In our previous blog, you learned how to make your ski vacation sustainable. If you don’t necessarily need ski slopes for a successful winter vacation or just feel like doing something different, then try one of the following wonderful alternatives. They’re at least as fun and you’ll take home great, sustainable experiences to remember your vacation by!

Snowshoe tours and cross-country skiing

Very close to the Naturhotel Outside in East Tyrol lies the Hohe Tauern National Park. This is perfect for great snowshoe tours. Away from the hustle and bustle of the ski slopes, you can quietly leave your footprints in the snow and enjoy the winter wonderland. The HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio in Balderschwang in the Allgäu also offers snowshoe tours for deceleration, even all year round, then of course without snowshoes. The hotel manager Marc Traubel himself guides you on these environmentally friendly tours through untouched nature, which has a particularly magical effect in the winter silence.

However, not only snowshoeing is environmentally friendly, but also cross-country skiing is much more sustainable than alpine skiing. After all, you are completely independent of slopes and lifts. Right behind the HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio, you can dive directly into the fantastic winter landscape of “Bavarian Siberia”, as Balderschwang is often called, via great cross-country trails. If you want to go on a cross-country skiing tour without a tour provider, that is of course possible. In the ski regions around the Naturhotel Outside and the HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio there are numerous well-signposted cross-country skiing trails. You can enjoy them to your heart’s content and create your own individual route.

Husky tours, curling and toboggan run

While snowshoeing and cross-country skiing are classic winter vacation experiences, the cold season also invites you to try something new and unusual. For example, in Bad Herrenalb, not far from Hotel SCHWARZWALD PANORAMA, you can book a husky sledding tour or trekking with a dog. Your own husky will support you with its power while hiking. The participants have to be over 18 years old and in good physical condition. 

• If you are planning to book a husky tour or a horse-drawn sleigh ride, make sure you know how the animals are kept and treated. Please have a look at our detailed blog about animal welfare on travels 😉

The Adventure World offers another fun and perhaps somewhat unusual activity near the Hotel SCHWARZWALD PANORAMA: curling. Something that may seem boring at first glance is actually a lot of fun when everyone tries to get as close as possible to the “Daube” (the square wooden block in the field) with their own ice stick! Of course, mulled wine and children’s punch are not to be missed 😉

Nestled in the Alpine postcard idyll of Berchtesgaden National Park, Berghotel Rehlegg offers the perfect starting point for a variety of winter activities.

But if you want to be a kid again and feel that cold ride wind in your face, we recommend you rent a toboggan at the reception and whiz down the 2.2 kilometer long toboggan run “Hirscheckblitz”. Or book yourself an unforgettable horse-drawn sleigh ride to the nearby winter quarters of about 50 wild animals in the Klausbach Valley. Watching and feeding the animals against the wintry backdrop is an unforgettable experience, especially for children!

Conscious, slow winter experiences

After an active day in the snow, you probably crave relaxation in the evening. At Hotel Rehlegg, that works wonderfully in the solar-powered outdoor pool with a view of the peaks under a clear starry sky. But even if the snow doesn’t want to fall during your winter vacation, you can still experience the mountains as they are. Following this motto, the family-friendly Eco Park Hotel Azalea in Trentino/Italy invites you to appreciate the small, slow moments and experiences. This can be done, for example, by doing yoga or reading aloud with the children. And to take nature as it is. You can do that here, among other things, while forest bathing with a view of the mountains or during a walk in the evening, for example, with lanterns.

A sustainable winter vacation doesn’t necessarily mean doing without winter sports altogether. But as you can see, you can also experience and discover many beautiful things away from the slopes.

Were we able to inspire you with our alternative winter activities? Which special or unusual snow activity have you already experienced? Write us your favorite winter memories in the comments.

For the planning of your next winter vacation, save one of the pins.