Defereggental, Staller Sattel, Antholzer Tal

I just returned from this beautiful mountain region and wanted to pass on some observations/recommendations. I have seen posts to these forums over the years asking for mountain, lake and town recommendations. Well I can recommend this area. If you are looking for beautiful mountains, lakes and streams, hiking, nice towns and villages, and winter sports in winter, this is a great area. Südtirol, Osttirol and the Nationalpark Hohe Tauern. I would recommend visiting when the Staller Sattel pass (2.052 m) is open, then you can travel between the Defereggental and the Antholzer Tal. During my visit the Staller Sattel pass was closed for the winter, so we had to drive around south through Lienz to visit both valleys. Apparently when open, the narrow pass road itself is controlled with a traffic light and one-way traffic is only allowed for a quarter of an hour in each direction. There is also a traffic ban on buses and caravans in the pass itself. The region has plenty of hotels and holiday apartments. We stayed in St. Veit, Austria. Bruneck, Italy and Lienz, Austria are both nice smaller cities with pedestrian zones and easy day trips. In/near Bruneck you have to go to the top of the Plan de Corones-Kronplatz. The views from the top are fantastic and it’s a renowned Ski Mountain. The Antholzer See and Obersee are beautiful mountain lakes. There are many lifts in the region to get you up to higher elevations. Plenty of Alm and Hütte in the region for lunch and a drink. There are regional buses, but I would recommend a car. You’ll need tire chains in winter with snow and ice on the roads in the valleys. Anyway, I had a beautiful blue-sky winter week and will return to this region. Time allowing I’ll take visiting family. I highly recommend this area and think it’s worth your time.
https://www.foto-webcam.eu/webcam/stveit/
https://www.foto-webcam.eu/webcam/lienz/
https://www.foto-webcam.eu/webcam/kronplatz/