“The most beautiful places in Austria” is the name of the book I bought last year and somehow accepted the fact that it won’t be opened too soon. When my parents decided to visit me last weekend, I was overjoyed to take it from the shelf and dust it off. I was going to take them someplace nice, away from everyday urgencies. Nevertheless, after flipping through some pages, my confusion just got worse and worse. There wasn’t any beautiful place in Austria – all of them were just stunning!

Every single Austrian state has its own beautiful landscape, with castles and lakes, with adorable small towns and fun activities to choose from. How could I even settle on a single location? However, it won’t be the last time visiting this beautiful country. I tried combining individual wishes and must-haves – like inner and outer pool, splendid mountains, reasonable distance from Vienna, a town nearby and “some kind of a toboggan run”. Then I booked a place and it turned out to be exactly what we were all secretly dreaming of.

I love mountains! I always fell under some sort of a spell and can’t take my eyes off them. I enjoy watching their grandeur and pondering about their mystery. Styria is charming and the scenery way better than I ever expected. Glued to the car window, my heart was singing.

Due to the typical Austrian hospitability, at Hotel Moser you feel somewhat like home. Miss Stocker is one of the friendly managers, who together with her family make sure that every guest has a relaxed and carefree stay. Whatever you need, she is there for you! But the best of all: each of us received a summer card, which allowed us to use not only the cable car rides (the best one being Dachstein), but also enjoy numerous other activities during our stay free of charge. We saved a lot of money and experienced almost everything in the region.

The Rittisberg Park has many attractions like swimming, rollercoaster, hiking, archery, horse riding, ziplining – everything you need for an active day, full of giggles. The most fun we had was on the Alpine Coaster in Rittisberg, a rollercoaster that lets you control the speed of the ride. What could be more fun than that? After learning about this feature, you must graciously convince the anxious ones in your group to go last, so you won’t have to brake behind them. OH, and if you are there, man up and try the barefoot way – you won’t regret it…at the end.

It’s a marvelous thing, witnessing a storm in the mountains! Assuming that you don’t have to worry about finding shelter, the lightning show can be both exhilarating and frightening. We watched in wonder how the sky lit up every 7 seconds. There wasn’t any thunder at first, just an immense and pleasant silence. The calmness of the mountains contrasted the agitated town, where people sought shelter at terraces and waiters hurried to close them. There also wasn’t any rain. It seemed that the storm decided to spare us for the night. And it was beautiful, just starring like kids at the sky and being bewildered at every flash lightning the mountain peaks. The nature was whispering and we were listening closely.