Diving in Austria

[elche]

I confess the name of Lake Wiestal was new for me. Anyway, as I looked it in the map, I saw with the other 4 lakes you mentioned all of them are in Salzkammergut, close to each other. Basically every austrian regions have some interesting lakes. Gruner See and Erlaufsee are in Steiermark, Klopeinersee in Karnten, Samaranger See in Tirol... I think Tirol is the place where the easiest to find world class diving and skiing as well. But ski is not my piece of cake.

Altough Austria is not a huge country, so we regularly goes there to dive from Hungary, but Tirol is too far away for a weekend trip. So the Samaranger see and Fernsteinsee are still on my "must dive" list in Austria. I think Austria is one of the most interesting destinations in Europe: the Alps, nice lakes, Vienna, Salzburg... There are a lot of nice but cheap B&B accomodations, tidy villages, good diving centers, nice people. I visited many countries, but Austria is still one of my favourites.

[littleleemur]

Thanks for the info. I was in Tirol this past summer but could not find any info, mainly b/c my friends were not divers and didn't know of any divers. I am planning on diving the next time I go

The place is gorgeous; you feel like you're in a postcard. & now that I've been on the mountains I really want to see what's in those waters.

[elche]

As I wrote before, Tirol has some exciting dive place. I found this website about Samaranger See.

[littleleemur]

Elche,

Thank you for the info and the links so I can look in the right direction. Unfortunately I can't read German so it's taking me some time to translate and navigate the pages

Those underwater photos look gorgeous. I am definitely going back for the diving

& the food is soooo good

[acelockco]

I have never seen water so clear that you can see things out of the water so clearly. That alone is worth a dip!

[elche]

It's a stunning experience. And freezing: in the clearest lakes the water temperature is not more than 45 F (7 Celsius) even in the summer. Even in a drysuit I rarely dive more than 40 minutes. But at least these lakes are shallow, so it's possible to dive twice with the same tank...

[acelockco]

40 minutes is not too bad at that temp. Maybe some warmer undergarments would help. If you don't have a ice cap for under your hood, one of those will also help. Dry gloves also make things better but they are a pain to deal with.