Burgenland
Steppe, lake and wine, an hour from Vienna.
The Burgenland is flat, which in Austria is already a statement. This is where the Pannonian plain begins: steppe, reeds, a lake nowhere deeper than two metres and yet 36 kilometres long.
Lake Neusiedl is not a bathing lake in the alpine sense. It's a bird paradise, a sailing ground with steady wind, and in the Seewinkel behind it lie salt pans where tens of thousands of migrating birds rest in spring. Cycling around the lake takes a day and crosses the border twice.
And then the wine: Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt, and the sweet wines of Rust and Illmitz that rank among Europe's great ones. The villages are long, with white houses and stork nests on the chimneys.
The Burgenland is Austria's south without mountains — and an hour from Vienna.
We send people to the Burgenland who know Vienna and need horizon at the weekend. Vila Vita Pannonia in Pamhagen is a village in itself: houses in a park, its own lake, a game reserve, cycle paths down to the water. For families with children who should be outdoors all day, there's nothing comparable in eastern Austria. Come at the end of April when the birds migrate, or in October for the harvest. In high summer the plain is hot and the lake warm as soup.
