Austria travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

The Semmering Railroad – located in Austria this line connects the cities of Gloggnitz and Muerzzuschlag, it’s a section of the southern line called -Suedbahn. It is still fully functional as a part of the former Austrian Southhern Railway which is now part of the Austrian Federal Railways.

The Semmering Railway, built over 41 km of high mountains between 1848 and 1854, is one of the greatest feats of civil engineering. Difference of 460 m; on 60% of its length the steepness is 20-25‰. And 16% exhibit a curvature radius of only 190 m.

The main tunnel, 1,430 meters long, at the time considered the most famous construction of its kind and 15 other tunnels.

The Semmering railway and its surrounding region offer a multitude of recreational activities for virtual.Today, the Semmering Railway is not only a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, but also a popular tourist destination with lots of references to its “fin de siecle” heritage. The first criteria was- it represents an outstanding technological solution to a major physical problem in the construction of early railway.

There are also many hiking tours, mountain climbing areas and ski pistes which all invite one for a mountainous adventure – in both winter and summer season.

Rogner Bad Blumau is a hotel of discovery. Green roofs, round shapes and colorful facades make up a wonderful work of art in the middle of nature. The hotel is build like a city with various district. The architect is the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser whose vision is that life is harmony and in harmony with nature. So the Rogner Bad Blauman is one of these places. The hotel is located in Bad Blumau municipality of the district of Furstenfield in Styria, Austria.

From his early days Friedensreich was a painter, who later also became an ecologist and building designer. He collected many ideas while traveling all around the world. Later he used these experiences when he started to design buildings.

Two curative springs supply Rogner Bad Blumau with power, heat and energy. Floating in the warm water, daydreaming alone or as a couple under canopies, on the glass-covered roof or when reading in a room of silence. The Melchoir spring is the soft and mild one at the hotel. When it comes from earth, the highly mineralized  thermal water has a temperature of 47.2 degrees Celsius. The other one – Vulkania spring is made up of a unique composition of depth groundwater. The mineral content in this naturally strong sole spring exceeds the required guide value for curative waters many times.

The Vulkania curative spring is of volcanic origin and the highest mineralized curative water in the Styrian spa region. Collected in the Vulkania curative lake, the water is genuine and powerful with warmest bathing temperature out in the open. Bathing in this water feels like silk.

One of the greatest service is relaxing in the Dead Sea Salt Gretto. Teh walls, the ceiling and floor consists of 100% salt from Dead Sea. During your session in the Dead Sea Salt Gretto you will inhale ionized air rich in micro – elements like iodine, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron and selenium.

Since it was founded, Rogner Bad Bluman has been awarded numerous prizes again and again. Out of and about at Rogner Bad Blumau guests can also enjoy a lot of sport activities like cycling, fishing, tennis, running, inline skating, beach ball, skater track and street ball.

Leichenberg Life Medicine is a wellness retreat that marries hospitality and medicine, bringing together service industry standards, old-school European spa culture, modern diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. The center is something between traditional five-star luxury hotel and high-tech medical treatment.

Guests can come in the resort for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation or just a simple relaxation. Situated in Bad Gleichenberg, Austria, life medicine benefits from a mild local climate, idyllic landscape and two mineral-rich water sources, thermal springs.

The resort offers all the traditional wellness services which are thermal baths, sauna and a wide range of face and body treatments. It also offers an impressive array of diagnostic services, including lab testing, allergy profiles, metabolic panels and ultrasounds, to name a few.

The philosophy of the hotel strikes a healthy balance between culinary indulgence and responsible consumption. Meals at the main restaurant, spa bistro and lounge cafe are very low in calories but high in taste, rich in ingredients from local farmers and producers.

The resort’s focus is nature, as reflected in the extensive use of larch wood, glass and natural stone as well as the pervasive browns, reds and greens that blend perfectly with the surrounding landscape.

The 107 rooms, three suites and various conference areas are similarly outfitted, full of light woods and soft hints of natural colours. The resort was built around an existing park, thus incorporating several centuries-old trees and an ancient brook. Local activities include hiking, golfing, stargazing and visits to nearby castles and imperial villas.

 Klosterneuburg is a city located on the Danube River, not far from Vienna. With vineyards creeping up the hills, Klosterneuburg is one of the most beautiful countryside and fascinating communities. The city is hugely popular with tourists who want to go there for an easy daytrip. Klosterneuburg awaits you with many museums, memorials and other unique cultural attractions.

 The city is home to the oldest private working winery in Austria. The biggest wine producer is the Klosterneuburg Abbey, which history began in the 1114, when it was founded in 1114 by saint Margrave Leopold III. At an age of 900 years, this winery is not only the oldest wine estate in Austria, but also the largest with its 108 hectares of cultivated land. Today it offers wine tastings and wine sales in the wine shop of the abbey.

There is also and the world’s first viticulture school, which is teaching wine knowledge on an international level. This is The Federal College of Viticulture and Pomology, one of the only schools in the world with a focus on wine-making.

During the last years the procedures with beer becomes very popular in Austria, Germany, Czech Republic. The beer is all natural products and has ability to stress slowing down. The antioxidants in hops have the options to protect against cancer by soaking up of free radicals, which are bad for the health.

Salzburg in Dorfibm, is located the Landhotel Moorhof. It offers the most complete beer spa treatment. The facilities are beer baths, massages with beer, beer wraps and cosmetics procedures with, of course… beer. The hotel’s spa center uses traditional spa methods which were started by monks years ago. The monks discovered that the left-over components from fermentation were ideal for clearing skin. The Landhotel Moorhof gets their ingredients for their “special brew” from a local brewery.
There is a bath side bar, which allows its guests to sip beer while floating in beer and four large beer barrels, big enough for two to share. Showering after bathing in the tub cleanses the skin and promotes you energy refreshing. The spa center has a dry and wet sauna and ultraviolet therapy room. These spas are available also in The Chodovar Brewery – Prague and The Kummerower Hof – Neuzelle.

The  Museum Liaunig is sited over step-sided ground, high up in the mountain in Austria. Only a small side of the museum structure is visible. The museum’s main body slices through a densely-wooded embankment, provided a spectacular view over the river.

The museum entrance zone is situated toward the nearby historical castle owned by the museum’s patron. The structure of the museum offers the possibility to organize a variety of exhibitions, parties and cocktails by virtue of flexible screens and lighting arrangements.

The museum main hall is 160 metre long, fully daylight exhibition hall, with protected terraces at each end. As well as the hall is organized with mobile exhibition panels. Coool place!

The high cost of external envelope is avoided by sinking the majority of the building below ground. Rather than removing the soil, excavated ground is used to remodel the site.

Set into the hill, the museum benefits from the temperature environment. Roof light substitutes artificial light as much as possible.

Loisium Hotel is built on a gently south-sloping vineyard, located in the picturesque town of Langenlois, Austria. Actually the hotel is composed of three parts: the existing vaults, the Wine Center, and the Loisium Hotel & Spa Resort.

The Loisium Hotel Wine & Spa Resort offers a variety of activities and room types. Public functions include: a lobby, a wine themed restaurant, bar, cigar lounge, conference and meeting facilities. The wellness and spa area are located on the ground floor with views open to the surrounding vineyard.

The hotel has 82 guest rooms, located in two upper floors, but the ground floor is transparent and open, the upper floors are more private.

On the lowest level of the building, guests can visit a wine bar, a multi-purpose area and a shop with local products and interesting books.

The Wine Center is made to create a rich geometry of the place. Upon entering, the visitor perceives a wonderful volume of space and steps out to the vineyard and past a café. A foot path leads to a spectacular pool.

Langenlois Resort is located approximately 10 minutes from Langenlois Trainwaystation and an one hour(92km) by car from the Vienna International Airport.

The whole resort is designed by the remarkable American architect Stephan Holl. The resort is very famous with its good wine centre. The wine centre is made of piligrims drawn to given elegant atmosphere for wine lovers. Langenlois hotel is set in the middle of vineyards, the resort dives its visitors into the world of wine at every level, from its interior cork motif to ‘vinotherapy‘, which is a selection of treatments involving grape and wine products.

This splendid hotel floats above the Austrian clouds and includes 82 beautifully decorated rooms, a glass-ground floor complex including a rock pool and a larger swimming pool. As well as there’s a lobby bar called “Kiesler Eck”, a restaurant vineyard with wine & spa cuisine, wine library around an open fireplace and terrace overlooking the vineyards.

Each room has satellite TV, telephone, internet connection, mini-bar, air condition, safe, spa-bag with bathrobe, towels and slippers, AVEDA amenities in the bathrooms.

The Do & Co Hotel is situated in the very heart of Vienna overlooking St. Stephan’s Cathedral. The hotel is design by architect Hans Hollein, one of true pioners of post modernism. Do & Co is housed in the popular Haas-Hans building which itself is one of Vienna’s cultural landmarks.

In the very beginning the structure was four floors, but nowadays has been transformed into 43 unique and cone-shaped guestrooms. Each one is decorated using solid high quality material such as stone and teak wood. All of them are fully-furnishing and modern equipped.

Visitors will also have the chance to dine in the chic 7th floor Do & Co restaurant, which serves Asian and Austrian cuisine. If you go downstairs just under the restaurant, you’ll find Onyx Bar, where they can sip a drink in one of Vienna’s hotspots and listen to lounge music.

When I mentioned a sleeping pipes like part of accommodation might not sound luxury but it is. DasPark Hotel turns concrete pipes into quite comfortable space for your next overnight stay. Almost like a camping a bit more elegant of course, the DasPark Hotel is a series of inconventional hotel room pipes located on a beautiful flora-filled backdrop just steps from the Danube River, Austria.

Design by Andreas Strauss, art college graduate designer. His approach is from a more practical angle. Strauss create a minimal hospitality unit series that made economic sense. He hit on the idea of taking sections of large concrete drainage pipes and fitting them out as individual sleeping space for passing travellers.

Each pipe is outfitted with a bed, lighting, and other furniture, with bathroom and restaurant facilities shared in a public space. And what’s more, DasParkHotel obtains sanitation and other hotel facilities from existing public infrastructure, allowing them to operate on a “pay as you wish” system in which guests pay only what they can afford or wish to contribute. Now that’s some great communal living.

The Vienna Secession in Austria was part of the highly varied Secessionism movement that is now covered by the general term Art Nouveau. It was formed in 1897 by a group of 19 Vienna artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Kanstlerhaus. The first president of the Secession was Gustav Klimt.
Even by today’s standards the Secession is a daring building with its cupola of golden laurel leaves and its art deco facade. It is one of the key works of Viennese Art Nouveaux architecture and was planned and built by Joseph Maria Olbricht, a student of Otto Wagner, to serve the needs of an artist association Olbricht himself belonged to.

The secessionists were interested in uniting the separate art forms of sculpture, architecture, painting and music aiming for a “gesamtkunstwerk” - a comprehensive work of art. The entire building is decorated with gilt laurel garlands, floral patterns and plants along the sides of the walls. But most striking is the tree above the main door which is entirely laid out in gold. These details contrast strikingly with the simplistic facade.
Amazingly, the building (which was virtually destroyed in World War II after being bombed and set on fire by the retreating German army) has been restored to its former glory. Arguably one of the most beautiful buildings in the city (and a must visit for the architecture alone) art exhibitions are held here throughout the year.
Today works by the Secessionist artists are on display in the Belvedere Palace, and the Secession Building is used for substantial contemporary exhibits. It was constructed in 1898 and is crowned by a dome once called “outrageous in its useless luxury”. The empty dome – covered in triumphal laurel leaves – echoes that of the Karlskirche on the other side of Vienna.