This is the short story of my first hike in Austria, precisely in Upper Austria. Along the Danube, there is a very interesting spot that form a S curve and it is a natural gem. It is indeed worth a visit. 

Name: Schlögener Blick

Difficulty: Easy

Terrain: well maintained forest path

Duration: 3-4h depending on the stops.

Distance: 11,5km

To do before/to bring:

• Water
• Food
• Check carefully map trail – some turns are not super obvious, especially during the descent. You can find everything here.

The trail starts just after the Danube hotel and, brace yourself, you’ll need to go up for at least 1.5km. Take it easy and steps after steps, you’ll make it! No worries – the main viewpoint is literally at the end of this ascent.

At a certain point, you will find a crossroad, where there are 4 different ways: take the one parallel to the ascent path and you will reach the famous Schlogener Schlinge – the most famous viewpoint over the Danube S curve.

Now, if you feel satisfied enough, you can go back to your car.

But, if you would love to get more into nature and explore the whole trail – which only few others do –  there are still 10 km of forest remaining. Where will you go?

Well, if you continue the hike you will reach the top right point in the above photo, on the other part of the S curve – and you will experience sort of this landscapes:

The part after the ascent is quite easy – almost every the path is clear, few points you may be tricked, look always for the green/white flag! You may also feel like in an epic medieval tale:

Then the descent is a bit challenging simply because you don’t really know if you are on the correct trail, but no worries again: most probably you are correct.

When you will arrive at the end of the descent, the easiest part will begin. There are 3km of paved road getting you back straight to the hotel.

If you feel like your adventure has not ended yet, for 2€ you can jump on this boat and get on the other side of the Danube:

It may be the right occasion to have some grilled fish as well:

In conclusion, this hike is definitely worth a day.

Only advice is to not camp nearby the hotel in the official camping.  There are too many people during summer – hence take your bike and ride a bit more down the river.

Till the next one!