On Wednesday evening, October 9, 2024, TRAVELBOOK, Germany’s largest online travel magazine, presented the TRAVELBOOK AWARD for the third time in Berlin, honoring the trend travel destinations for the coming season. The selection was made by an eight-person jury made up of experts from the tourism industry as well as an audience vote. The Carinthian lake landscape wins the award “Best Region for a Hiking Holiday (DACH)”
The Carinthian lake regions – a perfect destination for a hiking holiday
The Carinthian lake landscape is the winner in the “Best Region for a Hiking Holiday (DACH)” category at this year’s TRAVELBOOK Award. With 164 points, the southern Austrian lake landscape passed the Swiss region of Lake Lucerne, the German Moselle Valley and the Swabian Alb as well as the Tannheimer Valley.
“The Carinthian lake region is the ultimate trend travel destination when it comes to hiking. What was particularly impressive was the infrastructure, sustainability efforts and the diversity of the landscape,” says Angelika Pickardt, editorial director at Travelbook.
Kärnten Advertising Managing Director Klaus Ehrenbrandtner: “We are very pleased about this award, which was not only given by industry experts, but above all also reflects the impressions of our guests through the audience voting. It is also proof that it is not just swimming that plays an important role in the lake regions. As we know from the current T-Mona guest survey, 39% of Carinthia guests describe their vacation as a hiking/mountaineering vacation. As a holiday activity, hiking is at a high of 71% in 2023 (68% in 2019). These figures confirm the trend towards active relaxation during summer holidays in Carinthia.”
In recent years, Carinthia’s bathing lakes have no longer been used just for swimming alone, but more and more activities have become established on and around the lakes. So e.g. B. hiking around the Carinthian lakes, where the Wörthersee circular hiking trail or the Via Paradiso long-distance hiking trail (circular hiking trail around Lake Millstätter See) have developed into particularly popular hiking trails.
Wörthersee circular hiking trail: With its 58.5 km and 1,500 meters of altitude, you can easily walk individual stages and then return to the starting point by boat in the evening. The Wörthersee circular hiking trail offers wonderful views over Lake Wörthersee and the Karawanken. The southern flair and the light-flooded hiking trails on the gentle hills are an invitation to all pleasure hikers. Along the way you not only pass the famous lakeside resorts such as Velden or Pörtschach, but also the Pyramidenkogel – the highest wooden observation tower in the world, which offers views over the whole of Carinthia.
Via Paradiso: leads over 55km and 4 stages from Döbriach to Millstatt and on to Seeboden, where it goes back to the starting point via the natural south bank.
Hiking at Weissensee: The Weissensee Nature Park offers more than 200km of marked hiking trails on 76 square kilometers. Countless routes start directly from the lakeshore into the gentle mountains of the Weissensee Nature Park. The hikes can be easily combined with the summer mountain railway or with the Weissensee boat trip.
Alpe-Adria Trail: This leads in 43 stages and 750 kilometers from the foot of the Großglockner through the most beautiful Carinthian mountain and lake areas through the three countries of Austria, Slovenia and Italy. As the hiking trail continues, the topic of water is explored in its various forms. From the glacier at the foot of the Großglockner, to various rivers, you hike past the most beautiful Carinthian lakes such as Lake Wörthersee, Lake Millstätter See, Lake Ossiach, Lake Faak and end at the Italian Adriatic.
If you prefer short hikes, you can take one of the 20 Slow Trails which are located near the beautiful Carinthian lakes. Slow trails are less than 10 km long and offer resting places with beautiful views along the way.
TRAVELBOOK is Germany’s largest online travel magazine with 5.27 million visits in September 2024.