Austria summary and route

Somehow I didn't get around to writing this at the time, so apologies for my rusty memory!

We had a wonderful time cycling in Austria. Lots of cycle paths. We'd recommend steering clear of the Drau cycleway (radweg) if you're here in high season - it was absolutely packed at times, and not actually much fun at all, especially if you're going against the flow. I had a few close calls with cyclists coming the other way and not looking where they were going. We used our komoot app to find routes, which meant we were usually on quiet roads or cycle paths - you don't need to feel constrained by the well-established routes around here.

We'd both been to Austria many times before, but were still surprised by the country. We weren't bowled over by the scenery at first (although it was very pleasant), but it just got better and better. We were mostly in Carinthia (Karnten) which is a bit off the tourist trail (albeit full of holidaying Austrians), which was a welcome change after the holiday park of Slovenia. Not much English was spoken, and our German is rusty to say the least, but we found people to be very friendly and helpful. It was easy to eat cheaply with many Lidl and Hofer supermarkets to shop at, and the smaller campsites were very reasonable. General rule of thumb is that anywhere near a big swimming lake will be very busy with holidaymakers and prices rise accordingly. The smaller places were quieter and cheaper.

Overall we'd highly recommend including Austria on your cycling itinerary! Here's a map of our route, please also see my Strava links if you'd like more detail.