Things to do in Sölden: the summit, no skis needed
More than a lively valley village suggests, and the headline is at the top of the Gaislachkogl, where 007 Elements sits inside the summit. A pass of six days or more covers it, cross country and the rink at Vent are free, and one evening a week the gondola runs late for floodlit sledging. On a grey day, the Freizeit Arena has pools, saunas and bowling.
Sölden is a long, lively village on the valley floor, and its headline act off the skis is a long way up. The Gaislachkogl gondola runs from the middle of the village to the summit at 3,048 metres, where 007 Elements, the James Bond installation, is cut into the rock on the ground where Spectre was filmed.
Start with the free things, because there are more than people expect. A pass of six days or more already covers 007 Elements and the motorcycle museum at Hochgurgl, which is worth knowing before you choose. Cross country across the Ötztal needs no trail pass, the cleared walking runs to 49.5 km, and the rink at Vent is free every day. In a partner hotel, ask at reception on the day of arrival for the Inclusive Card, which gives one free admission a day to the adventure pool, to the sauna world, or to both, depending on the hotel.
For anyone not skiing, the Gaislachkogl is the morning to plan: go up early and take the earliest entry window at 007 Elements for a quiet visit and good light. If the weather shuts the top, the Freizeit Arena on Gemeindestrasse covers most bad days, with warm pools and a slide for children, a sauna world, bowling and indoor tennis. For a gentler half day, Hochsölden gets you height without the whole Gaislachkogl fare.
Sölden's evenings are known for the bars, but one night a week the gondola runs late, the seven kilometre toboggan run is floodlit and a separate lit piste drops to the valley, all on one ticket, which suits a group where half ski and half do not. The same evening, ice Q serves dinner in its glass cube at the summit, with the ride up and down included. Wrap up for the gondola, which is a lot colder than the cube.
Free, and worth knowing
Cleared walking, cross country with no trail pass and a free rink up at Vent, plus two paid attractions a six day pass already covers.
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.
Zwieselstein, where the valley forks, on the free valley bus
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.
Behind the Hotel Vent, up the Venter valley
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.
Freizeit Arena, Gemeindestrasse 4, Solden
On the mountain
The Bond installation inside the summit, and two ways to spend the evening the gondola runs late: floodlit sledging and skiing on one ticket, or dinner in the glass cube.
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 · Summit station of the Gaislachkoglbahn, from the base station in the middle of Solden village · Their page
Floodlit tobogganing and skiing on one ticket
Every Wednesday through the winter the Gaislachkogl gondola runs into the evening, the seven kilometre toboggan run is floodlit, and a separate four kilometre floodlit ski piste drops from the middle station to the valley on blue and black options. One ticket covers both, which is unusual and useful when half a group skis and half does not. The sledge hire shops around the base station extend their hours on Wednesdays, with pick up until nine and returns until ten.
20 to 50 euros · Gaislachkoglbahn base station, Solden village · Their page
The Summit Dinner at ice Q
The glass cube at the top of the Gaislachkogl, a Spectre filming location, serves a multi course dinner every Wednesday through the winter, with the gondola running up at six and back down at ten. One fixed price covers the meal and both rides, so there is nothing to settle at the end of the evening. The resort's own advice is the useful bit: dress warmly for the gondola, because the cube is warm and the ride up to it is not.
Over 50 euros · Summit of the Gaislachkogl, 3,048 m · Their page
In the village
One leisure centre on Gemeindestrasse with warm pools and a slide for children, bowling and indoor tennis, which between them cover most bad weather days.
The Freizeit Arena adventure pool
The village leisure centre on Gemeindestrasse, and the answer to almost every bad weather question in this resort. A thirty degree main pool and a thirty two degree children's pool with a slide of its own, plus a wide slide, a rock grotto with massage jets, a bubbling floor, bubble loungers and a whitewater channel.
20 to 50 euros · Gemeindestrasse 4, Solden. +43 5254 2514 · Their page
Bowling, tennis and the sports hall
Under the same roof again, and the cheapest indoor hours in Solden. A bowling alley at fifteen euros for an hour, two granulate indoor tennis courts at eighteen euros for fifty five minutes, and a forty five by twenty seven metre sports hall with goals and boards for football, handball and floorball. The hall comes with changing rooms, showers and a spectators' stand, so a group travelling together can take a third of it and play.
Under 20 euros · Freizeit Arena, Gemeindestrasse 4, Solden
Nearby
The two quiet ones: Vent at the head of its own valley on the line 330 bus, and Hochsölden, the hotel village straight above Sölden, for an easy half day.
Vent and Hochsolden, the two quiet ones
Vent sits high and small at the head of the Venter valley on the free line 330 bus, and it holds the free ice rink, quiet winter walking and a long mountaineering tradition. Hochsolden is the other kind of place, a hotel village at 2,083 m directly above Solden reached by the Hochsolden-Rotkoglbahn, south facing, ski in and ski out from the hotel doors, and the start point for several of the cleared winter walking routes. The Hochsolden return is the cheapest lift ride in the resort for a foot passenger, which makes it the easy half day for somebody who wants height without the full Gaislachkogl fare.
Under 20 euros · Their page
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Prices and opening times change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.