Land O' Lakes
July 3-26, 2026
Continuing with our domestic adventures from the spring, we decided to keep riding the rails to different hiking and camping spots throughout Austria in the summer of 2026. In early July, our friends Liz and Christoph came to visit from Berlin, so we researched some new beautiful areas we could reach using public transit. Though there wasn’t a single, convenient train between Vienna and Lunz am See in Lower Austria, we were able to string together four short trains and busses and arrive in about three hours.
Ötscherland Camping is situated on a small river, about a 15-minute walk from a lake called Lunzer See. When we booked online, we had asked for a campsite on the river, and were told they could accommodate. When we arrived at the campground, we were given something else entirely. Our spot “by the river” was actually in a tiny clearing of trees where several other families with huge tents had already set up camp. There would be only a foot or two of clearance between our tents and theirs. To complicate matters, a veritable gaggle of naked children were already patrolling the area, toddling hither and yon. We asked the girl at the reception if there was anywhere else we could camp; Christoph smartly pointed out in German that we would be staying up into the evening and conversing, which wasn’t ideal for toddlers trying to sleep in the immediate vicinity. Thankfully, even though the site was fully booked for the night, we had arrived early in the afternoon, so she let us take two empty adjoining spaces in a much less crowded area. As the evening progressed and the place filled up, we realized we had been given easily the best spots in the entire campground. More families with toddlers poured into the cramped area we had fled, and we were thrilled to have escaped.
After checking out the kitchen and refrigerator situation, we walked back into town to load up on supplies. We spent the afternoon with drinks chilled in the river, listening to music and catching up with our good friends. The sun went down and the toddlers went to sleep and we stayed up being fun adults, regretting none of our life choices.
We lucked out on the weather that weekend, which was pleasantly mild after a string of hot days. Lunz am See turned out to be a charming lakeside hamlet, with a few restaurants, an ice cream shop, and other little stores. We hiked around the edge of the lake until we reached the other end, where we were surprised to find a seemingly-abandoned castle sitting at the juncture where our trail started to head uphill. Before we started our ascent though, Christoph decided he needed to eat some apple strudel and drink a beer, and there was a restaurant ready and waiting to provide him with those very items. There were three Austrian foods on Christoph’s bucket list for this trip: strudel, schnitzel, and kaiserschmarrn (a chopped-up pancake dessert). He wasted no time crossing the first one off the list.
One thing that we love about Europe is that there is almost always someone waiting to sell you a drink at the highest point of your hike, or the end, or both. We had no expectations that there would be anyone at the top of the pastoral hill we were climbing above Lunzer See, but to our surprise, some industrious person had set up the next best thing. A tiny shack stood near the lookout at the top of the trail, with only an Almdudler sign affixed to the front to inform hikers of its purpose (Almdudler is a traditional Austrian soda). When we opened up the swinging door, we found that the shack surrounded a hole in the ground that was full of cases of assorted beverages. Even though it was warm and sunny outside, the drinks in the hole were nice and cold. Affixed to the door was a price list and an honor box for depositing cash. We each picked our drink of choice, dropped in our coins, and enjoyed tasty drinks with our sack lunches while overlooking the lake.
We also found a metal box that contained a notebook and pen, so people who reached the summit could leave a note for other hikers. It just so happened to be the 4th of July that day - America’s 250th birthday - so we left a special patriotic message to commemorate the occasion.
Back down at Lunzer See, we were happy to pay a few euros to enter the private beach area for seating, refreshments, and a restroom. Liz had been adamant all day that she was going to get in the water for a swim, but by the time we finally reached the lake, clouds had come in and it wasn’t particularly great swimming weather anymore. Liz jumped in the lake anyway. For dinner we ate at one of the lakeside cafes, and our German friends got to enjoy some proper Austrian schnitzels, though they refused to eat them with cranberry sauce like us locals (their loss).
With some of the greatest museums, classical music, and other cultural activities in the world, there were endless choices for how to spend Liz and Christoph’s final evening in Vienna. Christoph decided he wanted to go to the amusement park. Always interested to play along as tourists in our new city, we happily obliged. After scoping out the rides in Prater park, Christoph set his sights on a particularly terrifying one called the “Magic Rotor,” in which two passengers are spun in a circular, gut-churning motion on a long, extending arm. Kirb happily agreed to be Christoph’s wingman, and the two were whipped around comprehensively in the name of entertainment.
After another schnitzel at Cafe Konstantin in the park, Christoph was able to cross off the final item on his food bucket list: kaiserschmarrn. We love this little restaurant, as it’s a perfect place to enjoy a drink surrounded by trees, watching people pass by on the promenade. It was a lovely end to a lovely weekend with friends we dearly miss.
Side Quest: Salzburg
It’s certainly great when friends and family come to visit in Vienna, but if they can only make it as far as Salzburg, we’re still happy to accommodate. This was the case with cousin Angie, who had planned a big cross-Europe trip with her friend Tracie. They booked a day trip into Salzburg from Munich and asked if we wanted to tag along. It sounded like a good excuse to go have fun on a random Monday, so we caught an early morning 2.5-hour train and met up with the girls for a guided tour of one of Austria’s most scenic cities.
Weirdly, we hadn’t been back to Salzburg since our very first trip to Austria all the way back in 2018. The tour took us through the Mirabell Gardens where the Sound of Music was filmed and into the shopping district in the old town, before we were set loose to explore on our own and get some lunch. The tour guide greased some palms to get the four of us a table at a busy restaurant, where we enjoyed a nice traditional Austrian meal as we caught up with Angie and got to know Tracie. The two of them used to work together as newscasters in LA in the 90s - Tracie was an anchor and Angie was the weather girl - so they had lots of fun stories to share.
We spent the rest of the afternoon taking the funicular up to the castle, which overlooks the city on one side and the Berchtesgaden Alps on the other. Our tour guide was insistent that if we went up to the castle, we had to check out the cemetery. It was indeed very picturesque, but for some reason Angie kept referring to it as the “semen-tary,” so our time in that beautiful, somber place was mostly filled with crass humor and dirty jokes.
Then, before we knew it, Angie and Tracie’s group had to catch the train back to Munich, so we said our goodbyes and made our way in the opposite direction to Vienna. Though not a proper vacation, our day trip to Salzburg was short and sweet, just like cousin Angie.
There is no shortage of beautiful lakes at the bases of mountains in Austria, but it can be tough to find ones with the sort of campsites we prefer. It’s much more popular for Austrians to go camping in motorhomes than it is to spend the weekend in a tent, so most campsites cater to the former. Anyone who shows up to the majority of these campsites with a tent is going to be relegated to a patch of grass where they are forced to camp ass-to-elbows next to everyone else who is “roughing it,” while the RV people get a dedicated pitch all to themselves.
Based on the reviews online, Seecamping Nagele seemed like they would give us a lakeside space of our own, even if we arrived without an automobile. Ossiacher See is located in Kärnten, along the southern border with Slovenia; we stayed at a campsite on nearby Faaker See on our Covid road trip in 2020. But unlike that distinctively unchill party-zone, Seecamping Nagele was advertised as a quiet and relaxing escape in nature. Getting there required a nonstop 4-hour train from Vienna to Villach, then a 30-minute train around the lake to the campsite. When we arrived, we were, unsurprisingly, the only guests without car.
As we had hoped, we were given a patch of grass all to ourselves, with plenty of space between the RVs parked on either side. There was a train that ran once an hour around the lake, so we had to be careful with timing when we wanted to do things like head the grocery store, even though it was only a few stops away. Once we settled in, we found that Seecamping Nagele had particularly good amenities: several tables with sun umbrellas right on the lake, a fridge to keep our provisions cold, and a perfect dock for swimming. Aside from the fact that we were sleeping in a tent, everything else at the campground felt like we were staying at a nice rental or resort.
The next morning, we caught the train to the Kanzelbahn gondola station, which would lift us up the mountain for some scenic hiking in the Gerlitzen Alps. Somehow, after all these years, Mazz still hates riding in gondolas just about as much as any other activity on Earth, yet she will continue to hand over her hard-earned money for this deep displeasure because it’s such a convenient way to walk around beautiful and otherwise-inaccessible places.
We decided on a loop trail for the afternoon that would take us to four different mountain huts. After walking uphill for an hour or so, we came across the first hut, Pollingerhütte, and found it was situated right at the exit of the gondola that continued up to the top of the mountain. It was packed with people who had not toiled in any substantial way for their afternoon food or drink, so we decided to press on.
The next hut, Kammerhütte had a big, happy St. Bernard waiting out front to greet us. We liked that hut instantly. Hungry, we found a seat on the terrace and perused the menu. Aside from a green salad or a plain sausage, there wasn’t a single thing without gluten Mazz could eat. We explained the situation to the waiter and he admitted there wasn’t much more he could do, and left us to think it over. When he returned and asked if we had made a decision, Kirb replied, “Ja, Alkohol,” and the man gave him a clumsy hi-five. We each enjoyed a refreshing drink on the patio while the St. Bernard settled in at our feet for pets, then we hit the trail again.
The third hut on the “Four Hut Hike” was permanently closed and fenced off, which felt a bit like false advertising. We were pretty hungry now and still aways out from the final hut. Thankfully, we had planned ahead for this very contingency, and when we eventually came across a picnic bench overlooking a panorama of the Julian Alps, we stopped and fed ourselves with mountain cheese and local sausage we had bought the day before at the shop in town.
The fourth and final hut, Steinwenderhütte, was the best of the lot by far, and we were glad we had inadvertently taken the trail backwards so that this hut was our final stop. Everything about the Steinwenderhütte exuded classic alpine charm: colorful flower boxes, all-wood architecture, and a spectacular mountain view. They even had some traditional gluten-free cake made with buckwheat four, which we enjoyed alongside affogatos - espresso shots poured over a shot of vanilla ice cream. It was everything we look for in a mountain hut, and a great way to wrap up a long hike.
The next day it got hot again. Thankfully, we were camping on a lake. We walked into town in the morning before things got too gross, loaded up on supplies, and then lugged them back to the campsite on the train. Part of us felt like we were missing out by not hiking and exploring the mountains some more, but the other part of us was having a beach day on an idyllic lake with books, card games, and white wine spritzers, so we tried our best not to submit to FOMO.
So far, the trend continues of being able to find excellent places to hike and camp in Austria without needing a car. Public transportation in rural areas can certainly have its limitations, and it definitely left us waiting around for a train for not-insignificant amounts of time on this trip. But overall, everything worked out fine, as long as we were patient. When it’s time to go on another trip into the alps in Western Austria again, we’ll probably choose to pull the trigger and rent a car for the sake of getting to trailheads. But for a summer weekend on the lake? Who needs a car! A relaxing retreat is only a train (or four) away.