Well accom­pa­nied, safe­ly on the road

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Advan­ta­ges of the gui­ded Alpi­ne crossing and inter­view with Feu­er und Eis hiking gui­de Stef­fi Hetzel

Plan­ning, boo­king, com­pe­tent sup­port — all included.

Gui­ded long-distance hikes are a par­ti­cu­lar­ly good choice for moun­tain novices, but solo tra­ve­lers and expe­ri­en­ced hikers also bene­fit. The advan­ta­ges of a per­fect­ly orga­ni­zed tour, accom­pa­nied by a cer­ti­fied hiking gui­de, are obvious: 

Choo­se a tour, book, tra­vel — Expe­ri­ence the crossing of the Alps

You can deci­de on a rou­te from the com­fort of your own home wit­hout any tedious rese­arch work — all the plan­ning is done by experts. Accom­mo­da­ti­on, break­fast and din­ner, trans­fers and lug­ga­ge trans­por­ta­ti­on — ever­y­thing is taken care of. Even — and this is the big­gest dif­fe­rence to the indi­vi­du­al tours with Feu­er und Eis — en rou­te. Every step of the jour­ney is accom­pa­nied for care­free hiking enjoyment. 

Being able to rely on decis­i­ons along the way

Our cer­ti­fied hiking gui­des are much more than just fel­low hikers on the tour. They are your local cont­acts and not only ans­wer any ques­ti­ons you may have about fau­na, flo­ra or regio­nal con­di­ti­ons, but also adapt the rou­te in the event of pos­si­ble chan­ges in the wea­ther or acu­te con­di­ti­ons. At hig­her alti­tu­des, for exam­p­le, the­re may be scree, slip­pery sec­tions of path or old snow. With a hiking gui­de, you don’t have to make any decis­i­ons yours­elf — a real reli­ef, espe­ci­al­ly for beg­in­ners. This means you can con­cen­tra­te sole­ly on wal­king, lea­ving your head free for all the impres­si­ons along the way. 

Stef­fi Hetzel
Our hiking gui­de Stef­fi Het­zel sum­ma­ri­zes the advan­ta­ges of a gui­ded hiking tour as fol­lows: You don’t have to worry about any­thing. The gui­de knows the rou­te, the accom­mo­da­ti­on is boo­ked, a deli­cious meal awaits you in the evening and you can just hike along and enjoy the time. 

Inter­view with hiking gui­de Stef­fi Hetzel

Stef­fi Het­zel has been hiking in the moun­ta­ins for Feu­er und Eis for seve­ral years and has many hap­py and spe­cial moments from this time. In a short inter­view, she reve­als her high­lights, the spe­cial fea­tures of gui­ded hiking tours and for whom they are par­ti­cu­lar­ly suitable. 

What are your per­so­nal favo­ri­te expe­ri­en­ces while crossing the Alps?

I love the sup­po­sedly small moments. A mar­mot or ano­ther inha­bi­tant of the Alps always brings a big smi­le to my face. And the­re are two very spe­cial moments for me on the crossing of the Alps from Tegern­see to Ster­zing: the moment when we reach the Sidan­joch on stage 5 and the Zil­ler­tal Alps open up in front of us and the crossing of the bor­der at the Pfit­scher­joch. The joy of each indi­vi­du­al in the group is very spe­cial here! 

What is the spe­cial attrac­tion of a gui­ded hike for you?

Crossing the Alps is always a spe­cial expe­ri­ence. Sha­ring this with a group of peo­p­le who are stran­gers at the start of the tour and who deve­lop into real fri­ends over time is what makes a gui­ded tour for me. 

For whom is the gui­ded ver­si­on of the Alpi­ne Crossing par­ti­cu­lar­ly suitable?

If you have alre­a­dy hik­ed in the Alps a lot and safe­ly, you can hike on your own. Howe­ver, if you don’t have this expe­ri­ence, or per­haps have never been to the Alps befo­re, I would defi­ni­te­ly recom­mend a gui­ded tour. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, I’ve often seen peo­p­le com­ple­te­ly ove­re­sti­ma­te their abili­ties and aban­don the tour out of fear (wea­ther, wha­t’s in store for me …). I think tha­t’s such a shame becau­se, after all, it’s a vaca­ti­on and the­r­e­fo­re the best time of your life. 
Stef­fi Hetzel

What are the requi­re­ments for crossing the Alps? What is the best way to prepa­re for it? 

I always recom­mend a short trip to the moun­ta­ins first to get a feel for the trail con­di­ti­ons, alti­tu­de, etc.. And if you want to be even bet­ter pre­pared, I recom­mend my pre­pa­ra­ti­on cour­se for crossing the Alps. 

What role does the group play on a gui­ded tour?

The group natu­ral­ly plays a very important role and I know that this is pre­cis­e­ly why many peo­p­le have reser­va­tions about taking part in a group hike. May­be I’ve been lucky so far, but so far only nice peo­p­le have taken part in my tours. May­be it’s becau­se hikers are sim­ply rela­xed peo­p­le. We all have one thing in com­mon: hiking. And that alo­ne brings us together. 

Tha­t’s right. They all have the same goal: to cross the Alps on foot. Why is that? What is so spe­cial about it for you? 

Hiking for seve­ral days is always some­thing very spe­cial for me. You learn so much about yours­elf during this time and enter your own litt­le world on the jour­ney. This expe­ri­ence stays with you forever. 
Stef­fi Hetzel

The most popu­lar rou­tes for gui­ded Alpi­ne crossings

The most famous Alpi­ne crossing along the E5 from Oberst­dorf to Mer­ano is available as a gui­ded tour from Feu­er und Eis in two ver­si­ons: clas­sic with over­night stays in huts and an adven­ture fee­ling or with hotel com­fort, away from the hea­vi­ly fre­quen­ted paths. The rou­te takes you via the Lech­tal, Ötz­tal and Tim­mels­joch val­leys to the Pas­sei­er­tal val­ley in South Tyrol and the Mera­ner Höhen­weg trail to your desti­na­ti­on. In 2026, this tour will only be offe­red for small groups with a maxi­mum of 12 par­ti­ci­pan­ts — for a more inten­si­ve expe­ri­ence, grea­ter safe­ty and bet­ter support. 
The rou­te from Gar­misch-Par­ten­kir­chen to Ster­zing is inte­res­t­ing for expe­ri­en­ced hikers. It leads via the Stu­bai Val­ley into the Wipp Val­ley and on into the Pflersch Val­ley, past clear moun­tain lakes, rustic moun­tain pas­tu­res and maje­s­tic peaks. A good level of fit­ness and moun­tain expe­ri­ence are required. 
The tour from Tegern­see to Achen­see in the Zil­ler­tal and over the main Alpi­ne ridge to Ster­zing offers more enjoy­ment. In addi­ti­on to the nor­mal gui­ded group tour, Feu­er und Eis also offers spe­cial solo tra­ve­ler dates with sin­gle rooms only. Per­fect for all hiking enthu­si­asts who are tra­ve­ling unac­com­pa­nied but don’t want to miss out on a good time with like-min­ded peo­p­le. In a small group of max. 12 peo­p­le, accom­mo­da­ti­on is pro­vi­ded in 3- & 4‑star hotels, inns or guest­hou­ses, half board and lug­ga­ge trans­port included as well as all local trans­fers and the return shut­tle from Ster­zing to Lake Tegernsee. 

Fit enough? Choo­sing the right route 

You should cla­ri­fy in advan­ce whe­ther you are up to the cho­sen tour. This infor­ma­ti­on can easi­ly be found in the tour descrip­ti­on. Alpi­ne crossings are usual­ly modera­te­ly dif­fi­cult and requi­re a good basic level of fit­ness and sure­foo­ted­ness. They take place on very well-deve­lo­ped hiking trails, forest roads and paths. Nor­mal­ly the­re are no clim­bing pas­sa­ges or very expo­sed sec­tions, but a head for heights is always an advan­ta­ge. Howe­ver, hiking for approx. 5 hours a day wit­hout any pro­blems is a must. If you are unsu­re, you can call the Feu­er und Eis tra­vel experts in advan­ce for advice.
You can also gain addi­tio­nal con­fi­dence in the Alpi­ne Crossing Trai­ning — a four-day basic cour­se for long-distance hiking. In addi­ti­on to lots of useful theo­re­ti­cal infor­ma­ti­on and tech­ni­ques, you can put what you have lear­ned direct­ly into prac­ti­ce on site. Thanks to the small group size of a maxi­mum of nine par­ti­ci­pan­ts, ever­yo­ne is gua­ran­teed to bene­fit. The best pre­pa­ra­ti­on for your own per­so­nal dream tour.