Vacation on the farm

From the stable door to adventure

Adventure for the whole family: from the summit to the valley with the mountain go-karts on the Hochwurzen in Schladming

(Bild: Ikarus)

Vacations on the farm in Styria guarantee authentic experiences and are also the perfect starting point for a variety of adventures.

What is the best way to combine a love of the countryside and adventure in Styria? It's simple: choose a farm for your accommodation. Not only will you be right in the middle of farm life and in the company of animals, but you will also enjoy very personal care. A handful of rooms or smaller vacation apartments on the farm can be rented out at affordable prices.

"The informal atmosphere, where you can get to know the country and its people and show children how to interact with animals, is the incentive for many families to opt for a farm vacation," says Astrid Schoberer-Németh, Managing Director of the Styrian Farm Holiday Association. There are 1245 such farms here, over 400 of which are quality-certified and members of the Styrian Farm Holidays Association.

One such farm is the Sorger family's Leitenbauerhof in Miesenbach near Birkfeld in Eastern Styria. Three generations live here under one roof - Sandra Sorger looks after the guests and her husband Wolfgang looks after the calf rearing and forestry before and after his job as a customer advisor in a bank.

Gateway to the region & tourism factor
Like many farm vacation businesses, they are also part-time farmers and the guests on the farm are an important source of income. "A study by Joanneum Research from 2020 shows that around 1/3 of farms that rent out their properties would have already given up farming if they didn't rent them out," Schoberer-Németh sums up. Without farmers, the tourism industry would also be missing an important partner. "Tourism in this form would not be possible without the cultural and landscape conservation provided by farmers."

The Styrian Bodensee in the Schladminger Tauern mountains

(Bild: Gery Wolf)

The alarm clock doesn't just ring early in the morning for the farmers. The younger guests are also up and about surprisingly quickly. Who knows when a city kid will have the opportunity to experience cows, pigs and chickens up close again? So it's off to the morning farm routine with Wolfgang. 24 Murbodner oxen want to be looked after on the Leitenbauerhof. There are also two pigs and 20 chickens - so we collect the breakfast eggs straight away.

Even though it's hard to leave the farm life behind, we pack up. After all, there are plenty of adventures to be had in the region. A small excerpt: You can easily spend a few hours on the summer toboggan run and the Koglhof motor skills park with its 13 stations alone. The 1040-metre-long run offers pure tobogganing fun even after trying it out several times. With the GenussCard or SteiermarkCard, you also get three rides on the Twinbob for free.

INFO

• Information about the Styrian vacation-at-the-farm businesses: www.urlaubambauernhof.at/steiermark
• Hinkerhof, Pekoll family: www.hinkerhof.at
• Leitenbauerhof, Sorger family: www.leitenbauerhof.at
• Schladming- Dachstein & Eastern Styria adventure region: www.schladming-dachstein.at
  www.osts teiermark.com

General information: www.steiermark.com

Hikes around the Teichalm can be varied for the whole family with detours to the alpine adventure park or the Hochreiter forest park. In the Wenigzell barefoot park, you can walk without shoes through 30 stations with a wide variety of surfaces - including streams and mud. An experience not just for children's feet. In the Kräftereich St. Jakob, even adults can learn a thing or two about starry worlds and human energy sources at the interactive stations.

Schladming-Dachstein adventure region
The Schladming-Dachstein region in Styria, on the other hand, takes you up high. If you don't just want to explore the mountains, take a tour of Hopsiland at the Planai gondola exit. Or take a mountain go-kart on the Hochwurzen and whizz down the summit. Even children who are already tired of hiking will quickly perk up again. A day trip to the Rittisberg in Ramsau is almost too short. The forest high ropes course, coaster, flyline, swimming lake and the longest fairytale trail in Styria all take time.

The animals at the Hinkerhof farm run by Elisabeth and Gerhard Pekoll in Schladming also need attention. Here you can expect much more than just comfortable bed and breakfast accommodation. A bucket of food is placed in front of the family kitchen in the morning for the guests of each room. This is then taken out to the goats, sheep, donkeys, rabbits, guinea pigs and horses. The latter are carefully groomed before going for a ride. Mini pony "Daisy", the children's favorite, is also allowed to come along. Even without rider and saddle.