Wow, one word for the Krimml waterfalls in Austria. And that one word completely covers the load on the first day of the holiday. After a day of travel - on Black Saturday which turned out to be not so black at all - we visited the Krimml waterfalls at Krimml, located in the National Park Hohe Tauern. The highest waterfall in Europe. More than 380 meters of impressive waterfall that is divided into different stages.
Krimml is an hour's drive from our Landal park in Viehhofen (near Köningsleiten, where we have stayed many times in the winter). The road there is going well. Even though it is an hour's drive, they are not small mountain roads but just roads between the mountains where we can drive through.
The morning starts with thunder and rain, but we decide to go anyway. Nice weather was forecast, for the whole week by the way, so we assume that it will improve. On the way we see that we are driving towards the blue sky. Yummy! After an hour we get off at P3, where we pay € 5.00 for parking the car. Dom dom dom turns out afterwards, because with the SalzburgerLand Card we actually have the 'right' to free parking at P4 😉 . Just so you know, if you're headed that way.
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The Krimml waterfalls are high on our to-do list during our week holiday in Austria. You can see why from the photos! In recent years we have mainly spent in France and Spain. We had very nice holidays at luxury campsites, with beautiful mobile homes, more beautiful beaches and even more beautiful swimming pools. Delicious, but now it is high time for something different. Austria. And walking. After years of strolling on boulevards, we are now on to the real thing.
A few months ago we all bought new walking shoes to prepare for this holiday. And they had the baptism of fire today 😉 .
If you go for the walk to the top of the Krimml waterfalls, you have to count on a walk of 4 kilometers. The duration of the walk is in the books at about 1.5 hours. As far as I'm concerned, that price can be adjusted slightly. Are you in good shape and no children with you? Well, then you can make the trip in just under 1.5 hours. By the way, don't dwell too long at all the viewpoints to take beautiful pictures, because there is no time for that 😉 . We walked, enjoyed, drank and ate from about 13.30 to 17.30 and of course took pictures and filmed. So you can easily spend an afternoon there.
The Krimml waterfalls can be divided into different stages. I think there are very few people who 'only' go and have a look at the bottom of the waterfall, the majority decide to do the first leg. Incidentally, the thunder of the waterfall at the bottom is the most impressive. What a power. And what a spraying mist, even from a distance you still get wet, but if you stand on the rocks you can almost wring yourself out after a while.
Read also: you can also take a lovely walk in the Bay of the Somme, France
The first stage of the waterfall is quite a long one. He continues to the restaurant and on the way we meet several children who 'grumble' and ask how long it will take. It is estimated that this is a 2.5 kilometer walk to the restaurant. A nice place to have a nice lunch or a drink. Rete-pressure, that is 😉 .
By the way, by walking the first stage you have seen 2 of the 3 stages of the waterfall well from the different vantage points. You can see the last 'fall' best if you also walk the 2nd stage from the restaurant to the top. At various vantage points you can get so close to the waterfall that the mist just makes you really wet. Wonderfully refreshing in the summer and with beautiful rainbows as a result.
To be fair, if we had let the kids choose, we would have gone down again after the layover. But that choice was not there as far as we were concerned 😛 . Now that we're here, we have to get to the top, don't we? This last part to the top is about 1.5 kilometers, but there are still quite a few steep parts in between. We promise the kids an ice cream when we get back from the top and 'or we go'.
I notice myself on the road that I really need to rest every now and then. I pant like a horse, but also suffer from altitude sickness easily, so I'm not sure if this is a lack of fitness or if I just lack oxygen. I usually catch my breath after a few minutes and can continue. I don't have any problems when descending!
What strikes us is that the Krimml waterfalls are 'fought' by everyone. We see young and old walking up – and back again. Babies come in baby carriers, but whole prams are also pushed up. I think that last one is really cool…. those men are pushing themselves a fracture!
It is useful to just have good walking shoes on, or at least nice, strong sneakers. You won't be able to get to the top of the Krimml waterfalls with a normal shoe, and certainly not with your flip-flops. On the steeper parts you need the support of your shoes. Not only when you walk up, but also down.
You see hikers with walking sticks and children with regular sticks. But enough people have nothing with them to support them. Great to do.
A backpack with some water in it is nice, but not necessarily necessary. We had some with us. Also sandwiches, a biscuit and an apple came in handy. As said… you can have a great lunch in the restaurant, but I liked to get a bit of the full experience. And that meant eating a sandwich with the four of us on a boulder near the water.
You don't have to worry about the cost. You pay for adults € 3.00 per person and for children up to 15 years I believe only € 1.00. If you bring your own lunch and drinks, you can limit it to that.
With the Salzburgerland Card you pay nothing extra for a visit to these waterfalls and therefore even parking is included. Please note:you can park on P4!
If you are not one of the large crowds, prepare yourself a bit. Because it's busy here! Every year 400,000 people go up there. Fortunately, they don't all go all the way to the top, so the last part is clearly quieter.
The falls are open from mid-April to the end of October.
Read also: We also made nice walks on our holiday in Tenerife with the children. Unfortunately, the top of Teide was not accessible 🙁 .
Tip:If you want to do several activities during your holiday in Austria, take a look at the benefits you can get with the Salzburgerland Card. With more than 190 activities you get free admission or a hefty discount!
The nice thing about taking these kinds of walks are the questions that come to your children's mind:
The number of liters of water that comes down per minute (at high water):57.2 m3 per second comes down. That is 57,000 liters per second and therefore 3.420,000 liters per minute (!)
The waterfall is 380 meters high.
This is what the falls look like in winter and to my knowledge no one has ever fallen in.
If you are going to do the walk, you will find a nice play element at the bottom of the waterfalls in which you can see how much water falls in the different seasons. For children it is especially nice to stand on the different seasons and then run under the rain shower.
We still had this on our program, but unfortunately we were too late for this. The wasserwelten closes at 17.00 and we weren't down yet 😉 . You will in any case find the entrance to the Krimml wasserwelten in the building where you also buy the tickets for the waterfalls. The costs are € 9.40 per person, but if you buy a combi ticket with the Krimml waterfalls, it is cheaper. This outdoor aqua park seems to be definitely worth a visit, even if you don't see it completely from the outside.
TIP:We are staying this holiday in Viehhofen, at Landal Greenparks
Rehrenberg. An excellent location with perfect apartments and, in our opinion, really centrally located for the many trips we want to make. We drove for a maximum of an hour to the furthest locations we've been to, so it's very doable!
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