Where: Ossiacher See in Carinthia
How to get there: from Wien HBF to Annenheim Bahnhof via Villach (5h)
This weekend escape combines a lake and incredible mountain ranges – it’s like its the ultimate Austrian holiday combo’.
The Ossiacher See (Lake Ossiach) is located near Villach in Carinthia, and is in the southern region of the Gurktal Alps. It’s the place of dreams for those amongst us who love being up high on mountains and engaging in any activity involving hiking boots.
If you’re feeling a bit lazy, or don’t want to hike up the mountain, there’s a cable car that will take you up to the Kanzelhöhe sub-peak. From there, you can take another cable car up to the Gerlitze mountain top (1,909 m). There, you’ll have a panoramic view of the lake and the mountains.
Close to Annenheim, there’s the Finsterbach Wasserfälle (waterfalls), and on the east shore of the Lake Ossiach, there’s the Bleistätter Moor, a moor and nature reserve with an easy 7km loop hike (slow trail) on which you can catch a variety of flora and fauna species that you probably haven’t seen before.
Also really close to Annenheim is Landskron where the mountain of monkeys, ‘Affenberg,‘ is located. Yes, Austria has a monkey mountain, and yup, there are monkeys living there. We’ve been told it’s technically not a zoo, nevertheless, biologists and animal caretakers guide visitors through the area that is home to around 160 Japanese macaques that were rescued and are now studied there.
