During our recent trip to Liechtenstein, we had, of course, planned some nice hiking. I studied the tourist portal website and chose a beautiful route for us.* But! I made a terrible rookie mistake! I didn’t realize that by the time we were in Malbun, the cable cars would not yet be working in this beautiful mountain village. Because the summer season here doesn’t start until mid-June. Well, I was so ashamed of myself. Luckily, Malbun offers other routes that can be done year-round, and in no time, I found a substitute: Sassweg. Now you may be thinking, what’s the confusion? After all, the title says the Explorer Path. And we’re all right. The children’s nature trail (Forscherweg in German) follows the route of the Sassweg 🙂 So let’s get this straight.
*The original route chosen was the Malbun swing trail leading from the top station of the Sareis cable car.
NOTE: This article was written in collaboration with Liechtenstein Marketing. All opinions and insights are my own.
Sassweg AKA Forscherweg/Explorer Paht – trail overview
Whether you search for one or the other on the internet or on tourist apps, you will get exactly the same coordinates. This is a 4.4km loop route starting and finishing in the center of Malbun. If you stay in Malbun (like we did at the JUFA Hotel Malbun***s, but more on that below), you can walk to the trailhead at the “Schlucher-Treff”. If you take the LIEmobil bus line 21, it’s the Malbun, Jöraboda stop. If you arrive by car, you can leave it at the Parkhaus Malbun (Im Malbun 3, 9497 Malbun).
Forscherweg – a route for little explorers
The Explorer Path has ten stops and starts at the “Schlucher-Treff” in the center of Malbun. Little explorers need equipment for the two-hour journey of discovery. The backpack, which can be rented for a fee of CHF 40 at the Malbun Tourist Centre, contains a magnifying glass, ruler, LED lights, a waterwheel kit, and a diary with questions, drawings, and tasks for each station. The little explorer can then keep the diary and hat.
Children’s playground
The first hitch on the trail can quickly happen when your kids get “stuck” in the playground and don’t want to go any further 🙂 Who can resist big swings and rope climbing frames? But here, you can already lure them to the first task from the Forscherweg – the sundial and the weather station.
Chapel
The route then continues to the stone fountain. You can make a small detour to the Friedenskapelle, the highest church in Liechtenstein.
Protected plants
Small explorers can discover protected native plants along the route, and, as part of the Forscherweg, they can look for plants that don’t belong here. Do bananas grow on a tree in the mountains here? 😉
Stone figures “Wildmandli”
You will soon reach a small rocky plateau following a wide gravel path. Here, you can try to build your stone figure and then measure its height.
Long jump
From the stones, you can see how far the local wild animals can jump. Which animals can you compete with?
“Musical Egg”
With the right technique, you can make tones and sounds out of this egg-shaped stone. Just wet your hands and run your palms over the grooves on the “egg”.
Sass-Seeli, viewpoint, and barbecue area
About halfway along the route, you will come to a fork. If you go left and climb up a little, you will reach a viewpoint with binoculars and a place to barbecue. The route then continues to the right along the Sass-Seeli pond.
From here it is a gradual descent through the Alp Sass down to the Schneeflucht lift and from there back to the centre of Malbun.
Hotel JUFA Malbun***s
As I wrote in the introduction, we stayed at Hotel JUFA Malbun***s. The JUFA Hotel Malbun***s is located right at the village entrance. It has 58 rooms and is ideal for families with children. In winter, it has the great advantage of being right at the foot of the slopes. There is also an indoor and outdoor playground. There is also a wellness area with a sauna (children have access in the afternoon, adults in the evening).
