Arrival at Mondsee

Upon checking into your room at the beautiful Hotel Leitnerbraeu, you may choose to explore Mondsee on foot, then perhaps sink into the Jacuzzi before dinner. Take advantage of the hotel’s popular ice-cream bar, and maybe enjoy a family table-tennis tournament in their lounge before bed.

Optional Activities:

Across the street from your hotel is the 15th-century church where the wedding scene from “The Sound of Music” was filmed.

Mondsee to St. Georgen; 25km/15.5mi or 34km/21mi

This morning you pedal past yachts and wooden boathouses on Mondsee’s north shore. Onward through rolling pasture dotted with country churches, as the triangular white sails scoring the blue surface of Lake Attersee hove into view you descend to the lakeshore. Then, heading inland, you pass a deer farm and roadside stalls piled high with colorful local produce before receiving a warm welcome from the Sollinger family.

Layover day in St. Georgen

Enjoy a rest day beside the beautiful Attersee Lake. You can follow in the footsteps of Gustav Mahler in Attersee—he composed prolifically there. Perhaps savor a local-style lunch—freshly smoked fish are sold along the lakeshore—or enjoy the area’s fabulous swimming pool complex. Don’t miss out on the beautiful lake, where you could also go swimming or enjoy a boat ride.

Optional Activities:

Give your muscles a rest by soaking in the Attergau Recreation Area’s swimming pool complex.

Take a boat ride to the village of Weyregg beneath the craggy mountains on the lake’s eastern shore.

St. Georgen to Gmunden; 39.5km/24.5mi or 49.5km/31mi

Today you enjoy views of the over-3,000-foot-high peaks on the east shore of Attersee Lake as you freewheel down to Schorfling, whose castle was painted by Gustav Klimt with its reflection mirrored on the lake surface. Fields of wheat fringed with poppies and cornflowers pass by before you coast into Gmunden with its cobbled marketplace and painted buildings. Dinner on the terrace of the hotel is delightful, with Gmunden’s lights shimmering above the surface of Lake Traunsee.

Layover day in Gmunden

In Gmunden enjoy another day of relaxation. Today you can take a trip on the Gisela—the last coal-fired paddle steamer of its type in service in the world, also used by Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The cable car to the top of Gruenberg (984 meters, or about 3,300 feet) offers wonderful views at the summit, from where you look down onto Gmunden’s esplanade and the romantic Seeschloss Orth—known as the “floating castle” on the lake, dating from the 17th century. Or you may learn to make dumplings in a cooking class (at your own expense) with the Hotel Gruenberg’s renowned chef and cookbook author Ingrid Pernkopf.

Optional Activities:

Send a postcard home from the historic paddle steamer Gisela, on Lake Traunsee. This beautifully restored vessel functions as a floating post office.

Learn to make dumplings in a cooking class at your hotel.

Gmunden to Bad Ischl; 19km/12mi or 30km/18.5mi

Today you take the Traunsee boat from the dock below the hotel to Ebensee on the south shore. It is well worth taking the cable car up to the Feuerkogel Peak for spectacular views. Then you return along a beautiful riverside route, crisscrossing the sparkling River Traun, and on through scented pine forest to Bad Ischl. You may choose to relax in the opera-house gardens before returning to the hotel for a swim.

Layover day in Bad Ischl

Options abound today in and around Bad Ischl: you may choose to spend the morning visiting the Lehar Villa, indulging in coffee and some of the fanciest pastries in Austria at the famous Zauner Café, perhaps moving on to lunch in the Kurpark, where a dynamic and talented string quartet can be seen performing. In the afternoon, you can visit the Imperial Spa or head to the Ice and Mammoth caves near the pretty village of Obertraun.

Optional Activities:

Take a tour of the twisty corridors and massive caverns of Mammoth Caves near Obertraun.

Drift through Salzkammergut Thermal Spa’s “lazy river,” a beautifully tiled serpentine network of pools, grottos, Jacuzzi beds, and foot-massage jets.

Bad Ischl to Strobl; 16km/10mi or 29km/18mi

This morning you can explore the Emperor Franz Josef’s former vacation home, the Kaiservilla, before setting off along the banks of the River Ischl. Sunlight sparkles on the water as you pass tiny shrines hidden in the pines below Leonsberg and Bleckwand peaks. Lakeside Strobl has a popular beachfront for a cooling swim or you can board a boat cruise on the lake.

Layover day in Strobl

One option for today is an exploration of Salzburg; it’s just an 80-minute bus journey. The city has been described as a Baroque jewel, and its old center is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Places to tour are the Hohensalzburg Fortress, the beautiful Mirabell Gardens, and the Mozart Museum, finishing up the afternoon with a tour of a brewery that’s been open since medieval times.

Optional Activities:

Take a bus into Salzburg, the site of the imperious Hohensalzburg Fortress and the beautiful Mirabell Gardens. Wander through the Mozart Museum and explore the city’s UNESCO World Heritage–site center.

Enjoy free admission to the Alpenseebad swimming bath. Take St. Wolfgang’s antique cogwheel railway up to the summit of Schafberg for breathtaking 360-degree views.

Strobl to Mondsee; 30km/18.5mi or 43km/26.5mi

Keeping close to Wolfgangsee’s southern lakeshore, a level bike path through a tiny nature reserve brings you into lovely St. Gilgen. Here you can also visit the Museum of Musical Instruments, which displays over 2,000 beautiful instruments from all over the world, or take the cable car up the Zwölferhorn for stunning 360-degree views. In the afternoon you coast downhill to Mondsee Lake, before returning to the hotel in time for an apéritif or glass of Austrian cider before dinner.

Departure

A scheduled transfer is provided to the Salzburg airport after breakfast to continue your explorations of this enchanting city or for connections for onward travels.