Timmelsjoch Pass and Imst with Kids: the Alpine Coaster

Ten wpis po polsku

On Sunday morning, 22 July 2018, we packed up the tent at Alpin Fitness Waldcamping Völlan near Merano and headed towards Austria - but not by the usual valley road. We had the Timmelsjoch pass ahead of us, and then three more days on the way home: Imst in Tyrol, the AREA 47 water park, a night in Bavaria and the drive back to Poland.

This was the final part of our Alps and Dolomites 2018 summer trip. It started on Monday 16 July with a night drive to Zell am See in Austria. Then came the Dolomites: the tunnels on Monte Lagazuoi, and finally the Pordoi Pass, Lago di Carezza and Merano, which we describe in Sass Pordoi, Lago di Carezza and Pizza in the Dolomites.

Timmelsjoch Pass (Passo del Rombo)

Timmelsjoch, Passo del Rombo in Italian, is one of the highest mountain passes in the Alps that you can drive over. The highest point of the road is 2,509 metres above sea level, while maps give 2,474 metres for the pass itself. The road links the Passeier valley (Val Passiria) in South Tyrol with the Ötztal valley in the Austrian Tyrol. It is a toll road and only open from spring to autumn, and it is closed in winter.

After Merano we drove up the Passeier valley, and beyond St. Leonhard the road started to climb. The switchbacks led higher and higher, and the views got better with every turn. Green slopes gave way to bare rock and a wild, high-altitude landscape.

Near the top, we were driving between walls of stone with patches of snow still lying on both sides of the road - in the middle of July. The kids pressed their noses to the windows and wanted to know where the snow came from in summer.

At the top of the pass, we stopped to take it all in. The view stretched for dozens of kilometres in both directions - Italian valleys on one side, Austrian peaks on the other. The air was cool and fresh, and the only sound was the wind. You can see what the drive over Timmelsjoch looks like in our video:

Fun fact: the road on the Austrian side opened on 17 July 1959, but it ended at the top of the pass. The link to South Tyrol only opened on 15 September 1968.

A motorcycle museum and taps like throttle grips

On the Austrian side, at the toll station in Hochgurgl, we came across a restaurant with a motorcycle museum - a fun spot for fans of two wheels. It is the Top Mountain Motorcycle Museum, about 2,175 metres above sea level, which opened in 2016.

But the real gem was the bathroom. The taps were shaped like motorcycle throttle grips - to turn on the water, you had to twist the handle just like you would rev a motorbike engine. Little details like that make Timmelsjoch memorable for more than just the views. In 2021 the building burned down and the museum was rebuilt the same year, so today it looks different from when we were there.

The descent on the Austrian side was just as dramatic. The road dropped down through steep switchbacks into the Ötztal, the longest side valley in Tyrol (about 65 km), and the scenery changed from bare Alpine rock to green meadows and pine forests. About two hours after leaving the campsite, we were already in Imst.

aktivCamping Imst

We checked into aktivCamping Imst, a campsite that turned out to be full of pleasant surprises. At first glance, it might disappoint - it had no swimming pool of its own. But we quickly found out that campsite guests get free entry to the Freibad Imst, the public pool right next door, literally just over the fence.

The kids were thrilled, because the pool had water slides, including an 80-metre one, and a paddling area. In the end, it worked out even better than a typical campsite pool.

That was not all. At check-in we received a thick booklet full of deals and discounts for local attractions - a toboggan run, cable cars, hiking trails, museums. The municipality of Imst had clearly put a lot of effort into keeping visitors busy. We did not expect so much from a relatively small town in the Tyrolean Alps.

With a Pushchair through the Rosengartlschlucht to Family Park Hoch-Imst

On Monday, 23 July, following advice from the man at the campsite reception, we went for a walk through the Rosengartlschlucht gorge (officially the Rosengartenschlucht), on a trail along the Schinderbach stream towards Hoch-Imst, the upper part of Imst with the mountain lifts. On the map, it looked gentle enough - a path along a stream, through the trees, with mountain views.

The problem was that we had brought the pushchair. At the start, it was fine - the path was wide and solid. But the higher we went, the more rocky and narrow it became, and in the gorge it ran over wooden footbridges.

After a while, we realised we were the only people on the entire trail trying to push a pushchair over tree roots and stones. A baby carrier would have been a much better choice, but it was sitting in the car. So we kept going, bouncing over rocks and pretending everything was going according to plan.

Good to know: officially, the trail through the Rosengartlschlucht (about 1.5 km and 250 m of climbing from the centre of Imst to Hoch-Imst) is not suitable for pushchairs because the gorge is too narrow. You can borrow a child carrier at the tourist office in Imst instead.

The reward was waiting at the end of the trail - Family Park Hoch-Imst by the valley station of the Imster Bergbahnen lifts, where the Alpine Coaster summer toboggan run finishes. There are also trampolines, with a playground and a swimming lake next to it. We rode the toboggan run downhill on small carts along metal rails, winding through the trees with a view of the valley below. It was great fun for kids and adults alike. After the effort of dragging a pushchair up the mountain, the ride down tasted twice as good.

The track is 3,535 metres long, and Imst promotes it as the longest alpine coaster in the world. It starts at the middle station of the Imster Bergbahnen lifts, and the ride takes about 7 minutes and drops 500 metres.

AREA 47 Water Park at the Entrance to the Ötztal

On Tuesday, 24 July, we said goodbye to the campsite in Imst, but before heading to Germany we drove to AREA 47 for a swim. It is Austria's largest outdoor adventure park, at the entrance to the Ötztal valley in Ötztal-Bahnhof.

Its Water AREA covers about 20,000 m², with an artificial swimming lake, slides and a 27-metre jumping and slide tower, and some of the attractions have age limits. The coupon booklet we got at check-in in Imst paid off that very day: thanks to our two nights in the area, we got a big discount on AREA 47 tickets.

Via Claudia Camping in Lechbruck am See

From AREA 47 we drove north into Germany. We stopped for the night at Via Claudia Camping in Lechbruck am See, in the Allgäu region of Bavaria. The campsite lies on the Lechsee lake, which the river Lech flows through, and although it is large, it was very quiet.

The first thing we noticed was that there was no phone signal. The internet worked at what felt like old dial-up speed - pages took minutes to load. In 2018, used to being connected all the time, we felt a bit like castaways.

But on the other hand - peace and quiet, spotless facilities, and everything organised with German precision. Every pitch was neatly marked out, the washrooms were shining, and the grass was trimmed like a carpet.

After a while, we discovered that the campsite had wifi - and surprisingly fast wifi at that, especially compared to the crawling 3G on our phones, the kind of mobile internet you hardly saw in Poland any more. At least we could plan our route for the next day using maps on the phone.

The Road Home

On Wednesday, 25 July, we started the last stretch - driving through Germany back to Poland, with no more sightseeing. The plan was to stop for one more night somewhere near the Polish border, so we would not have to drive the whole way in one go. But things did not go as planned. Every campsite we passed turned out to be fully booked. July, peak season - no surprise really.

In the end, we gave up the search and decided to just drive home. Along the way, we stopped for lunch by Lake Raduszeckie (Jezioro Raduszeckie), a reservoir on the Bóbr river near Krosno Odrzańskie - a quiet, wild spot by the road. We set up our camping stove and fried some sausages. The kids ran around by the water, we rested for a bit, and then set off for the final stretch.

By the evening, we were home. The tent went back to the garage, the storage boxes returned to their usual places, and the kids were finally reunited with their toys after ten days away. Our 2018 summer holiday - from Alpine passes through the Italian Dolomites to Tyrolean toboggan runs - had come to an end.

But the photos and videos will stay with us for a long time. And plans for the next summer were already forming in our heads.

More videos from this trip are on our playlist Alpy / Dolomity 2018, and the places we visited with the kids along the way are in our guide to Italy with kids and guide to Germany with kids.

Route of the final days: Waldcamping Völlan → Timmelsjoch → Imst → Lechbruck am See → Poland. About 1,200 km over four days.

Practical info