Journey through one of the most famous and scenic drives – Grossglockner Alpine Road, Austria

After a fun and memorable Austrian Bengali wedding in Innsbruck, Austria, we headed for our next travel destination Lake Bled, Slovenia. We decided to get there via the famous and scenic Grosglockner Alpine Road.

Few cool facts about the Glossglockner Alpine Road, Heiligenblut

The drive includes 48 kilometres of high alpine road with 36 (crazy)bends, and an altitude ascent to 2,504 metres!

The road takes you to the heart of the Hohe Tauern National Park, which has some amazing well marked hiking trails.

From the top to the bottom, you cross all zones of vegetation, ranging from corn fields to perpetual ice!

A Paradise for fast car lovers and motorcyclists, the drive is aptly named “The Grossglockner – Bikers Heaven”

At its highest point is Glockner, standing at 3,798m -the highest mountain in Austria and among the highest peaks in the Alps.

What was it like for a family with children in our safe (and slow) Toyota Prius?

I was a bit skeptical as am prone to car sickness, and wondered whether all that time in the car with limited activities would be worth it. I equipped myself with a packet of chewing gum, and we took it really nice and slow, had lots of breaks, and took our time to enjoy the breathtaking view and unique landscape. It costs €34 to cross the road, bit steep but the money was well worth it for all that we got to see and do – you can easily spend the whole day here!

Plenty of activities, fine dining and sightseeing to do

There are many things to do for the kids, find out more here. From play areas, exhibitions, seeing marmots in their natural environment, vintage cars, snowball fights and so much more, our two had a blast! There were several restaurants to eat at, but we brought our own food and just had a picnic by our car during one of the stops.

At the entrance to the road, you get a useful map which shows 12 points of interest, and there was something unique to see and do at each point. We did a few that included stopping at points that had lovely panaromic views, walking around and exploring alpine meadows with rare flora and fauna(saw cute marmot babies), learning about the wildlife through exhibitions and videos, and seeing precious gems at the Alpine Nature Show Museum. Our last stop was at the foot of Glosglockner where there was a restaurant and viewing area from which you can see the glaciers. About an hour of walking from that point and you can touch the glaciers too!

Although we didn’t get to do even a third of the activities possible there, the drive itself along with the stunning panaromic views, seeing the waterfalls and glaciers, and playing in the snow was more than enjoyable enough for us passing through to get to our destination!

Tired but happy – our 4 hour journey to lake bled ended up taking 8 hours, but was definitely worth it. We were now halfway through in our 20 day roadtrip through 5 countries! Started with camping in France, chalet in the Swiss Alps, house in Austria and now back to camping in Lake Bled before we head to Croatia and Italy! Funnily, this will be the first time in the trip that it will be just the four of us, without other Bangus around…just the way we like our trips – mixture of old friends and meeting new people 🙂