The Bregenzerwald Cheese Road

The Kaesestrasse is less a road than an association: dairies, alpine huts, farms, maturing cellars and craftspeople across the Bregenzerwald valleys, linked by signage and a shared map. The cheese is hard and made from raw milk, Bergkaese from the valley dairies and Alpkaese made up on the summer pastures, both protected by origin rules. What holds the system together is the three-stage farming year, in which herds move from the valley farm to a middle pasture and then to the high alp as the grass comes on, and back down in autumn. You can watch cheese being made early in the morning at village dairies, and a large cellar at Lingenau keeps thousands of wheels turning on wooden boards.

What you actually see

• Bergkaese and Alpkaese - the valley and mountain versions, the second made only in summer up top.
• The cellar at Lingenau - rows of wheels being turned and salted on wooden boards.
• A morning at a dairy - the milk arriving and the curd worked, done early or not at all.
• Kaesspaetzle - the local way of eating it, soft noodles layered with cheese and fried onion.

When to go

Alpine dairies work only from about June to September, when the herds are on the high pastures, and that is the only window for seeing Alpkaese made. Valley dairies run all year but start very early and often finish by nine. Autumn brings the cattle descents; in winter the region turns to skiing and many alp huts shut entirely.

Honest expectations

It is spread across many valleys and needs a car and a plan; there is no single site, and the signs alone will not organise a day for you. Dairy visits happen at awkward hours and some take booked groups only. Raw-milk hard cheese is strong and salty, more so than most visitors expect. Farm gate prices are not much below shop prices.

Nearby

Bregenz and Lake Constance are to the west, the Arlberg passes to the east.