Culinary St Jacobs Way, Ischgl: Now Culinary Paznaun

The Culinary St Jacobs Way is a summer hiking and eating trail in the Paznaun valley in Tyrol, where top chefs each adopt one mountain hut and create a dish that the hut then serves all summer at ordinary hut prices. It still runs, but it has been renamed: since the series expanded it has been called Culinary Paznaun, and the 2026 edition runs from July to October across nine huts rather than the five the original trail had. I hiked two of them with the Austrian Tourism Board, and this is how the trail works and what it is like to walk it.

What is the Culinary St Jacobs Way?

The Culinary St Jacobs Way is a set of walks to mountain huts in the Paznaun-Ischgl region of Tyrol, Austria, each paired with a chef and a dish. A chef takes on the patronage of one hut, builds a twist on a typical Tyrolean hut dish from regional ingredients, and the hut’s own kitchen then cooks that dish for the rest of the summer.

The point of the format is that the food is served in the hut, at hut prices, in the hut’s own atmosphere. You are not eating in a restaurant that happens to be up a mountain.

The trail is organised by the tourism association of Paznaun-Ischgl and has been running for more than ten years. The paths themselves are open outside summer, but the dishes are only on the menu from July until the huts close in autumn.

What changed: the trail is now Culinary Paznaun

The series is now called Culinary Paznaun (Kulinarisches Paznaun), and it covers nine huts across Galtür, Ischgl, Kappl and See. Older guides, including the earlier version of this one, describe it as the Culinary St Jacobs Way with five huts and a line-up of international Michelin chefs, and that is no longer how it is run.

Two things changed. The chefs are now leading regional Tyrolean cooks plus the #YoungChefsPaznaun group, not visiting international names. And the hut count went from five to nine, which adds several walks that were not on the old trail at all.

If you arrive looking for signposts reading “Kulinarischer Jakobsweg”, look for Culinary Paznaun instead.

The 2026 season: dates and huts

The 2026 Culinary Paznaun season opened on 3 July 2026 and runs to the end of October, with one hut festival a week through July and August. On each of those dates the chef cooks at their own hut; for the rest of the summer the hut’s own team serves the dish.

The nine 2026 hut festivals are listed below, in date order.

1. Panoramarestaurant Sattel: Saturday 4 July 2026, with Bernd Fabian.
2. Almstüberl in Kappl: Sunday 5 July 2026, with Martin Sieberer.
3. Faulbrunn Alm: Sunday 12 July 2026, with Hermann Huber.
4. Friedrichshafener Hütte: Sunday 19 July 2026, with Thomas Sieberer, Hermann Zangerl, Christopher Fritz and Fabian Jäger.
5. Jamtalhütte in Galtür: Sunday 26 July 2026, with Michael Sieberer, Michael Bachler, Dominik Ojster and Otto Siegele.
6. Heilbronner Hütte: Sunday 2 August 2026, with Gunther Döberl. New to the trail this year.
7. Larein Alpe: Sunday 9 August 2026, with Daniel Kurz and Kai Lindner.
8. Heidelberger Hütte: Sunday 16 August 2026, with Patrick Raaß.
9. Ascherhütte: Sunday 23 August 2026, with Andreas Spitzer.

All nine festival dates for 2026 have now passed, but the dishes stay on the hut menus until the huts close for the season at the end of October. If you want to eat a chef’s dish cooked by the chef, you need a festival Sunday, and the 2027 dates are announced in spring.

How to hike the Culinary Paznaun trail

Walk one hut per day and eat lunch there, rather than trying to chain them. The walks sit in the same region and most take around two hours one way, but they start from different valley villages, so two in a day is possible and five is not.

That pacing is what makes this a week’s holiday rather than a day out. (If you would rather build the week somewhere else in Austria, here is a week in Vorarlberg.)

There is a reward scheme for doing several. Hike to four huts and you earn a bronze hiking pin, seven earns silver and nine earns gold, collected at the information offices in Galtür, Ischgl, Kappl and See. Everyone who reaches at least four huts also goes into a draw for a night’s stay for two and two tickets to the 2027 opening evening, drawn after the season closes on 30 October 2026. The pins and the draw are handled through the SummitLynx app rather than a paper stamp card, which is a change from the card the trail used to hand out at the tourist office.

Signposting is seasonal. Special signs go up for the trail over the course of the summer, so in practice all you need to find is the right starting point.

The huts and the walks

I walked two of these myself, to the Friedrichshafener Hütte and the Ascherhütte. Everything I say about those two is first-hand; the rest is from the organiser’s own material.

1. The Friedrichshafener Hütte, from Valzur

The walk up to the Friedrichshafener Hütte at 2,151 m (7,057 ft) is graded moderate and takes about two hours. It does not throw obstacles at you, but it climbs steeply, and you will want to stretch when you get there.

The trail is single file for most of its length and winds up through woods. The last stretch opens out, and that is where the views start.

If you are not feeling it, a gravel road starts from the same point and runs all the way to the hut. Our group walked up by the trail and came down by the road, and I would recommend it that way round: descending a steep trail is harder on the legs than climbing it, and the road has the more open views.

2. The Ascherhütte, from See

There are two starting points for the Ascherhütte. You can walk up from the centre of See, which reportedly takes about four hours, or take the See cable car to the Medrigalm middle station and walk about two hours from there. We took the cable car.

This one is also graded moderate and I found it easier and more pleasant than the Friedrichshafener Hütte, mostly because it feels less like climbing a staircase. The views open out earlier, and the trail makes you watch your feet in a way that brings out the child in you. Everyone has played the game where you cannot touch the ground.

3. The Jamtalhütte, from Galtür

The Jamtalhütte sits at 2,165 m (7,103 ft) and the walk up takes about three hours at moderate difficulty. It is the highest of the three classic huts and the longest walk of them.

4. The Heidelberger Hütte, from Ischgl

The Heidelberger Hütte is in the Paznaun Alps but stands on Swiss soil, right on the Austria-Switzerland border, so the walk gets you into two countries in a day. The hut is at 2,264 m (7,428 ft) and there are several ways to reach it, including a shuttle up the Fimbatal.

5. The Almstüberl, in Kappl

Take the Diasbahn cable car up to about 1,800 m (5,906 ft) and it is a short, comfortable walk to the Almstüberl from there. You can take the family-friendly forest path or the shorter, rougher trail; both are graded easy and take about an hour.

Can you cycle it instead of hiking?

Yes, every hut on the trail can be reached by mountain bike or e-mountain bike, and the organiser lists all of them as e-bike accessible. If you do not have a bike with you, you can rent one in Galtür, Ischgl, Kappl or See.

I had my first go at electric mountain biking in the Zillertal and can recommend it. You get the same movement without dying on the way up.

The Silvretta Card All Inclusive

Book at least one night in Paznaun-Ischgl and you get a Silvretta Card All Inclusive from your accommodation. The card covers the region’s cable cars and chairlifts, which matters here because two of the nine walks start from a lift station, and it also covers entry to the local pools.

Ask about it when you book rather than at check-in. Full details are on the Ischgl tourist board’s site.

What to pack for the Culinary Paznaun trail

Pack for a two-hour uphill walk at altitude that ends with you sitting still in a cold hut. These are moderate walks, not technical ones, but altitude changes what you need.

1. Hiking boots with grip

The paths are never difficult but they are rocky, uneven and, after rain, slippery. I wore Salomon Quest 4D 3 GTX hiking boots, sent to me by Salomon just before the trip, so I had no time to wear them in, and I still got no blisters and no sore feet.

They are lighter than the older boots I own, grip well and flex. The one thing that disappointed me was sweaty feet, despite the Ortholite footbed and Gore-Tex membrane.

2. Sunscreen, and more of it than you think

We had people on our walk get sunburnt because they underestimated the sun at altitude. If you burn easily, reapply during the walk, not only before it.

3. A dry base layer to change into

Wear layers, and pack a dry top to change into at the hut. The sun is stronger up there, the wind is colder, the temperature is lower than in the valley, and your body cools down the moment you stop, leaving you in a layer of cold, dried sweat through lunch.

If you would rather not carry a spare shirt, at least wear something quick-drying. You can also take your bottom layer off during lunch and put it back on to walk down.

4. Water

Bring water and drink it before you are thirsty, which is the single most useful thing a hiking guide ever told me. Two hours does not sound long, and it is not, but two hours of climbing is far more demanding than two hours on the flat.

I carry a refillable bottle on every trip, which is better for the environment and keeps water tasting better for longer than a plastic one. The Embrava 32 oz sports bottle is the one I have used.

5. Hiking trousers or leggings

These are not essential but I wished I had them. Constant climbing is much more pleasant in trousers that are light, stretchy and breathable than in anything else.

Plenty of people hike in leggings and I have done it too, but I prefer trousers with pockets so my phone and a tissue stay reachable. I do at least own quick-dry shirts, which solve half the problem on their own.

6. A daypack made for hiking

You need somewhere for water, layers, tissues and sunscreen, and any backpack will do, but a hiking pack is more comfortable. I used the Osprey Hikelite 18L, which Osprey sent me to try.

The suspended mesh back panel bothered me at first because it made a noise as it moved against my back, and adjusting the straps fixed that. Once it was right, the panel was my favourite thing about the pack: it holds the solid back of the bag away from your spine so neither your back nor the bag gets as sweaty.

It comes with a rain cover, two side pockets for bottles and an inner sleeve that just takes a 14-inch laptop in its case, so it doubles as a carry-on. The one thing I would change is the front pocket, which is about the size of two tennis balls and hangs inside the main compartment instead of sitting on top of it, so it eats space twice.

Where to stay in Ischgl

I spent two nights at the Gourmet Boutique Hotel Yscla in Ischgl, a two-minute walk from the Silvretta cable car, which puts you at the start of the Heidelberger Hütte route. Its restaurant, the Stüva, is run by head chef Benjamin Parth and is one of the reasons people book the hotel rather than the location.

In winter the ski run ends next to the hotel. WiFi is free, the rooms are large, and mine had a desk area and a walk-in closet alongside the flat-screen television and a separate bathroom with toiletries.

The hotel is closed between seasons, so check dates before you plan a late-autumn trip. You can check prices and availability for the Hotel Yscla here.

Getting to Ischgl

Ischgl’s nearest big airports are Zurich, Innsbruck and Munich, and a shuttle or a hire car covers the last stretch. We flew from Brussels to Zurich and took a shuttle from the airport straight to the hotel.

For an overview of flight options and prices, check Trip.com.

By train, the valley station is Landeck-Zams on the Arlberg line, and a bus runs up the Paznaun from there to Galtür. If you want to compare rail options across Europe, Omio covers the route.

A car is the easier answer on this trail, because the nine huts start from four different villages. DiscoverCars compares a large number of rental companies, so you can compare rates from Zurich, Innsbruck or Munich.

Culinary Paznaun FAQ

Is the Culinary St Jacobs Way still running? Yes, under the name Culinary Paznaun. Same valley, same format of a chef per hut, but nine huts instead of five and regional Tyrolean chefs instead of visiting international ones.

When can I eat the dishes? From the opening in early July until the huts close at the end of October. On the nine hut-festival Sundays the chef cooks in person; the rest of the summer the hut’s own kitchen serves the dish.

Do I have to do all nine? No. Four huts earns a bronze pin and enters you in the season prize draw, seven earns silver and nine earns gold. One hut and one lunch is a perfectly good day.

How hard are the walks? Most are graded moderate and take around two hours one way, with the Almstüberl at about an hour from the Diasbahn top station and the Jamtalhütte at about three hours. None of them is technical.

Do I need to book? Not for the trail itself. Huts on a festival Sunday get busy, so call ahead if you are a group, and book accommodation early for July and August.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The five tips below come from walking two of these huts and from checking the 2026 season.

1. Walk up by the trail, come down by the road. On the Friedrichshafener Hütte both start from the same point. Descending the steep trail is harder on the knees than climbing it, and the gravel road has the more open views.
2. Start the Ascherhütte from the See cable car, not the village. From the Medrigalm middle station it is about two hours; from the centre of See it is reportedly about four, for the same lunch.
3. Pack a dry top, not just a spare layer. You stop moving the moment you reach the hut and sit down to a long lunch in cold air. Changing out of a sweaty shirt is the difference between enjoying it and shivering through it.
4. Aim for a festival Sunday if you want the chef. On the other days the hut team cooks the dish, which is the point of the format, but the chefs themselves are only there on the nine dated Sundays.
5. Claim the Silvretta Card at booking. It is free with one night’s stay in the valley and covers the cable cars, which two of the walks depend on.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her trip to Ischgl for the opening of the culinary trail, where she walked to the Friedrichshafener Hütte and the Ascherhütte. The team covers Austria for independent travellers, including the Paznaun hotels, hiking gear, flights and car rental worth booking around a summer in the valley, and updates this page when the season’s huts, chefs and dates change.