CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
97 km one way from Salzburg - plan on about 1 h 54 of riding. It goes by way of Fuschlsee, St Gilgen, Bad Ischl and Hallstatt. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For about 23 km this is Salkammergut Lakes Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
This part of the ride is 23 km of Salkammergut Lakes Road.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Salzburg owes its name and its wealth to salt, the white gold that was mined in the nearby hills and floated down the Salzach river for centuries. The prince-archbishops who ruled the city used that income to turn it into a baroque stage set, with domes, fountains and palaces crowded below the mighty fortress of Hohensalzburg, which looks down from its rock over the old town. The city is also the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in 1756 in a narrow house on the Getreidegasse, and every summer the Salzburg Festival fills the squares and churches with music.
Read the complete Salzburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Salzburg is where the day begins. Next is Fuschlsee.
Fuschlsee is the first lake you meet when you ride east out of Salzburg toward the Salzkammergut, and it makes a good first impression. It is small, about four kilometres long, and its water is so clean and clear that it has a reputation as nearly drinkable. The shore is lined with forest and a few elegant buildings, with hills rising behind, and on a calm morning the whole scene sits in the water like a second world turned upside down.
Read the complete Fuschlsee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuschlsee comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is St Gilgen.
St Gilgen lies at the western end of the Wolfgangsee, a long, deep lake in a cleft between steep wooded hills. It is a village of about a thousand people, but it has the polish of a place that has been welcoming visitors for centuries. The waterfront is tidy, the houses are painted in soft colours, and in summer the lake is busy with sailing boats and paddle steamers.
Read the complete St Gilgen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 31 km into the recorded legs you reach St Gilgen. Next is Bad Ischl.
Bad Ischl is the town where an Emperor went on holiday and accidentally changed European history. Franz Joseph spent summers here for decades, in a villa given to him and Sisi as a wedding present, and it was from here, in July 1914, that he signed the declaration of war on Serbia that began the First World War. Today the Kaiservilla is a museum with a park, filled with hunting trophies, and a visit gives you a glimpse of how a monarch spent a holiday: shooting chamois and grumbling over paperwork.
Read the complete Bad Ischl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bad Ischl, about halfway. Next is Hallstatt.
Hallstatt is the village everyone has seen in photographs, built on a narrow ledge between the steep wall of the Dachstein massif and the dark water of the Hallstätter See. There is hardly any flat ground. Houses climb above each other, the church tower stands on a rock above the lake, and the whole arrangement looks so improbable that you wonder how it ever worked.
Read the complete Hallstatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hallstatt sits at 74 km, late in the day. Next is Gosausee.
Gosausee lies at the end of the Gosau valley, in the Dachstein mountains of Upper Austria, in a bowl of limestone cliffs that rise nearly two thousand metres above the water. On a calm morning the lake is a mirror, and the great glacier on the Hoher Dachstein, the highest peak in the range at almost three thousand metres, is reflected upside down in the deep green water. It is one of the most photographed views in the Salzkammergut, and with good reason: the combination of dark forest, grey rock, white ice and blue sky is hard to beat. The lake lies at about nine hundred and thirty metres, and the air is cool and clear, even on hot days.
Read the complete Gosausee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 97 km.
Salzburg → Fuschlsee is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuschlsee → St Gilgen is 8 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
St Gilgen → Bad Ischl is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bad Ischl → Hallstatt is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hallstatt → Gosausee is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.