St Gilgen summer holidays

Holidays in St Gilgen

Sankt Gilgen, or Mozart Village (the composer’s mum and sister once lived here), is flanked by rolling meadows and the enticing waters of Lake Wolfgangsee. The town’s packed full of historic buildings and you can usually see magnificent flower displays that would put Chelsea to shame! St. Gilgen’s an awesome base for a whole host of activities – whether it’s scaling the Zwolferhorn, taking a lakeside stroll or trying your hand at the water sports on offer.

Highlights: • Great for water sports • Access to 345km Salzkammergut Bike Path • Historic village

St Gilgen Walking

Walking is one of the most popular activities here and as you can imagine, the lake looks fabulous with the sun glinting off it and the mountains covered with summer flowers. There’s a wonderful walk called the Josef-Ebner-Path that follows the curve of the lake from Brunnwinkl to Hubertus Chapel and then splits into two paths – one harder than the other – to the Wedding Cross. If you don’t fancy the walk back, you can always get the ferry back over the lake. The Zeppetzau Path is a much shorter walk that takes you around a lovely little valley. Hike through the Winkl village and up to the peak of the Schafberg if you’re looking to push yourself a little bit more.

St Gilgen Cycling

Every July the region plays host to the Salzkammergut Trophy – a gruelling long-distance road race that welcomes pros and amateurs, all struggling to conquer the Dachstein Mountains. There are 1500km of paths, roads and singletrack to shred on top of this; one amazing road ride is the loop that starts and ends at Bad Goisern, the other side of Lake Wolfgangsee. Getting a different perspective on the lake is wonderful and it’s a brilliant whistle-stop tour of other villages like Bad Ischl and Strobl.

There’s also a lot going on for MTB fans... Head to Mondsee then cycle along the lakeside to Schwarzindien and Scharfling village: from here you can take on the gut-busting uphill to the top of the Eisenau. Ebensee, a short drive away, is the sight of one of Austria’s best downhill trails - the Feuerkogel route is a bumpy, curvy 5.6km that’s designed for proficient bikers so check it out after you’ve tackled some of the more conventional routes.