This panoramic circular walk on the 2,000-metre-high summit plateau of Kronplatz offers stunning views of the surrounding area, particularly of the Dolomites and the main Alpine ridge. This family-friendly hike features numerous attractions for young and old alike. As well as cosy places to stop for refreshments, you can learn about the famous South Tyrolean extreme mountaineer Reinhold Messner at the Messner Mountain Museum, the Lumen Art Museum offers an insight into the history of mountain photography, and in the adjacent ALPINN restaurant you can enjoy culinary delights from the famous Michelin-starred chef Norbert Niederkofler whilst taking in a unique view. And for the little ones, there are several playgrounds.

Accessibility

Description

The starting point for this short, scenic hike is the Ruis gondola lift, which is accessible to all. At the valley station, there are 4 reserved spaces for passengers with a disability card, if required. The gondola lift itself has 2 accessible cabins (one every 7 minutes during normal operation), in which one seat has been removed to provide more space for pushchairs or wheelchairs. There is an accessible toilet at the top station.

Once we reach the top at the mountain station, we turn right (path with compacted earth) towards the MMM Museum (accessible via a lift platform). After just a few metres, the path descends with a constant gradient of up to 20% to the entrance of the Alpinsport Museum. Here, the path flattens out slightly and continues gently on firm ground past a viewpoint and on to the Lumen Museum (accessible toilet). From here, the spacious lift takes you comfortably a little further towards the summit. From the lift exit, a paved path with a 17% gradient leads up to the mountain station of the Kronplatz 2000 cable car (toilet not accessible).

After a short flat section, the path continues with a 10% gradient up to the Concordia Peace Bell (viewpoint accessible via steps). From here, you can also return to the starting point via a flat path. Between the Cima summit restaurant (accessible toilet) on the right and the Concordia 2000 Peace Bell on the left, the path continues downhill from here with a gradient of 11–14%, between the Belvedere summit cable car on the right and the Kron restaurant (accessible toilet reachable by lift) on the left. There is also a large adventure playground here with trampolines and other attractions. After a flat section of 30 metres alongside the Kron restaurant, the path turns left and climbs again with a gradient of up to 20%, passing beneath the Plateau cable car and finally ascending once more to the summit plateau. There is a small chapel on the left there.

We continue to the left, past the Gipfel restaurant and the Peace Bell, to the Corones restaurant (toilets not accessible), where we turn right and follow the paved path back to the starting point.