Naturhotel Moosmair, Ahornach

The Moosmair is in a fantastic location both in terms of views and scenery but also for easy access to the surrounding valleys (an excellent free bus pass is a brilliant tourist benefit) but more than that the family are so helpful and welcoming it makes the whole experience a joy. And the food......to die for! First Class.

Hotel was really good, and the walking very enjoyable, mountains spectacular and the bus service efficient (except when a rockfall closed the road from Kasern the afternoon we were up there and having walked 4 miles down the road were delayed by about 3 hours). A bit more information about possible walks, and  a map which showed trail numbers would have been useful. More details about Messe Deutz station would be of value to future travellers.

The hotel was superb, real haute cuisine. It is a bit of a trek to get to some of the other valleys and the local walks graded as easy I found quite steep, especially at 4-5000 feet of altitude. Public transport was however excellent.

Road walking is not really what we were hoping for, and we got a lot of it.

Great hotel in every respect. Air travel in line with current low quality of BA and LHR. Disappointing range of walks from hotel itself.

Overall this was a most excellent holiday at a wonderful destination, which was, in our opinion, of the highest value for money. It is hard to praise the hotel enough for quality, value, friendliness and effort to offer the widest possible range of possibilities.

This hotel is a gem. The best hotel we have stayed in with Inntravel. Perched on the side of the mountain, it is sunny all day and our pine-clad room (210) had beautiful sunrise and sunset views. Breakfast is incredibly generous, with a huge buffet, and you could easily make an excellent lunch with the lunchboxes for hire from the hotel to fill yourself. Or bring your own. Dinner in both restaurants is excellent and generous. The sauna facilities are superb and massages are good. Tips: try the 6 mile sledging route from Speikboden and go to Weissbach on them, then walk up to any of the 3 Weissbach mountain huts for lunch and sledge back down.

If you are snowshoeing, it is better to hire snowshoes, as the hotel's are not the most modern or gripping. Sometimes useful to borrow boot chains from the hotel for forest up hill walks in shaded valleys where ice accumulated on paths. The mountain huts don't always take cards, so take a bit of cash. The walk into the National park at the end of the valley is a bit of a bus ride but worth it for the stunning bowl of mountains and the second hut has a sunny terrace and a delicious venison pasta (and no music banging out). We walked to the Bizat hut and found it closed, so best always to check beforehand by calling. Our notes from the hotel's walk suggestion said it would be open. Try to plan walks to finish so you do not end up waiting 45 minutes in Sand in Taufers for the Ahornach bus. Although there are bars and nice coffee and cake shops.

In summary, a superb hotel and great walking and sledging. Look up the Guardian newspaper article on Bogganeering for a full account of sledging and hiking which inspired us to choose this. 

We did have good weather and enjoyed some good walks. The hotel was good and the food was excellent. The photograph in your brochure for this holiday shows one of the trails we did and very much enjoyed, it is of the trail from Kassern to Adleralm. If you want to do this walk one would leave the hotel at about half past the hour and then wait half an hour at Sand for a bus to Kassern. The bus journey then takes 40 minutes, so about 1 hour 20 minutes travel. I think the photograph is misleading as to what is available locally.

We so enjoyed staying at this hotel, everything about it was excellent, and the food was outstandingly good - just what you want after a day out walking.  If you do the Knuttenalm walk, we can recommend the apple strudl at the Knutten hut at the end of the walk - it was delicious. 

We had never had a holiday in the mountains in winter before and this was a perfect introduction. The hotel is pleasant, warm and friendly with lovely views and the food is amazing.  The walks you can do depend on the conditions but we were lucky to have superb walking every day but one.  For most of the walks you have to catch the (hourly) bus down towards Sands and connect to other services but it mainly worked well. The region has an interesting history - depite being Italy it is quite Germanic (Austrian) so if you speak German that will come in handy!

The food at the hotel is world class - 5 delicious but not overwhelming courses prepared with love, pride  and professionalism. Scenery is magnificent and mountain huts/restaurants warm and welcoming. We only walked on roads or prepared tracks. The many paths could only be accessed with snowshoes and some were virtually impassable. Bus network fantastically efficient but mostly only hourly so 2 buses at each end of the day have to be built into one's schedule. There is no shop in the village - nearest is in Sand an hourly bus ride away. But hotel will prepare a picnic pack for 7.50 euros.

A warm and welcoming hotel with fantastic food and lovely views.

We loved this holiday and the personal touches and atmosphere of the hotel and the family who own it. While not all walks originated from the hotel, transport was dependable and efficient. The hotel owners also gave us useful information regarding walks. We would particularly recommend the meal in Arcana, which was truly memorable.

We spent a wonderful week at the Hotel Moosmair. The whole experience was exceptional from the quality of the rooms and service to the meals. Special mention must be made about the evening meal which was beyond any expectation and turned into a daily gastronomic experience- you order your 4/5 course meal at breakfast and it is prepared on an individual basis from local sources.

The winter walking is more limited in this valley than other areas of the Alps but the bus service is easy to use and connects with all the other villages. There was very little snow in the village this year so that meant that we had greater options for walks than there would usually be.

The transport and transfer from Innsbruck to the hotel is much longer than you think. The website suggests 2 hours which is the actual travelling time but does not include waiting at stations for each of the connections, of which there were 4 on the outbound trip.

Overall, we could not recommend this location and holiday more highly

Moosmair is an exceptional hotel in all respects. The attention to detail of the whole staff team is amazing. Food is superb  - 5 course meals each evening - and beautifully presented. As well as snow shoes, "spikes" to put on your walking boots are also available at reception - invaluable for walking on the very well maintained snowy paths in the area. I cannot recommend it highly enough - we will be back!
To add: the local bus service is excellent (and free with the holiday pass provided at the hotel) and buses depart hourly, every day, from right outside the hotel to Sand in Taufers bus station from where connections to many villages can be made for the start of walks. Ordinary walking boots are fine - together with the "spikes", available at the hotel. Although we didn't go on any, it is possible to join organised walks, bookable the day before - usually possible to reach the start by bus - info is on the holiday pass leaflet. Cross country skiing is good from Rein and there is a small downhill area at Speikboden - both accessible by bus. There are also many superb toboggan runs. This holiday is excellent if a variety of winter activities is a priority - and winter sunshine - the South Tyrol has over 300 days of sunshine a year and on all 3 of our winter holidays in the region, we have experienced 21 of those days!!

The hotel is perfectly located with outstanding views. The atmosphere friendly and relaxed and the food superb. We thoroughly enjoyed the sauna after a day's snowshoeing. It is definitely worth selecting a south-facing mountain view room.

The Ahrntal Valley website is very useful. The bus services are excellen.