This was our third year running for a Colletts Mountain Walking trip to Corvara, staying at the Sporthotel Panorama in Arlara, Corvara. In previous years we stayed for one week, and covered most of the walks in the Corvara vicinity. This time we decided to stay for 2 weeks, and to drive to Corvara from the UK so that we had the car to do trips further afield. We took Le Shuttle to Calais through the Channel Tunnel to Calais on the Friday morning, and drove as far as Hoerdt, Strasbourg on the first day. We selected the Hotel Akena at Hoerdt as it was close to the motorway system, and we did not have to go into Strasbourg itself. The Hotel Akena is a modern, trendy hotel looking as though it has leapt out of the pages of an Ikea catalogue. It is a little way outside Hoerdt village, but has the advantage of having Restaurant Borsalin right next door. After a good nights sleep we set of for Germany, Austria and on to Northern Italy to the Alta Badia region. The second days driving was in complete contrast to the first. In France we were on long, straight motorways (peage) with little traffic and easy driving. Germany was frenetic, with lots of road works, diversions etc and with no speed restrictions on the autobahns you had to watch out for cars approaching at up to 200 km per hour! We had a short spell crossing Austria over the Fearnpass; the road was narrow, congested and there were many hairpins to contend with. We eventually approached Innsbruck and on into Northern Italy. Here we took a relatively minor road from Brunico in to the Alta Badia region, and Corvara.

To drive through Austria you need a "Vignette", and we booked this on line for our outward and inward days. We also booked the toll fee for the Brenner Pass online, and were relieved when the automatic system recognised our car numberplate as we arrived at the toll gate.

Total

2,855

3,682