Motorcycle ride in Carinthia

Malta valley and the Kölnbrein dam

29 km (18 miles), 45 min, intermediate

Nicknamed “the valley of falling waters”, the Malta valley in Carinthia, in the heart of the Hohe Tauern, has more than twenty waterfalls, including the Fallbach, often cited as the highest free-falling waterfall in Carinthia. Beyond the village of Malta, the Malta-Hochalmstraße is a toll alpine road (€18.50 a day for a motorcycle in 2026) that climbs in hairpins and through tunnels cut into the rock to the Kölnbrein dam, the highest in Austria, a starting point for hikes to the Osnabrücker Hütte and the Hochalmspitze. The narrow single-lane tunnels are controlled by traffic lights, sometimes with a wait of more than twenty minutes at the first one. The road is usually open from early May to late October, from 7 am to 6 pm; the route ends at the dam, and you come back down the same road.