Itinerary check please! Walking holiday in the Salzkammergut

Posted by Hank (City of Seattle) on 01/07/19 11:28 PM

Hi -

In a scant 6 months my family of 3 is headed from Seattle for our 5th straight active summer holiday in Europe. We'll spend 6 nights in the Salzkammergut, where my wife spent a summertime month as a college student at a language immersion program in Strobl before her year at the University of Vienna. She's terribly excited to return to the lakes district.

As per usual, we didn't find any of the established hiking tour holidays fully satisfactory, so we've designed our own itinerary. Please have a look and make recommendations as you see fit. We'll be there in the first week of July. Please note we've seen Salzburg 3 or 4 times, fine with bypassing on this trip. Our kid is 10, maybe some fun kid stuff along thee way would be nice. Thank you!

Wednesday: 10am arrival to Salzburg airport (from elsewhere in Europe. Public transit to St. Gilgen. Lunch. Walk hiking trail to St. Wolfgang. Hotel in St. Wolfgang.

Thursday: Get to next hotel in Bad Ischl by combining public transit and walking trails. Probably ferry to Strobl. Maybe take kid to alpine coaster near Strobl? Maybe go to public pool complex in Bad Ischl? We do have all day, probably will walk 2-3 hours and so bus will certainly come into play.

Friday: Early bus us to Bad Goisern. Bigger hike day - 16 kilometers and 1k meters up/down. Arrive Gosau. Bus or rent eBike to head up valley to Gosausee hotel.

Saturday: Rest day at Gosausee/Gosau valley. Gosausee hotel.

Sunday: Another 16k, 1k vertical hiking day to Hallstatt. Hotel in Hallstatt.

Monday: Rest day in Hallstatt. Hotel in Hallstatt.

Tuesday: Depart Hallstatt for Salzburg Airport. Fly to Edinburgh for next stage of trip.

Posted by Claire

Vancouver, Canada

01/09/19 02:26 AM

71 posts

So many beautiful places to see! This is such a stunning area and there is certainly lots of great hiking to be had.

I spent five days in St Gilgen in the summer of 2017 and spent every day hiking, so you are spoiled for choice around there. Honestly, the pilgrim path from St Gilgen to St Wolfgang wasn't my favourite (but it wasn't the worst - the flat lakeside - and also roadside - path from St Gilgen to Strobl had that honour). It's largely in the woods so the views aren't huge; my favourites were the ones when you come out of the woods above St Wolfgang and you can easily see these by just walking up from the town. The steep up and down (about 250m up over 1km with the down spread over 2km) might not be the most fun for a 10 year old.

An alternative might be to take the cable car up the Zwölferhorn and do some of the trails up there. Kids usually love cable cars and the views up there are open to the other mountains. You can see photos and read hike descriptions (in German) here:
https://www.zwoelferhorn.at/index.php?id=21

If you like swimming and the weather is good, it would also be nice to make time for that on Wolfgangsee. The water temperature is beautiful in summer and it's a lovely way to cool off after a good hike. There are plenty of beaches around the lake:
https://wolfgangsee.salzkammergut.at/en/summer/beachlife/lakeside-beaches.html

Personally, I'd spend two nights here and cut down transit time to spend more time hiking. I enjoyed Bad Ischl but if you don't have a specific reason to be there, then it's less exciting and your time might be better spent focusing on the things you know you really enjoy.

Have fun with your planning!