Sunday, August 18, 2013

Fuschl am See, Austria

We have been home from our big trip almost a month already (!) and I'm just getting back to the recap. I swear if I don't blog while on vacation, I may not ever do it. But this was such an epic trip for us, I don't want it to go undocumented. I wrote most of this on the plane anyway, so here it goes!

When I was planning our trip to Germany, I knew we'd want to spend some time in Austria. My first thought was Salzburg because its only an hour and a half from Munich. However I couldn't think of anything I absolutely had to do there (that required staying for multiple nights) so I decided it would be more relaxing to stay outside in the city in a beautiful spot. A few hours of lurking in the Tripadvisor forums and I had decided on a town called Fuschl am See about twenty minutes outside of Salzburg.

When we arrived we were greeted with these gorgeous views...

We got off to a bit of a rough start, beginning with the hotel putting up in small tiny room in what can only be described as the attic, despite the fact that Eric could not stand up in the shower. Apparently they claimed that the person in our room had not yet checked out, um ok, but then don't they have to take the crappy room for not checking out on time? Ha.

But, I have to say our new room the next day totally made up for the weird start and then the hotel surpassed our expectations times a million.

Not only was the view amazing, but the food at this place I am still missing. We chose to do "half board" which meant we got breakfast and dinner included. Every morning at breakfast, we got to pick our main dinner course from three options. Then, at dinner, we got to start with a bread and salad buffet, then a soup, then an appetizer and then the main course. That would've been more than enough but they also included a ridiculously delicious dessert. Besides the food being great, I loved that I didn't have to search for a restaurant every night with an English menu and wait forever after we eat for the bill. Yeah yeah, I know that's a European thing but my stomach doesn't like to eat and then sit around :)

Just so you guys would not think I'm exaggerating, I took some food photos for you.

The best dessert night was our last night with an ice cream buffet, obviously right up my alley.
The last thing to love about this lovely hotel was the lake, obviously. It provided a lot of opportunities to burn off all the delicious food we were enjoying. Of course you know how much I love swimming and I'm starting to bring Eric on board with my obsession so we did some lake laps more than once. I also enjoyed a quick paddle boarding trip. I've been wanting to do this again since our honeymoon but somehow haven't had an opportunity so I was psyched to see there were a couple of boards for guests to enjoy for free.

If I could plan this trip again, I might just spend the entire time in this one hotel alternating between reading, water sports, eating and just relaxing :) What could be better?

Do you prefer relaxing vacations or vacations where you are seeing a lot and always on the go?

 

9 comments:

  1. Wow, that is such a beautiful area. Those meal options all sound amazing!! I like vacations that are a mix of doing things and relaxing. My Paris trip was a good combination of seeing things but also sitting in cafes, reading.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We visited Austria right before I found out I was pregnant. We did go to Salzburg and did the whole Sound of Music tour which was fun. I think we only stayed 2 nights though--then we were off to Italy. The first part of our trip was very active but we were complete boobs at the end and barely did anything in Belaggio. I am not a good travel planner like you, John is so much better, but I feel like my desire for activity depends on where we go. When I was newly pregnant in Belaggio, I was completely content to do NOTHING. We had intentions of doing a few things and every day just enjoyed being lazy and it was awesome. I feel like the next trip we take will definitely be much more active because you can't just be lazy when traveling with a toddler.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gorgeous! I love that you're posting about this now, since Ryan and I have been doing tons of research on where in Europe we want to go. Austria has made our list. That place looks amazing!

    That food?!?! Wow! That's all I can say. Awesome!

    I love paddleboarding - and that looks like the perfect setting for some SUP!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful! I love how the hotel had paddle boards to use for free! When do you ever find that in the US?

    ReplyDelete
  5. We are so the relaxing type of people. I totally want to go visit that in Austria now! We are going to be more active on our spring break trip mainly because we need to entertain a two year old. ;) It's a great excuse to see new things though!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow that lake is BEAUTIFUL! Good idea to stay outside of the city and have a relaxing couple of days. I bet that felt great in the middle of a busy trip!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Absolutely gorgeous and now I'm hungry! Looks like it was a wonderful trip.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That lake is gorgeous. And to be able to "come home" from that to an amazing home cooked (sorta) meal? That's the life!

    A lifetime ago, I loved vacations that were go go go (go go go go). These days, I could use a little extra downtime from our go go go day-to-day life ... and, our reality is, traveling with a baby or toddler sort of forces you to slow down anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ah that meal looks so good! We just did a very busy three week holiday and it was fun, but I'm ready for some relaxation now!

    ReplyDelete