Impressions…

• We stayed in St. Wolfgang, but this post also applies to St. Gilgen and Strobl. They market the combination as “Wolfgangseer Advent”.
• All three towns are on Lake Wolfgang (Wolfgangsee) – St. Gilgen on the north shore, Strobl on the south, and St. Wolfgang in the middle of the east coast.
• We definitely made the right choice about where to stay. St. Wolfgang is a very interesting and attractive town, and our hotel (B&B) was just above the town away from the pedestrian zone and traffic.
• Pension Rudolfshoehe has only 6 rooms. All have modern furnishings and the building itself looks relatively new. Rooms 1 and 2 have the best view of the lake. Parking is available at the front door. There is no lift, but the staff person who met us offered to help with our luggage.
• The markets look like most, with booths for food, drink and crafts, but they are relatively new. St. Wolfgang started their market in about 2003, followed by the other two towns. It was an economic decision to increase tourist traffic in the off season. Apparently, the Wolfgangsee is a popular resort area in the summer.
• St. Wolfgang’s market is the largest of the three. All are relatively small, but St. Wolfgang’s is bigger than it appears because it’s so spread out.
• It’s very hard to escape tour buses and the Wolfgangsee is no exception. However, we didn’t hear English. And, like in many small towns, the tour buses all left late in the afternoon.
• Even with all the tourists, I noticed very little business being done by booths and local businesses, except for the booths with food and drink.
• There are other small markets near the Wolfgangsee. We only visited one – Schloss Ort – on the Traunsee near Gmunden. The castle dates to 1080. Their market is a traditional crafts market. It was very crowded, but still no English heard.

Don’t miss…

• Boat cruise between the three towns. (You can get an all-day pass for Euro 11.)
• Cog railway up the mountain. (The all-day pass also applies to the train. On the day we went, it only went as far as the first stop. I assume it’s that way all winter. Still, it’s well worth the cost.)
• Wandering the streets of St.Wolfgang.
• We had dinner at Pizzeria Toscana only because it was on our way back to the B&B. It was so good that we went back again the next night. A link to their menu is below and their location is on the map at the end of this post.

If you drive…

• Plan ahead to avoid the pedestrian zones. They will be very crowded. I recommend a place like our B&B (Pension Rudolfshohe) which is above the town, has its own parking spaces, and is an easy walk from the town center.
• Be aware that there are only narrow, winding roads leading to St. Wolfgang.

Beaten path index: 3.9 (See the key here)

• Cameras: 4
• Language: 4.5 (We heard no English except in response to us)
• Path: 4
• Tourists: 3 (This one is hard to judge. There were many tour buses, but most were gone by sunset.)

Bottom line…
The Wolfgangsee is definitely worth a visit. The scenery of the lake and mountains is great.

Links
www.wolfgangseer-advent.at
Pizzeria Toscana (Click on “Speisekarte” for their menu – German only)
Wikipedia article on Schloss Ort

Performers
We love street performers of all types. In small towns it’s common to see student performers like these.

Some of our favorite photos

Other photos

Some of the places we visited (Careful – if you’re using a scroll wheel it will cause the map to zoom)