Kids' special in Corinthian Mountains

Buckets and spades might usually be for building sandcastles, but on this Austrian adventure they're for catching tadpoles in clear mountain lakes.

We're not at the beach but in the Corinthian mountain range in southern Austria, not far from the borders of Italy and Slovenia. It's beautifully unspoilt - vivid green slopes strewn with summer flowers and dotted with wooden chalets, their pretty window boxes bursting with red geraniums.

The peaks stretch as far as the eye can see towards a snowy zigzag horizon. Add the jingle of cowbells in the air and the sight of goats scrambling from rock to rock, and this definitely feels like Heidi country.

It should do, because we are, in fact, staying at the Heidi Hotel, in a tiny lakeside hamlet called Falkertsee, which has its own Heidi Adventure Park.

The Swiss novel by Johanna Spyri, about a little orphan girl who reluctantly goes to stay with her grandfather on his mountain farm, befriends Peter the goatherd, and teaches the invalid Clara to walk again, has been adapted for TV and film countless times.

The hotel is themed with characters from a long-running children's cartoon of the Heidi story, which was a huge hit on German-speaking TV.

They gazed in wonder at the giant statue of Heidi waving at us as we arrived, and the smiling welcome committee dressed in traditional Austrian costume (yes, complete with lederhosen) added to the sense they were entering a fantasy world.

As we sit now on the panoramic veranda sipping a complimentary schnapps, they are running around the hotel - from the outside go-cart track to the large basement playroom, via the juice bar - with a sense of ownership, waving and calling to our waitress Barbara as they go.

Inside it's all Alpine charm - red gingham and heart motifs, stuffed stags' heads and cowhide rugs. This is a ski hotel primarily, but it takes on a new life in summer, when the large garden, outdoor play area, climbing wall and beach on the lake emerge from the snow and ice.

It's intimate and family-run. Our hosts, Herr and Frau Kofer and their son and daughter, welcome us with a drink, and are always on hand to recommend something to do and make sure we have everything we need.

The Kofers made the decision years ago to specialise in catering for families, and became one of the first Kinderhotels - resorts across central Europe designed for holidays with children.

About 60 hours of childcare are included, split into a program of daily activities that you can dip in and out of, using your Kinderhotels "passport", then there are buggies, baby carriers, armbands and rucksacks here you can borrow, and early meals for the children at 5.45pm.

There are 48 Kinderhotels to choose from and others are much larger than ours - many boast indoor ice rinks, soft play centres, cinemas and their own water park. Here, with only about 12 other families in residence, it feels incredibly safe. Because the hotel is at the end of the road, just below the crest of the mountain, there are no cars, and the garden and play areas are fenced off from the lake.

We have a family suite with a balcony and bunk-bed room for the kids. They even have their own mini dressing gowns provided, for trips down in the lift to the indoor pool.

Collected by the hotel minibus from the airport at Klagenfurt, just one hour away, we have no need of a car, and there's a program of activities to fill the week.

It's a short stroll down a track to the Heidi Adventure Park, which is free for hotel guests. There, meandering paths take you through the story of Heidi using colourful character statues. Along the way, you can feed Peter's goats, walk around grandfather's cottage, ride ponies and borrow rods to fish on the pond.

Decisions about how to spend the day are made at breakfast, where the daily "Heidi Post" reveals what's on offer. We sign up for the family climbing trail, zooming back to earth on a zip line. One afternoon, we also borrow the hotel canoe for a splash on the lake, taking nets, buckets and spades for some pond dipping.

The kids do their own thing some days - building campfires and cooking sausages, collecting wild herbs, and fashioning bows and arrows. The only British children in the hotel, they cope well playing with the German and Italian kids, thanks mostly to the hard work of the kids' club entertainers, who speak excellent English.

Meanwhile, the grown-ups have some new experiences of their own - a traditional bake in a secluded "blockhaus" sauna followed by a plunge into an icy mountain spring pool is not one I'll forget in a hurry.

Chilling cold water aside, this is an incredibly healthy holiday - the hotel is 1800m above sea level and the air is fresh.

Our six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son have eaten all of their favourite foods - fish fingers, spaghetti bolognaise, chips and the like - but they've been forced to try a few new things, too, eventually discovering a liking for clear soup with noodles (seemingly a favourite here).

Fully acclimatised to the altitude and our cheeks now flushed with colour, we tackle the walk to the summit of Falkert on our final day, on a guided family hike. Stopping for water and chocolate several times on the way up, the children were presented with a gold medal on proudly reaching the peak.

TRAVEL FACTS

• The writer and her family had the all-inclusive package at the Heidi Hotel Falkertsee, see heidi-hotel.at.

• For more information on Kinderhotels and to browse other hotels in the collection, see kinderhotels.com.