The Achensee holiday region

The Achensee holiday region is beautiful any time of the year. Whether spring, summer, autumn or winter. Here, nature plays out in a variety of colours in one of the most breathtaking and beautiful natural settings in Tyrol. There are almost no limits to the sport and leisure activities on offer here at Lake Achensee: hiking, paragliding, swimming, sailing and climbing in summer or skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing or hiking in winter. You won't forget a single minute of your holiday. Lake Achensee will remain a wonderful memory. Start each new, eventful day from Karwendel-Camping feeling refreshed and well rested. That's how a holiday should be!

Looking at the deep blue Lake Achensee against its incomparable mountain backdrop, one can't help but compare it to the Norwegian fjords. Formed after the last ice age, Tyrol's largest lake, flanked by the mountains of the Karwendel massif and the Rofan ranges, attracts swimmers, surfers and sailors every summer. The Achensee is fed by underground tributaries from Ampelsbach, Dürrach and the Achenkircher springs. In 1927 an underground tunnel was built from Seespitz to the Jenbach hydro electric power station, turning Lake Achensee into a natural water reservoir. It also serves as a reservoir for the power plant in Jenbach. In order to best utilise the hydropower of Lake Achensee, the lake's outflow was diverted south to the power plant in Jenbach. The 400-metre drop is used to generate energy. As part of the reservoir management, more water is taken from Lake Achensee during the winter months (October to April) than flows into it, causing the water level to drop by up to 5 metres. By summer, precipitation, melt water and stream tributaries refill the lake, the water level returns to normal by the beginning of June at the latest.

Lake Achensee is one of the windiest lakes in Austria, with strong gusts from Bavaria sometimes reaching wind force five. Divers also get their money's worth, as the bottom of the lake contains so many historical "legacies" to be discovered.

The Achensee Lake and the Achental valley form the border between the Karwendel and the Rofan mountain ranges. The Karwendel Mountains is a 40-kilometre-long mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps. The name Karwendel can be traced back to the Bavarian settler Gerwentil, who settled in the area around the year 1000. Today, the Karwendel mountains are the largest non-permanently inhabited area in Central Europe. With its approximately 200 peaks the secluded mountain paradise attracts alpinists, photographers and nature lovers from all over the world. The Karwendel Mountains are also home to Austria's largest nature park – the Karwendel Nature Park. Due to the above-average proportion of natural habitats,  numerous typical Alpine animal and plant species can be found there, such as golden eagles, common sandpipers and the German tamarisk.