It was the smugglers who came here first. They used the old pack trail (mule trail) on their way to Italy. Then came the rock crystal prospectors. For the Binntal had already garnered earlier renown for its mineral wealth. And it was the tourists who arrived finally. The traditional Hotel Ofenhorn dating from the pioneering age of Alpine tourism bears testament to this.

Today, this Valais side valley, where one to some extent steals through a narrow gorge, is primarily renowned for its culture (in the music village of Ernen), the tulips (in Grengiols) and its surprising cuisine (in several mountain restaurants and in two Gault-Millau restaurants in Ernen).

And naturally also for its scenery. The Binntal Landscape Reserve offers primal naturalness from the mountain peaks down to the periphery of the villages – which coincidentally are so authentic that they have earned a prize for this very attribute.