Sölden

Free, and worth knowing

The Otztal Guest Card. Free with the accommodation, issued digitally up to a fortnight before arrival or collected at any Otztal information office, and in winter it carries single ride tickets on the valley bus lines and the local ski bus shuttles. That is what puts Vent, Zwieselstein and the length of the valley within reach of somebody without a car. It also carries a welcome gift and a ten per cent advantage on activities booked through the Otztal Adventure Shop.

What a six day pass already includes. Two paid attractions come free with a Solden pass of six days or longer, and almost nobody knows it. 007 ELEMENTS at the summit of the Gaislachkogl, which is twenty six euros on its own, and the Top Mountain Motorcycle Museum up at Hochgurgl, which is fifteen. The lift company's own winter price list says so in as many words and the museum operator says it independently, so it is worth raising at the point somebody chooses a pass length.

Forty nine and a half kilometres of cleared winter walking. Nineteen cleared and signposted routes totalling 49.5 km, spread across the valley floor at Solden, Zwieselstein, Hochsolden, Vent and Gurgl. They run through forest, across meadows and along the Otztaler Ache, and several of them finish at an alpine hut, which is rather the point of walking in this valley.

Cross country, free the length of the valley. The Otztal states plainly that its 140 km of cross country trails are free of charge, which is worth saying out loud because most Alpine valleys sell a trail pass. The nearest loop to Solden is at Zwieselstein where the valley forks, 5.5 km circular, classic or skating, running along both banks of the Venter Ache. The bigger centres are further down the valley at Niederthai and Langenfeld, and the guest card gets you to all three.

The ice rink at Vent. Behind the Hotel Vent, up the Venter valley, and the tourist board says it plainly: every day, free entrance. Skates come from Sportalm or the Venter Kaufhausl in the village, and curling is possible on request with the stones lent out free of charge. The line 330 bus gets a family up there for nothing on the guest card, which makes this the cheapest afternoon in the valley by a distance.

A free swim on a partner hotel's Inclusive Card. The Freizeit Arena works with a large number of hotels across the region, and guests of a partner hotel are handed an Inclusive Card that gives one free admission a day to the adventure pool, to the sauna world, or to both, depending on the hotel. This is the biggest free thing in Solden in winter and it is invisible unless somebody asks, so ask at reception on the day of arrival.

A few of the rest

007 Elements, inside the summit of the Gaislachkogl. The James Bond installation is cut into the inside of the Gaislachkogl summit at 3,048 m, on the ground where Spectre was filmed in 2015, and it is the reason a great many people who never put skis on come up this mountain at all. Multimedia rooms, original props and gadgets, and a walk through how the film was made on the mountain you are standing in. Over 50 euros.

The Gaislachkogl gondola, and how high a walker actually gets. The gondola runs in two sections from the middle of the village to the summit at 3,048 m, and at the top the BIG3 viewing platform is free to stand on once you are up there, looking out across the Otztal Alps. This is the high mountain morning for a guest who is not skiing, and it is the one Solden summit a foot passenger can reach between November and April. Go up early, and buy the descent only fare if the plan is to sledge or walk back down. Over 50 euros.

The Gaislachkogl toboggan run, 7.3 km. Seven point three kilometres from the Gaislachkogl middle station at 2,170 m down to the valley at 1,366 m, a drop of over eight hundred metres, graded red. The day ticket buys unlimited rides up the lower section of the gondola, so this is a morning of repeats rather than one descent. It is a foot passenger ticket and ski equipment is not carried on it, which makes it one of the few things on this mountain built for a group where nobody skis. 20 to 50 euros.