Every Outing an Experience
Waldviertel – a paradise for outings
Along with its incomparable scenery, the Waldviertel offers more than 300 destinations for outings. Art treasures and culture highlights await you, along with a host of Waldviertel specialties and much more.
Nature plays the lead in the Waldviertel, intact and genuine. Nationalpark Thayatal is a national park in the valley of the Thaya River impressive for its special flora and rare fauna, such as the wild cats that make their home there. The 8 nature parks in the Waldviertel are also well worth seeing. They include Blockheide Nature Park with its massive rocking stones and Heidenreichstein Nature Park with its moor landscape.
Of course, the nature parks are ideal for hiking. But probably the best known hiking region in the Waldviertel is the Ysper Valley. The Ysperklamm is a gorge in this valley that is something special even for people who are not confirmed hikers. You descend on wooden ladders and narrow bridges until you are very close to the water of the Grosse Ysper as it makes its way through the boulders. This natural showplace is wonderful all on its own, without staging or human input. It is the best of places to leave everyday cares behind.
You can also explore enchanting stretches of the Waldviertel on a ride the Reblaus Express between Retz and Drosendorf.
But the Waldviertel is rich not only in nature and beautiful scenery but also in fortresses, castles and monasteries that are steeped in history and that let you immerse yourself in the past. This is true also in the summer when many serve as historical backdrops for highlight events such as the Weitra Castle Festival. Culture buffs will also want to catch the Kunstmuseum Waldviertel.
The Amethyst World in Maissau, for its part, is an experience for the entire family. There, the largest exposed vein of amethyst sets visitors off on exciting treasure hunts. The Nature Park Hochmoor - Unterwasserreich Schrems is a place to explore and understand water and moors, featuring among others things, an underwater zoo and a European otter enclosure. The animals in Arbesbach are of a larger variety. Animal rights activists have set up a “bear forest” there to serve as a new home for brown bears formerly in circuses or in private enclosures. The facility gives visitors fascinating insights into the lives of these animals. If sheer endless blossoms are what you are after, the Kittenberger Theme Gardens are where you want to go. With their 40 different themes, these gardens offer wonderful recreation for the whole family.
The crowning touch to a hot day-trip in the Waldviertel? How about a jump into a refreshingly cool lake, such as Herrensee in Litschau or one of the three lakes along the Kamp River? The Sole Felsen Bad Hotel and Thermal Spa lets you relax even when the weather is not cooperating. Take your choice of outdoor pool, salt-water pool and swimming lake.
The culinary experiences you can have on an outing in the Waldviertel also involve basic products that flourish in the pristine nature of the Waldviertel and are made into top-quality regional specialties here. In this region, you can explore and sample Kamp Valley wines, Waldviertel beer, superb brandies, special herbs, regional cheese and the famous Waldviertel gray poppy seeds as well as Waldviertel carp and potatoes.
How are you supposed to know who is open when or where the destinations for outings to the Waldviertel even are and which experiences can be best combined with each other? All this information about delightful Waldviertel outings is summarized on a recreational map of the Waldviertel. You will find all this online in the Waldviertel outing planner, where you can put together your own individual outing interactively.