Experience the forest from the treetops

Do you know that feeling when you discover a new place, you get a tingling sensation all over and you immediately think: «Wow, it's so beautiful here»? That's exactly how I felt about the Neckertal Tree Top Walk, a forest and adventure trail in Toggenburg.

It is just one of over 80 discounted family offers available through the Swiss ElternPass, and it's my personal favourite. Here are seven good reasons why:

1. A walk in the woods is always good for you
2. Trees help parents and children unwind
3. The treetop walk is not only beautiful, but also educational
4. The trail includes an adventure playground and a family barbecue area
5. The treetop walk is accessible and suitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs
6. The trail is sure to delight everyone aged 0 to 99
7. The trip is well worth it whatever the season or the weather

A mighty circle of trees

You can get there by train or car. From the car park in Mogelsberg, a beautifully maintained path leads up the hill directly to the treetop walk. Just follow the hedgehog signs. Young children particularly enjoy this.

Before turning off towards the entrance, it's worth making a short detour to an imposing cluster of trees right at the top of the hill, which you pass on the way up. Seven or eight mighty conifers form a circle there and watch over the village. You can feel their power immediately as you step inside the circle.

A little bench invites you to stop and rest. What a wonderful view across the whole of Toggenburg you can enjoy from up here! The trees and the panorama are particularly atmospheric in the evening, when the setting sun bathes the landscape in golden light.

Learn lots about forests and nature

The treetop walk itself is part of a beautifully designed site comprising various areas. Stretching for 500 metres, the wooden walkway winds its way through a mixed forest of silver fir, ash, sycamore, spruce, Scots pine, Douglas fir and yew, at roughly half the height of the tree trunks, forming an oval-shaped loop.

The viewing platform, offering a fantastic panoramic view of the Toggenburg region, is situated at a breathtaking height of 55 metres. The particularly daring can step onto a thick glass panel on the floor, which heightens the sensation of vertigo even further.

There are over 40 different learning and interactive stations where you can discover lots of interesting facts about the forest and nature. Depending on the station, different senses are stimulated, so you can not only read, but also turn, taste, listen and feel.

Could this spruce be my great-grandmother in terms of age? What does a Douglas fir smell like? Which animals are native to this area? And why are trees such important air purifiers? Questions like these – and many more – fascinate young and old alike.

Adventure beckons on the ground

Once you've finished the circuit at the top, you can let off steam at the adventure playground below the treetop walk. Or you can do it the other way round. The playground is so great that quite a few children probably run there first.

Should you swing across the square on the little cable car? Or would you rather test your balance on the balance beams first? Music lovers will be drawn straight to the big wooden xylophone, where you can play proper melodies. Or would you rather watch the wooden balls whizzing down the track?

Ideally, the children will lose themselves in play, leaving parents or grandparents free to have a quiet chat or simply close their eyes and relax, whilst the sound of children's laughter mingles with the scents and sounds of the forest.

And who knows: perhaps you'll find yourself in the same situation as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who, whilst out walking near Ilmenau, wrote these famous lines in pencil on the wooden wall of a hunting lodge:

Above all the peaks 
There is peace,
In every treetop 
You feel
barely a breath;
The little birds are silent in the woods.
Just wait, soon
You too will rest.