There's a small but noticeable difference between a holiday by a lake and a holiday by a lake where you can actually get into the water without first looking for the car. At Lake Brennsee the way is short: from the house across the lakeside terrace to the jetty, and you're standing at the water. This article describes what you can really do from there - what's included with us, what the local sports school adds, and why this particular lake works so well for water sports.
An honest word first: Lake Brennsee isn't a huge water-sports playground with a marina and motorboats. It's a manageable, clean mountain lake on which you do what you can do under your own power - paddling, swimming, windsurfing, kayaking. If that's exactly what you're looking for, you're in the right place. If you're expecting jet-ski hire, probably not.
The lake with drinking-water quality right in front of the house
The first thing you should know about Lake Brennsee has nothing to do with sport but with the water itself. The lake is of drinking-water quality. In Carinthia that's no empty phrase but the reason you can duck your head under here without hesitation and why the water stays clear even in high summer.
For water sports that means more than you'd think at first. When paddling you don't fall into murky water but see the bottom when you capsize. After a round on the lake you don't rinse off because you have to, but because the water is pleasant. And if you simply want to swim, you have a clean bathing lake right outside the door, without the detour via a lido.
Then there's the location of the house. The Strandhotel Burgstaller sits right on Lake Brennsee, with its own lake access and jetty. Getting from your room into the water is a matter of minutes, not of a journey. That sounds like a detail, but it's exactly the point that decides whether you quickly get on the board before breakfast in the morning or give it a miss because it would be too much trouble.
Free SUP: what's included with us
Stand-up paddling is the most uncomplicated way to get out on the water. You stand on a wide board, hold a paddle, and need no course to get going. The first few metres are wobbly, after a quarter of an hour it feels normal, and after the first day you wonder why you don't do it more often.
With us, stand-up paddling is included for hotel guests. There are boards at the house, and if you want one, you take it. No rental desk, no hourly billing, no planning the evening before. That's exactly the appeal: you go down to the jetty because the sun has just come out or because the lake is lying there like a mirror, and you step on. Spontaneously, without fuss.
Who it suits well: everyone who simply enjoys paddling without making a hobby of it. The couple where one cycles up the mountain and the other prefers a quiet round on the water. The morning when you're awake early and want the stillness on the lake to yourself. And the afternoon after a hike, when you want to spare your legs but still get out.
A lake you paddle across early in the morning, when hardly anyone else is out, is one of the quietest things you can have on holiday. You hear the paddle, the water, nothing else. That's not a sports programme, it's more the opposite - movement that belongs to the calm.
Sportschule Krainer: surfing, kayaking, courses on Lake Brennsee
As uncomplicated as SUP is, its limit is just as clear: it's an entry-level sport. If you want more - properly learn to windsurf, go out in a kayak, work on your technique - you'll find that on Lake Brennsee too. On the lake there's the Sportschule Krainer, an established address for water sports in the region.
There you can learn what to do with board and sail or with a kayak. Windsurfing is a topic on Lake Brennsee for good reason, more on that in a moment. If you want to try it, you can do so through the sports school, with instruction and equipment, instead of teaching yourself. Kayaking is part of the offer too, and for anyone who wants to improve their SUP technique beyond simply staying upright, there are options as well.
We deliberately don't give specific course times and prices here - they change seasonally, and nothing is more annoying than an outdated figure. What matters is that it exists, and right at the lake, not an hour's drive away. If you want to know what's currently running during your travel period, just ask us - we'll point you to the right place.
Wind conditions - why the lake is a hotspot
That people windsurf on Lake Brennsee is no coincidence. The lake sits in the mountains in such a way that on many days a reliable thermal wind builds up - a wind that doesn't depend on the weather at large but on the slopes heating up in the sun and setting the air in motion. For windsurfers and everyone who needs wind, that's worth its weight in gold, because it's more predictable than on larger, more open lakes.
For SUP and swimming that means the reverse: the morning is usually calm and smooth, in the afternoon it often freshens up. So if you want to paddle at a leisurely pace, go out early. If you're looking for wind, later in the day is your time. That's no disadvantage but a pleasant division of labour - both groups get their time of day without getting in each other's way.
You don't have to be a meteorologist to make use of that. It's enough to look at the lake once in the morning. If it's lying there like a mirror, it's a SUP morning. If the surface is already rippling in the late morning, it'll be a day for those who like wind.
Swimming and bathing from the hotel's own access
With all the sport, you shouldn't forget the most obvious thing: Lake Brennsee is above all an excellent bathing lake. Thanks to the drinking-water quality, swimming here is a different experience from many stagnant bathing ponds. The water is clear, pleasantly tempered in high summer, and from the hotel's own access you get in without paying admission or securing a spot.
For active guests the lake is often the calm counterpart to the day. After the bike tour into the Nock Mountains or the hike up the mountain, a dip into the cool water is the quickest recovery there is. You don't have to plan anything for it or drive anywhere - the water is there when you need it.
And for the couple where not both want to be sporty all day, the lake is the real anchor anyway. While one is on the mountain, the other has their day at the water: swimming, reading, a SUP round, a spot on the lakeside terrace. In the evening you meet again. That works so well here because both - mountain and lake - are in the same place, separated by only a few steps.
A morning on the water without a plan
What does such a morning on the water actually look like when you plan nothing in advance? Something like this: you wake up, look out of the window, the lake lies still. Before breakfast you take a board and paddle a round - twenty minutes, half an hour, as you like. Back at the jetty, then to breakfast, which here doesn't run by the clock but by you.
After that you decide spontaneously. Perhaps someone is drawn to the windsurf board after all when the wind picks up - then the sports school on the lake is the next step. Perhaps it stays at swimming and a spot in the sun. Perhaps the quiet morning turns into an active afternoon because the weather invites it. The point is: you don't have to commit the day before. The lake is there, the board is there, and what comes of it, comes.
This very absence of planning is a luxury on an active holiday. You have options during the day and no fixed constraints in the evening - once you've experienced it like that, you don't want it any other way. How that fits with dinner in the evening is described in the article Buffet or à la carte?. You'll find an overview of everything active here - on the water, on the mountain, in winter - on our page Active holidays on Lake Brennsee.
If you'd like to know whether your preferred dates are free, the best thing is to check availability directly - or write and tell us what you have in mind.