Address
Lake Walchsee
GPS
47.651027525226, 12.328923940659
Level of difficulty 1 | Gastronomy 1 | Length 4 km | Time 1 hour
Between the impressive mountain peaks of the North Tyrolean Kaiserwinkl you will find the popular Lake Walchsee, which is relatively large for the region. Here a relaxed paddling tour captivates above all because of the unique mountain scenery and the southern flair.
General information
Navigation rules
It is best to avoid the middle of the lake when water skiers are doing their rounds. Give priority to motor boats!
Paddle kneeling along the bathing beaches, especially when there are many bathers in the water. Caution is also required in the area of the inflatable platforms, because children and youngsters in particular like to jump down into the water.
Dangers and risks
On beautiful summer days there are many paddlers, swimmers and children jumping off the inflatable islands - paddle with foresight!
At many entry points you will find slippery stones on the bottom. These are not pebbles, but much larger stones on which you can quickly slip your feet. Bathing shoes and careful approach are definitely an advantage.
Compliance with local regulations is constantly checked and the so-called lake control (Seekontrolle) patrols with a small motor boat to examine the daily license for each stand-up paddler.
Water skiing is also practiced on the lake, so it is best to avoid its middle and to leave enough space for the motor boat and water ski team!
The narrow road to the parking lots along the east bank is very busy. Stay on the side of the road with the SUP in your hand or use the footpath and make sure that the board does not protrude into the road when carrying it!
Directions
Coming from Kitzbühel, you drive north on the B 178, past the small towns of St. Johann and Kirchdorf. At the village Erpfendorf, turn left onto the L 39 (towards Kössen/Reit), follow the road for about 12 km, then turn left at Kaltenbach onto the B 172 (towards Kössen/Kufstein). From here it's another 9 km to the eastern shore of the lake. At the Seehotel Brunner you can either drive straight ahead for 300 m to the Promenade car park or turn sharp left to the east bank. Along the narrow street you find the parking lots Ostufer 1 and Ostufer 2 as well as Am See.
Parking
If you can't park privately or at a tourist accommodation anyway, the parking spaces in the north or along the east bank (Ost 1, Ost 2 and Am See) are ideal, but they are all subject to a fee. If the parking lots are full and there is little space to prepare your boards, you can usually go to one of the surrounding meadows.
Swimming
If you are not a guest at one of the two campsites or in one of the holiday accommodations, the best access to the lake can be found on the north and east shores of the lake. Since the lake is privately owned, a fee is charged for lying down/bathing and for paddleboarding almost everywhere. Adult bathers pay 4.5 € for lying and bathing and a daily fee of 4 € for Stand Up Paddlers is required (as of 2023). The Seemühle stream drains the lake and carries the water through a meandering reed belt down to the Weißenbach stream. You can also find good berths along this stream.
With the Kaiserwinkl Card you get discounts on bathing fun on the north and east banks. In some accommodations you can get the Kaiserwinkl Card with an integrated swimming card, which means that access to the lake is even available free of charge.
The impressive water temperature only moderately exceeds 20° C and is therefore a nice contrast to the much hotter 'bathtubs' in southern Austria.
Tour
From the north bank to the west bank and around the lake.
Length
4 km
Time
1 hour
Start and landing
On the north shore on the waterfront.
SUP rental
KARL2O – WASSERSPORTZENTRUM WALCHSEE
Kirchgasse 7, 6344 Walchsee
Phone +43 (0) 676 7876129
Private lake with alpine foresight
If you go on a hike in the early morning, for example on Mt. Wandberg, and then need a leisurely end to the exertion, the Walchsee is the ideal place. Either you just refresh your muscles in the pleasant lake water or you go on a leisurely paddling tour to compensate. After the hike, the upper body also gets a chance to actively round off an eventful day.
I have the rare good fortune to find a defective parking ticket machine at the Ostufer 2 car park and park my car right here, knowing full well that the water access along the lake outlet (Seemühle-Bach) would be a little more romantic. From this parking lot it is shorter to the north shore and there I take advantage of the first gap in the reeds to set sail near the lake promenade with a view of the majestic Kaiser Mountains.
It's a Saturday afternoon and the entire bathing area is full - a lot of locals and of course even more tourists flock here in the height of summer. For the usage fee of 4.5 € you get a good infrastructure including inflatable jumping islands in the water. As soon as I'm at the water, I treat myself to a panoramic view and my eyes swing back and forth several times between the Kaiser Mountains in the south and the Chiemgau Alps in the north. Rocks and water - what more could a holidaymaker in Tyrol want?
Here you are less than 5 km from the border with Germany and it occurs to me that you can paddle from Tyrol to Bavaria over the Tiroler Ache - a river nearby. But that's a dream of the future and I'm concentrating on the upcoming circumnavigation of this lake. First I paddle to the right and towards the soon setting sun. After I leave the lively the north beach behind me, everything calms down a bit and I can let myself be carried by the gentle breeze to the floodplain in the west.
The so-called Schwemm Moorland drains into the lake from the north-west, and since I started this tour I have been continuously drawn towards its estuary. The moor not far from here is the largest moor in North Tyrol and serves as an important water reservoir. As a habitat for many animal and plant species, it must of course be treated with care. That is why this area not far from the lake is designated as a Natura 2000 area and as a nature reserve. If you want to tackle the circular path around the lake on foot, you could plan a detour to the moor and take part in a guided tour every Sunday between April and October.
It is also quite quiet towards the south shore, as the shore is overgrown and access to the lake is more or less naturally denied. This is also the case from a purely legal point of view as soon as you paddle in the area of the Terrassencamping Süd-See holiday park. The lake accesses are not open to the public here and belong to the holiday complex or to private property owners. In summer you also have a good view of the water skiers doing their rounds on the relatively small lake. For this reason, it is advisable not to cross the lake, because the motorboat does not have many avoiding-possibilities when there are a lot of SUPs and pedal boats floating around in its area.
Towards the outflow called Seemühle, the shore is again quite natural, but the small aqua park in front of the eastern shore bathing beach doesn't exactly fit well into the idyllic landscape. Therefore, here another look to the west is a great idea again, where, for example, Mt. Heuberg and the Mt. Pyramidenspitze flow down into the plain in a regular, quite flat and elongated shape coming from the south. A short detour to the Seemühle Stream is also worthwhile, because I can paddle through the reed belt under the wooden bridge and let myself drift a few hundred meters until I can't go any further. Then I paddle past the wide meadow and a few minutes later, after an hour's paddling, I land again on the north bank.
Even if free access to the water and free paddling are not particularly possible on this lake, it is worth planning a paddling tour here simply because of the wonderful location. The municipality of Lake Walchsee is also very cute and convinces, among other things, with the fact that new buildings also fit harmoniously into the existing townscape. Incidentally, this fact can be experienced almost everywhere in this beautiful federal state, because only very rarely do you see optical harmony killers in the form of visually inappropriate buildings. In and around Walchsee everything forms a unit that cries out for an encore.
