destination in Tyrol.

Between tradition and modernity, outdoor activities and cultural heritage, every corner of the Ötztal has its share of surprises. Whether you come for summer hiking, internationally renowned skiing in Sölden and Obergurgl, relaxing in the warm waters of the Aqua Dome or discovering ancient villages, the valley invites you to fully immerse yourself in the alpine world.

As you travel along its winding roads, through its deep forests or climb its snow-capped peaks, you quickly understand why this valley fascinates mountain lovers so much. One thing is certain: the Ötztal is not just a place to visit, it is a place to experience, and above all, it is a place to rediscover every season.

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