What to do in winter in Nauders in Tyrol?

Nauders in winter is a postcard!

In the collective imagination, a valley of Tyrol is long, sunny and snowy, surrounded by forests that climb the sides of the mountains, whose white peaks shine in the sun, a village huddled around its church with a slender bell tower and a multitude of wooden barns scattered in the fields covered in the white blanket.

Nauders, that's exactly it.

AlpAddict.com makes you discover Nauders and its surroundings beyond the borders, because Nauders is on the border of three countries!

Nauders, a pearl of Tyrol

We come to Nauders by the road that leads from Innsbruck to Italy via the Reschen pass (Passo Resia, in Italy). It first rises in tight and wooded gorges, passes a fortification built after the Napoleonic defeat and during the Austrian domination of this corner of Europe, then in a few bends it reaches a flat area. At this point the valley widens and the sun bathes the travelers. The village of Nauders is not far away.

We suddenly distinguish the two essential elements: the church bell tower and the medieval castle.

Between these two constituent elements of any habitat dating from the Middle Ages, we find houses typical of this region of Tyrol, sometimes topped with wooden barns for storing hay, and very often decorated with frescoes on their light facades.

A few restaurants and taverns and bakeries where you can taste local specialties, one or two sports equipment rental shops to get equipped, a practical supermarket that serves the valley, and of course the school, the town hall and the small cemetery that overlooks the village: everything is there for the inhabitants to live here year-round, all their lives, for generations.

And that's what we like about Tyrol, and even more to Nauders : an authentic, living mountain, which smells of warm cattle on farms, hay stored in wooden barns, and where the church bell rings out the hours of the day… and sometimes the night.

the imposing Nauders Castle, which houses a local history museum – with some nice torture chambers! – and offers rental accommodation, dominates the lower part of the valley. At its feet, children go sledding or ice skating.

Opposite, on a small hill, the church with its slender bell tower dominates the village and benefits from the last rays of sunshine which fall on this side of the valley.

Skiing in Nauders

In winter, snow falls in abundance at Nauders. At 1400m, Nauders is one of the highest villages in Tyrol. In this part of the Alps, ski resorts are often located at the bottom of valleys at an altitude of around 1000m. Here, winters are colder than in France, the snow holds better on the ground, and the ancients would never have built their villages in the high valleys for fear of isolation and avalanches.

Nauders is close to the Reschenpass, which connects Tyrol to Austria au South Tyrol in Italy. Same language, same culture, but different historical destinies simply because they are on one side or the other of the watershed that runs along the crest of the Alps. The presence of the pass makes it a very snowy place, and also very cold.

The alpine ski resort is located a little outside of Nauders. Shuttles allow you to travel between the village and the resort with a very comfortable rotation frequency.

75km of slopes ranging from 1400m to 2750m allow you to enjoy all levels of difficulty, on sunny slopes, with returns to the forest. Off-piste and "nature" slopes are available to skiers if the snow and safety conditions are favorable.

The tourist office of Nauders guarantees naturally snow-covered slopes until spring! So you can enjoy them even when the sun's rays are stronger.

For the pleasure of skiing in another country, a ski pass gives you the right to go skiing at the pass, in Italian territory a few kilometers away. The same shuttle that serves the resort from the village, also serves the Italian resorts of Schöneben and Haideralm (yes, yes, it is in Italy!). And if you have a vehicle, other large resorts like Trafoi-Solda at the foot of the Ortles await you about thirty kilometers away for high mountain experiences, and this with the same ski pass.

Looking for an adrenaline rush? A unique experience awaits you. An eight-kilometre toboggan ride will take you from the top of the Bergkastel down to the village.

Even better? Going down a mountain on a sled at night! Yes, every Tuesday and Thursday until 22 p.m. the Lärchenalm sled run awaits you for memorable adventures with family or friends.

For lovers of the great Nordic spaces, Nauders also offers space and commitment. Hiking trails crisscross the mountain, and 70km of cross-country ski trails run along the valley floor. And we even get to 90km if we add those on the Italian side.

Nauders In winter, there is guaranteed snow and sunshine Tyrol, the warmth of its inhabitants, the pleasures of the table discovering Tyrolean gastronomy, and the sporting activities that match your tastes.

From Nauders to the Italian border: Reschenpass and Reschensee (Passo Resia e lago di Resia).

To link Nauders At the Italian border, we will follow the ancient Via Claudia Augusta, an imperial Roman road that connected Augsburg in Germany to the Po Valley in Italy.

Just after crossing the pass, whose abandoned customs buildings are nothing more than a curiosity from the time when you had to show your passport when crossing the border, you come out onto the Reschensee, or Lake Resia, named after the first Italian village encountered when coming from the north.

A well-known image to any audience is that of the bell tower of Curon Venosta – an Italian village – that emerges from the lake like a finger pointing towards the sky. It is all that remains of the old village submerged during the creation of the large artificial lake of Resia (Reschensee).

Beyond the mysterious side of this bell tower, in the style typical of this part of Tyrol, and which protrudes from the waters or the ice depending on the season, one will be amazed by the brightness of the place when the sun bathes the pass. On the north side, from where one comes, the road descends slowly towards Nauders and theAustria in the middle of the forests, and on the other side, to the south, a plateau reveals the Ortles mountain range on the horizon Italy with its snow-capped peaks and glaciers.

Between the pass and this massif, the road actually descends rapidly to the bottom of the Vinschgautal (Val Venosta in Italian) to reach the village of Malles/Mals, just as the river does Adige which is born in these mountains and flows to the Adriatic Sea, crossing the cities of Bolzano/Bozen, Trento and Verona.

The village of Malles/Mals, whose importance is visible from the number of towers that protrude from the roofs, benefits from its location at the crossroads of three countries: theItaly Austria, and Switzerland very close which we enter from the bottom of the Val Mustair.

In this region, German is spoken in Italy, or Romansh in Switzerland; the road signs are bilingual… We feel that recent history has not diluted the spirit of the place and the ancestral tradition. This is what makes this corner of the Alps so charming. Exoticism guaranteed!

From Nauders to Switzerland: a day in Samnaun

For a village that sits on the border of three countries, it is not difficult to find a way to the Switzerland. There are even three of them.

The first, via the Resia Pass, will take you to the Val Mustair and its history around the monastery wanted in its current form by Charlemagne, its language and its legends.

The second passes through the heights of Nauders towards the East, and descends to Martina on the banks of the Inn – the same river that crosses theEngadine, Innsbruck before joining the Danube. From there you can go up the entire region of theEngadine, this very long valley which ends on the heights of St. Moritz, one of the most exclusive resorts in the Alps.

But the access that interests us, the one for Samnaun, is located a little further downstream on the road to Landeck.

Samnaun, an enclave Switzerland in a valley entirely facing Austria. The river that flows there naturally empties into the Inn, and the ski area is attached to that of Ischgl, an internationally known Austrian party resort. A long time ago, the village could only be reached by a road from Austria, and for this reason this valley was removed, for a time, from Swiss customs regulations. For a century, there has also been a road that from Martina, in Switzerland, reached Samnaun without going through Austria and the village was finally attached to Swiss Customs.

However Samnaun has retained a duty-free shopping area, making it a luxury shopping paradise. In particular, you will find many watch dealers there!

The landscape is not to be outdone. The resort consists of two villages: Samnaun Dorf and Samnaun Compatsch. Between the two, the departure station of the cable car that leads to the Silvretta Arena-Ischgl-Samnaun ski area.

The mountains surrounding the valley dwarf the village with their height: they exceed 2500m in altitude on the northern edge on the border with theAustria and more than 3000m towards the bottom of the valley to the West and South. The forest quickly gives way to treeless slopes, which in winter gives this area the appearance of a white paradise.

When you return from a walk in Samnaun, whose chalets and windows are reminiscent of the ski resorts Gstaad, St. Moritz ou Zermatt, you will appreciate all the more the simplicity and authenticity of a village like Nauders, which has seen emperors and armies pass through, but which has never ceased to keep the soul of the Tyrol.

Why spend a holiday in Nauders?

1. Undoubtedly for the village itself and its valley bathed in sunshine and ideal for walks.
2. For winter activities, such as downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding and snowball fights!
3. For the pleasure of easily crossing borders and discovering different cultures and gastronomy and letting yourself be lulled by the sound of languages ​​and dialects that you will not hear anywhere else.

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