Excursions

The museum landscape based around the yearly Schubertiade Festival is a delightful mix of small and historically significant spaces. First and foremost are the Franz Schubert Museum and Schubertiade Museum where visitors can get a comprehensive overview of the stories of the great composers. 

Formerly a humble stable, this building now houses one of the world’s foremost collection of cribs. The exhibition presents an astonishing variety of widely differing specimens from places as diverse as Austria, Italy, Spain, Lapland, Africa and China. 

The history of silver mining at Kristberg stretches back over 1000 years. For more than half this time, a little church in honour of St. Agatha has perched high up overlooking Silbertal, the “Silver Valley”. 

The Bregenzerwald railway line, affectionately known locally as the Wälderbähnle, used to link Bregenz to the mountain village of Bezau. This 35-kilometre stretch was covered by a narrow-gauge track just 760 millimetres wide. 

This fascinating exhibition on the history of aerospace at Lake Constance is dedicated to the aviation pioneer Claude Dornier. The museum houses over 400 exhibits and original aircraft and the building’s architecture is a marvel in itself, corresponding to the layout of a hangar. 

What does it mean to be a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve? Who is Burmenta? And how is mountain cheese actually made? The guided tour of the biosphärenpark.haus does not only provide the answers to these questions, it also offers rare insights into the history of the Grosses Walsertal (Great Walser Valley).

With around 5,000 m² of exhibition space, a visit to the FFA Museum is an experience with numerous highlights such as the flight or car simulator, on-site maintenance of aircraft and vehicles and exhibits from the Swiss Army and the British Rolls-Royce production.

The only Women’s Museum in Austria plays host to varying exhibitions on women past and present, from a regional or supra-regional perspective. Frauenmuseum Hittisau aims to make clear the cultural contributions of women throughout history and in present day, and as such has hosted over 30 exhibitions to date on various topics. 

Only 20 minutes from the centre of Dornbirn lies a unique playground in the midst of a magnificent mountain paradise. The Ebnit sports club has a variety of activities on offer, overseen by outdoor specialists. 

The skywalk allgäu allows visitors to wander around the treetops and canopies at 25 to 40 metres above the ground. The barrier-free structure takes people through the greenery and serves up fantastic views across the region where the borders of four countries meet all the way to Lake Constance.

This 8km-long hiking trail takes visitors all the way along the Pfänder ridge, from the cable car station to Eichenberg and Möggers, with various culinary stop-off points. Twelve boards along the way present hikers with interesting facts about the production of Vorarlberg cheese. 

Karren is Dornbirn’s emblematic local mountain, towering over the city and offering panoramic views of the Swiss mountains, the Rhine Valley, and over to Lake Constance. It can be reached on foot in around an hour, or by a few minutes’ cable car ride lifting passengers up to a height of 976 metres.

Angelika Kauffmann was a sophisticated artist of international renown and a pioneer of her time. Her home village of Schwarzenberg boasts not only the Angelika Kauffmann Hall and a baroque parish church but also a museum dedicated to the life and works of its most famous daughter.

This hilltop fort is the undisputed landmark of Feldkirch, originally built in around 1260 to protect the town and its residents. It’s also the ancestral seat of the Counts of Montfort who rose in the Middle Ages to become the reigning aristocratic family in the region known today as Vorarlberg.

Mainau, the botanical “Flower Island”, nestles like a multi-coloured jewel within the blues and greens of Lake Constance. The majestic castle complex, an outstanding example of southern Germany’s baroque style of architecture, harmonises effortlessly with one of Europe’s most beautiful botanical parks.