Graz Music Festival & Walking in Styrian Alps

Austria: Graz Music Festival & Walking in the Styrian Alps

Styria, Austria’s south-eastern region bordering Hungary and Slovenia, encompasses substantial ranges of the southern Alps which have happily escaped ski development and are little-known to outsiders. Walking trails lead from picturesque rural villages onto open ridges with long views and traditional wooden mountain inns provide exemplary hospitality.

The Styrian capital, Graz, enjoyed a period of Baroque splendour as a seat of the Hapsburg family, resulting in an elegant, prosperous city with narrow streets lined with palaces and grand townhouses. In early summer the city hosts the Styriarte Festival of music under the direction of the conductor, Nikolaus Harnoncourt. We attend three festival performances, including Smetana’s comic opera ‘Bartered Bride’ conducted by Harnoncourt, and explore the city’s museums, castles and art galleries from our luxury hotel, converted from an eighteenth century mansion.

TRIP ITINERARY

DAY 1

D included

After meeting at Graz airport in the afternoon we transfer by road into the hills to the west and alight to follow a path through the forest down to our hotel, a very comfortable traditional wooden inn. Dinner may well feature venison from their farm and salads dressed with Styria’s ‘black gold’, the delicious nutty pumpkin seed oil.

DAY 2

B, L, D included

A morning’s walk follows footpaths along a wooded ridge with many beautiful wooden barns, then gradually down through vineyards and orchards to the early thirteenth century castle above Stainz which now houses an excellent ethnographical museum. After a picnic and a look at the ornate Baroque church, we visit a farm to see pumpkin seed oil being made and to taste local specialities - Schilcher rosé wine, pumpkin and rye bread and apricot schnapps.

DAY 3

B, L, D included

Weather permitting, today we undertake a splendid walk on a section of one of Europe’s classic long distance paths, 1,800 metres up in the Stubalpe. We have a good chance of seeing high altitude bird species such as golden eagles and alpine accentors, plus gentians, red flowering ‘alpenrose’ (rhododendron hirsutus) and early irises, and the views south to the snow covered Julian Alps across the border in Slovenia are breathtaking.

DAY 4

B, L, D included

A morning’s walk at high level follows a series of scenic ridges, with an initial gradual ascent to a viewpoint and a traverse of upland meadows where we are accompanied by the sound of cowbells, then a descent through pine forests back to our picnic. We have time to relax with a book in the garden before a tasting of Styrian wines (including international award winning Sauvignon Blanc) and dinner in a very traditional restaurant in the next village.

DAY 5

B, L, D included

We drive high up onto the Koralpe and begin our walk at 1,300 metres. We pass a typical wayside chapel at a viewpoint before a forest track takes us steeply down to a river and a scenic riverside trail. A mossy path then leads up through ancient oak forest to emerge onto open Alpine pastures, with skylarks overhead and many early summer flowers. We picnic in a meadow below a mountain hamlet, then drive down to see the imaginatively displayed archaeological finds in the castle of Deutschlandsberg.

DAY 6

B, L, D included

In the village of Barnbach we see the extravagantly decorated church of St. Barbara, transformed by the artist Hundertwasser in 1987, then continue to Schloss Piber and visit the Austrian National Stud, where the famous Lippizzaner horses from the Vienna Spanish riding school are bred and spend their summers. We reach Graz in good time to settle into our 4 star historic hotel (a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World), and perhaps have a swim in the terrace pool, before an elegant early dinner and the Festival performance - Pierre-Laurent Aimard directing the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in a programme of Mozart piano concerti.

DAY 7

B, D included

We begin with an orientation walk around the largely pedestrianised historic centre of Graz, discovering that the city boasts some extraordinary contemporary architecture as well as Baroque and Renaissance buildings. The eye-catching new exhibition hall, designed by the British architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, is nicknamed ‘the friendly alien’ and the glass and steel structure known as ‘the island in the Mur’ is an astonishing landmark designed by the New York artist Vito Acconci. Free time allows for individual discoveries - the important collections of the city art gallery, the 15C Cathedral with its famous painting of the 3 plagues which afflicted Graz in 1480 (locusts, the Black Death and the Turks!) or the world’s largest lock and key museum. We reconvene for dinner in one of the city’s most reputed restaurants before the festival performance - Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting a semi-staged performance of Smetana’s comic opera ‘The Bartered Bride’ in the Helmut List Halle, one of the few venues in the world with a perfect acoustic.

DAY 8

B included

There is time to stroll in the formal castle grounds before the late morning festival concert - Stefania Neonata playing Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata, Liszt’s Liebestraum, Chopin Waltzes etc, in the splendid setting of the 17C Schloss Eggenberg. An airport transfer concludes the holiday.

Price includes:

All accommodation for Days 1 through 8 on a double shared basis

All meals with wine at lunches and dinners, other than those excepted in the daily notation

All land transportation in a private vehicle as described except during free periods

All entrance and sightseeing fees except during free periods

Wine tastings as described

Top category tickets for three performances of the Styriarte festival as described in the itinerary

Gratuities for hotel and restaurant staff

Visa and Health Requirements

Visitors from the EU and the US currently require a valid passport, but not a visa, for entry to Austria. If you are a national of any other country, please check visa regulations with your nearest Embassy of Austria.

At present there are no specific and compulsory health requirements for entry to Austria. Residents of countries in the EU can claim free (emergency) medical treatment in Austria by presenting their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which is issued in the UK by the Department of Health. You may also wish to check the advice given to travellers by the FCO.

Insurance

It is essential, and a condition of booking, that you protect yourself with a suitable travel insurance policy as soon as you book a trip. Follow this link for information on a policy available to UK residents.

If you are already insured or a non-UK resident, please inform us of your policy at the time of booking.