Walking in the Leutasch Valley

• **** hotel with heated indoor pool, saunas, steam bath, excellent food; superb value
• A glorious mix: snow-capped peaks, dramatic valleys, picturesque forests
• Independent 1-boot and 2-boot choices every day
• Perfect signposting, mountain lifts and cable cars, 450km of walking trails
• Traditional Tyrolean villages, pretty frescoed houses, onion-domed churches, panoramic trailside restaraunts for lunch

This independent walking week is based in the tiny hamlet of Kirchplaztl, in the heart of the Leutasch Valley. Tucked away next to the onion-domed village church is the family-run Hotel Xander. The oldest inn in the valley, it has been sensitively modernised to incorporate all the luxuries you would expect of a **** establishment. The huge bedrooms are more like apartments, with your own lounge area and tea/coffee-making facilities, and the bathrooms have both a bath and a shower. There is a heated indoor swimming pool, two saunas, steam bath, whirlpool bath and solarium (pay locally), fitness studio, boot room, and if you want to spoil yourself, beauty treatments and massages at extra cost. For children, there's an indoor play area and games room, with table tennis, pool, table football, darts and pinball.

Breakfast is an enormous hot and cold buffet and picnic lunches are provided for all walking days. Evening meals are served in the hotel's elegant dining room - gorgeous mountain views. Hubert Kobinger has been the hotel's chef for more than 30 years and his menu is an interesting blend of Tyrolean specialities and international dishes.

Opposite is a suggested week of ffwalks. There is also a full programme of fwalks along flat valley trails and using mountain lifts to gain altitude. Leutasch tourist office offers free guided walks on most days.