The Inn Valley is one of the great alpine valleys, carved by the Inn river as it flows from southwest to northeast across the Eastern Alps. Stretching from Switzerland through Austria into Germany, it offers a remarkably varied journey through mountain scenery, from narrow gorges to wide glacial basins.
The valley's character shifts dramatically along its length. In the Swiss Engadin it is narrow and dotted with lakes, one of which hosts the famous resort of St. Moritz. Further down, in the Lower Engadin, it tightens into dramatic gorges before crossing into Austria. There the valley widens near Landeck, loops westward, then swings east through Imst toward Innsbruck, where the floor broadens considerably and stays wide all the way to the German border at Kufstein. This is a classic glacial trough valley, with steep flanks and high terraces shaped by the once-mighty Inn glacier. Beyond Kufstein the surrounding mountains soften into rolling moraine hills, and the valley opens into a broad basin landscape where the Inn eventually meets the Danube at Passau.
How to get thereIn the 19th century, around 250 landscape painters, known as the 'Inntal painters', were drawn to the stretch between Rosenheim and Kufstein, captivated by its picturesque scenery.