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Ossiacher See Round Trip — Ossiacher See

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Ossiacher See Round Trip

STARTING FROM · Ossiacher See · 1 day

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QUICK INFORMATION

DURATION
1 day
COUNTRY
Austria
REGION
Ossiacher See · Carinthia
CATEGORY
Lakes & Coast

ABOUT THIS ITINERARY

Carinthia’s gentlest lake day: a flat circuit linking five resorts, a thousand-year-old abbey and a cable-car summit.

OVERVIEW

The route at a glance

About 28 km around the lake (flat by bike; about an hour by car with stops), starting anywhere — the loop has no fixed direction. Boats return tired cyclists from any landing.

THE SCHEDULE

Day by day

Day 1

Around the lake

  1. 09:00

    Ossiach Abbey

    1.5 h

    Morning in the collegiate church and cloister before the tour buses — the festival stage of the Carinthian Summer.

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  2. 10:45

    Bleistätter Moor dam path

    1 h

    Walk the flat Slow Trail across the re-naturalised moor at the eastern end — herons, reeds and the 1931 pump house.

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  3. 12:15

    Lunch & lido in Steindorf

    2 h

    Lakeside lunch at Seehotel Hoffmann’s terrace, then a swim at the warmest, shallowest end of the lake.

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  4. 14:45

    Domenig Steinhaus

    1 h

    The guided tour through Austria’s strangest house — concrete, steel and one architect’s built autobiography.

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  5. 16:15

    Kanzelbahn to the Gerlitzen

    2.5 h

    Cable car up from Annenheim to the panorama — summit plateau or Kanzelhöhe arena depending on energy.

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  6. 19:00

    Boat back & dinner

    1.5 h

    Cruise back to your starting landing at dusk; dinner at Gasthof zur Post by the abbey.

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THE ROUTE ON THE MAP

Stops on the map

ATTRACTIONS ON THIS ROUTE

Sights on the way

The baroque west facade of Ossiach Abbey on the southern shore of the lake
Abbey & Concert Venue

Ossiach Abbey

The first Benedictine monastery in the Duchy of Carinthia, founded by Count Ozi around 1024, dominates the narrow southern shore. Its baroque collegiate church — rebuilt after a fire in 1484 — is now both parish church and the main stage of the Carinthian Summer festival, founded here in 1969 with a benefit concert by pianist Wilhelm Backhaus; the organ bears his name. Alban Berg Hall, a modern concert wing added in 2009, completes the music campus.

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The dam path crossing the reed beds of the Bleistätter Moor at the lake’s eastern end
Nature Reserve

Bleistätter Moor

The lake’s quiet eastern end is a re-naturalised moor crossed by a straight dam path: a Slow Trail leads 7 km through wet meadows where the Tiebel stream fans into the lake, past a 1931 pump house and reed beds alive with warblers, herons and dragonflies. It is the flattest, quietest walk on the lake — and one of Carinthia’s officially designated “slow” routes.

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The Strandbad beach on the northern shore at Bodensdorf
Lake & Beaches

Strandbad & Lakeshores

The lake warms to 27–28 °C in long summer spells — among the warmest in Austria — and the shallow eastern basin heats fastest. Free public lidos at Bodensdorf and Sattendorf, grassy sunbathing lawns at Steindorf and Annenheim, and water-ski and sailing schools on the northern shore make swimming the default activity; the Bodensdorf Strandbad Toff sits right by the station.

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The concrete and steel forms of the Domenig Steinhaus on the Steindorf lakeshore
Architecture

Domenig Steinhaus

On the Steindorf shoreline stands one of the strangest houses in Austria: the Steinhaus, architect Günther Domenig’s deconstructivist autobiography in concrete and steel, grown from sketches from 1986 to 2008 and listed as a monument in 2012. Guided tours walk you through fractured rooms, floating stones and a glass cylinder that dives to the groundwater — the “built self” of the architect of the Nuremberg Documentation Centre.

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The Gerlitzen massif rising behind its lakeside landing stage
Mountain

Gerlitzen Cable Car & Summit

The Gerlitzen — “the sunniest mountain in Carinthia” — rises straight from the northern shore, and the Kanzelbahn lifts you from the lake at 550 m to the Kanzelhöhe arena at 1,440 m in ten minutes; new for 2026, Kanzelbahn II continues toward the summit plateau at 1,911 m. Up top: 147 km of marked trails, the alpine water playground at Neugarten, a paragliding take-off considered Austria’s finest flying mountain, and a 360° panorama from the Hohe Tauern to the Julian Alps.

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The MS Ossiach excursion boat at the landing stage beneath the Gerlitzen
Lake Cruise

Ossiacher See Boat Cruise

Two ships — the MS Ossiach and MS Villach — work a zig-zag route between the lakeside resorts from May to October, and the full round trip takes a satisfying 2.5 hours. The boats dock at the abbey, the Bleistätter Moor, Steindorf and the Gerlitzen cable-car base, so the ship doubles as practical transport: hike one shore, cruise back the other.

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MORE ITINERARIES

Other routes from Ossiacher See

Lakes and Borders: Ossiach, Villach & the Karawanks — Ossiacher See1 day

Lakes and Borders: Ossiach, Villach & the Karawanks

From the quiet lake over Landskron to Villach and — if the day allows — across the border into Italy or Slovenia.

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FOOD & DRINK

Where to eat nearby

01

Landgasthaus Berghof — traditional Carinthian kitchen in the historic house on the southern shore, open all year

02

Gasthof zur Post (Ossiach) — classic guesthouse by the abbey with a beer garden, Kasnudeln and trout

03

Seeterrasse Seehotel Hoffmann — regional dishes on the lakeside terrace in Steindorf’s eastern bay

04

Buschenschank Rogatsch — farm-gate cold platters and cider at 1,057 m above Steindorf, with the lake at your feet

05

Stoffelwirt (Bodensdorf) — hearty Carinthian inn minutes from the station and lido

06

Gasthof Laggner (Steindorf) — regional and Mediterranean cooking with a garden under the Steinhaus ridge

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HOTELS & STAYS

Where to stay nearby

01

Seecamping Berghof — the lake’s classic family campground on the southern shore, since the 1950s

02

Hotel SeeRose — 4-star wellness hotel directly on the shore at Bodensdorf

03

Seehotel Hoffmann — modern 4-star on the eastern bay in Steindorf with lake sauna

04

Apart Hotel Legendär — upscale lakefront apartments with spa and private beach in Steindorf

05

TerrassenCamping Ossiach — terraced pitches with lake panorama on the abbey shore

06

Hotel Ossiacher See — family-run 4-star with panorama indoor pool above Steindorf

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NEARBY DESTINATIONS

Continue the journey

Villach & Faaker See

Villach & Faaker See

Carinthia

Klagenfurt & Wörthersee

Klagenfurt & Wörthersee

Carinthia

Bad Kleinkirchheim

Bad Kleinkirchheim

Carinthia

Graz

Graz

Styria

PART OF

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