Styrian Wine Country Cycling Trail - Variant Southern Styria-Schilcherland

Name: Styrian Wine Country Cycling Trail - Variant Southern Styria-Schilcherland
Brand: Steiermark
Rating: 5 (3 reviews)

This variant of the Styrian Wine Country Cycling Trail takes us through the middle of the Southern Styria natural park with the Südsteirische Weinstraße (South Styrian Wine Route), which is known far beyond the borders. This connects popular wine-growing villages such as Ehrenhausen, Leutschach and Gamlitz. They are the epitome of Styrian wine culture and are loved for their fine drops and almost Mediterranean climate. Numerous climbs spice up this variant of the Weinland Steiermark bike tour. And: Both the panoramas along the tour and the many wine taverns are priceless and tempt you to "sit down" for a while. However, one should not taste too much of these noble wines, because then the tour can end earlier than expected.

In Styria, excellent wine and culinary delicacies from own production in combination with cosy conviviality have a name: Buschenschank. And this has been the case for over 230 years. In around 800 Buschenschänken in Styria, the motto is "stop in, taste and enjoy". Traditional delicacies are served, such as the traditional Brettljause, accompanied by wine or fruit juice. Buschenschanken were legalised a little more than 230 years ago. The first legal basis for this was created by Emperor Josef II on 17 August 1784 with a circular decree. With this decree, he gave every winegrower permission to sell or serve home-grown food, wine and fruit must without a special licence throughout the year and at a self-defined price.

Of course, time has not stood still in the Buschenschänken of the South Styrian Wine Route. Here, too, they follow the nutritional trends, and so for the first time in a few years, vegan and vegetarian snacks have also been offered. For this, 15 creative wine taverns have gone through the school of the 3-hood chef Gerhard Fuchs. The menu now includes new bread creations such as corn, polenta, pumpkin or courgette bread and spreads such as tomato jam, potato marinade, bean caviar or pumpkin pesto.

Characteristics

Skill

Fitness

Best season

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

The tour in numbers

easy

Level of difficulty

55,8 km

Route

5:30 h

Time

748 hm

Uphill

584 hm

Downhill

548 m

Highest point

Map & downloads

Download GPX data

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More information

Detaillierte Informationen zur Anreise finden Sie hier.

The tour starts in Vogau/Ehrenhausen, where the Mur Cycling Path and the Wine Country Cycling Path R25 meet, which we first follow on this variant of the Styrian Wine Country Cycling Tour. Via Ehrenhausen - with its historic townscape and beautiful castle - the route leads to Gamlitz. With around 400 hectares of vineyards, Gamlitz holds more than 10% of the entire Styrian winegrowing area and is home to well-known wineries such as the Weingut Walter Skoff or Weingut Sattlerhof. After Gamlitz, the route really starts to go uphill.

Cycling past the Sernaukogel and the Wurzenberg, we are rewarded with fantastic panoramic views of the South Styrian Wine Route. The next stop is Leutschach. In addition to wine, hops also reign here, because the surrounding hills, orchards and vineyards, are also home to large hop farms.

After Leutschach, we head uphill again into the vineyards towards Remschnigg. Here, we are only a few hundred metres away from the border of Slovenia and we can already catch a glimpse of our neighbours. The tour then leads to Arnfels. The castle towers high above the village and is witness to a past rich in tradition. From Arnfels, we head to St. Johann im Saggautal, where we also turn left onto the Saggautal cycle path R20 heading west. In the now somewhat wider valley of the Saggau we reach Eibiswald quite comfortably via Oberhaag. From here, the rest of the route takes us north along the Schilcher Cycle Path R4 to reach Bad Schwanberg via Altenmarkt near Wies, where our tour joins the main route of the Styrian Wine Country Cycling Trail.

In the thermal spa and volcano region, eastern Styria and southern Styria, the GenussCard opens the door to over 200 excursion destinations when you stay at one of the 100 or so Genusscard partner establishments. Countless of these Genusscard excursion destinations, ranging from culinary manufactories to bathing lakes and museums, are located directly on the Weinland Steiermark bike tour!

Accessible by train and bus.

Detailed information about arriving by ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) can be found at www.oebb.at or on the Verbundlinie Steiermark website www.busbahnbim.at

With Verbundlinie’s BusBahnBim route planner app, planning your journey has never been easier: simply enter towns and/or addresses, stop names or points of interest to check all bus, train and tram connections in Austria. The app is available free of charge for smartphones – on Google Play and in the App Store

In Vogau and around Ehrenhausen there are several parking possibilities to start the tour.

Steiermark Tourismus

Tel. +43 316 4003

info@steiermark.com

www.steiermark.com/en

If you would like to hire a tour operator, simply book with Steiermark Touristik, the official travel agency of Steiermark Tourismus:

Tel. +43 316 4003 450

www.steiermark-touristik.com

The Steiermark Touren app, available free of charge on Google Play and the App Store (Android, iOS), offers detailed first-hand information: brief facts (length, duration, difficulty, ascent and descent/elevation gain, ratings), map, route descriptions, altimeter, compass, peak finder, navigation along the tour. You can also create your own personal lists of favourite tours and sites, store tours and destinations offline, use social media channels, and much more.

Pocket Card "Radwege in der Steiermark" Tel. +43 316 4003 www.steiermark.com

Folder "Weinland Steiermark Radtour" with route description, overview and detailed maps as well as tips for excursions and more: Steiermark Tourismus, Tel. +43 316 4003 www.steiermark.com

Weinland Styria Cycle Tour 1:50,000, ISBN 978-3-85000-755-9 Verlag Esterbauer - bikeline Tel. +43 2983 28982 www.esterbauer.com