After great anticipation, the time has finally come. We leave very early to really make the most of the day at the Ifen Hotel and in the Kleinwalsertal. Since we start from Vienna or Salzburg, the journey is a bit long at six hours, but we can already see at the border that it was absolutely worth it! The Kleinwalsertal is a quite remote place in Vorarlberg. Why do we call it remote? In fact, the Kleinwalsertal can only be reached from Germany, as there is no road from Austria leading there due to the Alps. The Kleinwalsertal is accordingly German: in addition to the local Walsers, you will meet numerous German employees, holiday guests and, last but not least, German beer from the Allgäu.
Our Room
At the Travel Charme Ifen Hotel we are immediately welcomed in a friendly manner. After a short description of the hotel complex, we are shown the room. This time we opted for a junior suite. Once there, you will be overwhelmed by a huge, walk-in closet. Opposite is the beautiful bathroom with two sinks, shower and a separate toilet. The room is also very spacious and is equipped with a comfortable couch, a coffee table, a mini-bar with a coffee maker and a large and comfortable double bed. Our highlights? The balcony and the view of the hotel’s infinity pool and the Kleinwalsertal and its massive mountains.
Short e-bike tour
Unfortunately, the weather is not quite cooperating today, but we still decided to do a small e-bike tour in and around the village of Hirschegg. After a slightly longer stop at the church and a few photos, we decide to drive back to take a closer look at the hotel.
The spa area
The spa area has an indoor pool, a sauna area with various saunas, a spacious outdoor whirlpool for several people, a spacious gymnastics and course room and a fitness room with probably the coolest fitness equipment we have ever seen. Since it was quite chilly outside, we only went into the heated infinity pool for a moment – tomorrow it should be nicer, so it’s perfect!
Dinner at the Carnozet
For the evening we reserved a table in advance at the popular CARNOZET, a restaurant right in the hotel. The Walser specialty restaurant amazes us as soon as we enter due to its furnishings. The urban-alpine ambience, surrounded by sunburnt wood paneling with large glass fronts, is truly unique. It was really difficult for us to decide when we browsed the menu. We were allowed to choose between a menu of up to 5 courses and an á la carte menu. After a lot of back and forth it ended up being a mix of both options – we enjoyed it! Appetizers:
intermediate course / soup
main course
After the fantastic culinary delights, we let the evening end on the terrace with a glass of wine…
Day 2 in Kleinwalsertal
We start our day by first gathering strength. Breakfast in the hotel is ideal for this. An extensive buffet awaits us there with a wide variety of products from the region and beyond.
our activities
Today we want to explore the mountains in Kleinwalsertal. First up is the Walmendingerhorn. At 9 a.m. we start by car and make our way to the Walmendingerhornbahn. You can read our report on it here.
From the summit we discovered the Herzsee – which immediately caught our attention because we only found it after a long search on Google Maps. We assume it is at the Ifenbahn, where we are going next. Once there, the gondola takes you back up to the mountain station. Maybe you can hike down to the lake? We are disappointed to find that this is unfortunately not possible. Nevertheless, we think it’s really nice on the mountain, you can find the experience report here.
Finally we walk from the valley station to the Herzsee, a real insider tip in our opinion. Here are a few photos as a foretaste, all information about the Herzsee can be found here.
Enough exploring, we drive back to the Travel Charme Ifen Hotel. We strengthen ourselves at the afternoon buffet – which is also very generous. Two hot dishes, a large selection of cheese and sausages, fresh bread and various cakes are available. Here, too, the quality is simply top!
We still deserve a little break. It’s hot, the sun is shining – just the right thing to finally “jump” into the dreamlike infinity pool, which was built just last year. After a quick shower, we jump into the cool water. We are almost alone in the pool, because at this time in the early afternoon everyone seems to have flown out for hiking and biking. All the better for us, because at the very front you have a fantastic view of the Kleinwalsertal. We go onto one of the 3 massage benches and turn on the jets… that’s what we call pure relaxation. While gently bubbling, we let our souls drift and our gaze wanders over the valley.
Deeply relaxed, we pull ourselves up again, because we still have one goal today: the natural stone bridge. Probably one of the most famous sights in the Kleinwalsertal. In just 10 minutes we were there with the e-bike. We also wrote a short article about this.
Dinner at Theo’s
On the 2nd evening we reserved a table at Theo’s – also a restaurant in the Ifen Hotel Kleinwalsertal. The food is excellent, just like the night before. 3 courses are served, with each course having 2-3 choices. We get the soup in the show kitchen, local cheese specialties from the buffet. As a starter we choose the duck breast, which is served with various berries. Afterwards we treat ourselves to an excellent celery foam soup and for the main course we choose picata.
Day 3 in Kleinwalsertal
After a hearty breakfast at the Ifen Hotel, we check out and drive in the direction of Riezlern. Finally, we want to visit the place and take the Kanzelwandbahn to the Kanzelwand.
You can find details in our report, but we can already tell you that the visit is really worth it. The view and the view of the Riezler Alpsee are simply fantastic.
It was a really great weekend in the magical Kleinwalsertal. The travel time was absolutely worth it. The Travel Charme Ifen Hotel is really an extraordinarily beautiful hotel, which we are happy to recommend with a clear conscience. We will be back!
