The White Horse Inn on Lake Wolfgang, Austria – a charming luxury inn

We’d arrived at the pretty lakeside town of St Wolfgang, an hour from Salzburg in the heart of the Salzkammergut region, to find the May Day festival in full swing. The cobbled streets with pretty painted houses were filled with wooden kiosks, where the locals were gathering to while away the afternoon awash with beer, wine and the odd Weiner Schnitzel.

“You know the water in the lake is drinking quality?” I was told by my new friend Wolfgang, as he pressed me to drink another glass of sparkling Sekt, the Austrian version of Champagne. The bubbly certainly tasted better than a glass of lake water, however pure that might be!

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Settling into The White Horse Inn

By the time we’d settled into our lakeside hotel, Romantik Hotel Im Weissen Rössl or The White Horse Inn it was well into the afternoon. The crowds were starting to thin and we got chatting to local hotelier Wolfgang and his dirndl clad wife, Carolin.

They were running a beer stand to promote their Hotel Bürglstein just around the lake shore. Before we knew it, we too were awash with the May Day spirit and swaying along to the yodelling trio playing nearby.

I hope you enjoy the video below about our stay at the White Horse Inn and Lake Wolfgang

If you can’t see the video above, view it on my blog here

Discovering St Wolfgang

If you thought that Wolfgang (as in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) was an unusual name, you’d be wrong. As my new friend told me, he’d been named after St Wolfgang who founded a church here in the 1st century. The town became the hot destination for pilgrims from all over Europe in the Middle Ages.

He was, as Wolfgang joked, the Patron Saint of Tourism in this part of Austria. The story goes that St Wolfgang threw an axe from where he stood. Where it landed he built the church, even tricking the Devil himself to help with the building work.

Lake views at St Wolfgang

Fuelled with May Day spirit, we returned to our room at Romantik Hotel Im Weissen Rössl, which translates as the White Horse Inn. It’s a family run Austrian Inn that has over the years swallowed up the neighbouring buildings and transformed itself into a luxury spa hotel.

We threw open the doors onto the balcony overlooking the lake, where I could have sat all day and watched the ferries criss-crossing the sparkling water.

Lake Wolfgang is ringed by mountains with a number of pretty lakeside towns, with St Wolfgang, Strobl and St Gilgen located on the shore. There’s plenty to do at all times of year from swimming and hiking in the summer to ski-ing and Christmas markets in the winter.

From the lake shore you can take one of those ferries across the lake, or chug up to the top of the mountain on the Schafburgbahn, a miniature steam train. It was built in 1893 to take those early tourists up to the top for some breathtaking views and clear Alpine air.

The comic opera Hotel Weisses Rössl

The White Horse Inn or Hotel Weisses Rössl is also well known as the setting for a famous comic opera of the same name. It was first performed in Berlin the 1930s and later made into several film versions. Think of a comic Gilbert and Sullivan operata but in German.

The story is a charming comedy of errors in which the Head Waiter of the White Horse Inn is in love with the owner. But her heart is set on one of her regular guests. When the object of her attention arrives, he promptly falls in love with someone else. It all ends happily with everyone marrying the right person.

The perfect lakeside setting

The setting of The White Horse Inn right beside the lake is just perfect. There’s a spa with saunas, treatments and indoor pool. A wooden sun deck with an outdoor pool is set in the lake.

In May the sun was warm but the water a little cool for me, so I watched my husband and son playing a lovely game. They swam a few lengths in the outdoor pool (pleasantly fresh), then jumped into the lake itself (freeeezing) to swim a few strokes. Finally, they hopped out and into the outdoor jacuzzi (blissfully warm).

We also had fun borrowing the hotel’s pedalos to explore the lake shore near the hotel, peering up from the lake at St Wolfgang’s church tower and dodging the ducks.

On our final morning we took the Shafburgbahn train up the mountain for a coffee with a stunning view. If we’d had more time, I’d have loved to do some hiking in the mountains around the lake.

I’m normally happy to enjoy a place and move on but if you asked me to go back to Wolfgangsee and the White Horse Inn, I’d be there like a shot! Listen to my podcast on the best things to do in Salzburg and Lake Wolfgang, Austria.

Plan your visit

Tourism website for Lake Wolfgang or Wolfgangsee
Romantik Hotel Im Weissen Rössl or The White Horse Inn
My new friend Wolfgang Linsmayer’s hotel at Gasthof Bürglstein
For more information about Holidays in Austria visit the Austrian Tourism Website

Read Next

Read about what to eat in Salzburg – Bratwurst, Sacher Torte and many more delicious dishes!

More articles about Salzburg

• Das Grüne Hotel zur Post in Salzburg – a comfortable green gasthaus
• Riding the unicorns in the Mirabell Gardens – Salzburg
• Top 10 things to do in Salzburg, Austria

My thanks to the Austria National Tourism Office UK for hosting* our trip to Salzburg and Wolfgangsee.

* More info on my policies page

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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