Originally from Rugby in England, we made the move to Lessach in 2010. We decided to set up home here so we could run a business we love together, and for a healthier way of living. We’ve both always enjoyed walking in the mountains, skiing and putting on dinner parties for our friends, so running a catered chalet together, where we could combine all three, seemed the perfect solution and it has been proved to be so.

We put a lot of thought into how we wanted to run our business before we started. We made a conscious decision at the start to keep the number of guests to one that we could easily manage. Because we do everything ourselves, we are able to control the quality of what we provide; it keeps us very busy but looking after happy people enjoying their holiday makes what we do incredibly rewarding.

We are fortunate to have chosen a particularly special part of Austria to live in. Even before we met, we had individually fallen in love with Austria, not just for its beautiful landscapes and the activities it offered, but also for its cleanliness, organisation and colourful traditions. That’s not to mention its wonderful people; friendly, fun loving and above all respectful of each other. To be part of their way of life and to be able to share it with our visitors, means so much to us.

We came across this magical part of Austria, and our home, by chance - or you could say it was fate (we can tell you the whole story when you’re here 😉). A previously unknown area to us, finding such an amazing place to live in was particularly important to us. So, although we have to work hard to attract guests we’ve discovered that once they visit, they fall in love with the area just like we did, and many return again and again. Being able to welcome back familiar faces obviously makes our work all the more enjoyable.

Our decision to move to Austria was not an easy one and certainly not a quick one, we spent many years discussing the idea whilst out walking and on holidays, and yes, we miss our friends and families, but technology helps us keep in touch so we don’t feel too far apart. Today, we’re still talking about our dreams during long walks in the mountains or whilst relaxing in the garden, but now the subject is how we can make things even better for our guests so they enjoy their best holiday possible.

We both helped our parents in their own catering businesses when we were younger, Maria in particular, having a Spanish father and coming from a large family, was used to gatherings centred around the dinner table. Part of our decision to run our Chalet was down to the fact that we both enjoyed hosting dinner parties for our friends – and that we enjoyed working together in the kitchen. Now, during the season, we serve a dinner party almost every night of the week for our guests, hard work but very enjoyable, especially when we get such positive feedback 😊

Our Home - Chalet Gove

Our home was originally a traditional Austrian farmhouse, which means that it was a house with a connected barn for the animals and for storing hay. We’ve not been able to find out exactly when it was originally built but we know that a dwelling existed before 1908 as there is a record of it burning down then, along with the rest of the village! Our house was rebuilt but burned down again in 1948. As you can imagine fire protection is now an important aspect of all house plans and construction in the area.

We purchased Chalet Gove early in 2010 and moved in during August. Over the next year and a half, we knocked through four half-metre-thick stone walls to make doorways to four en-suite bathrooms, which we built and fitted out from scratch. A wooden structure was built in the barn to provide a corridor and space for two of the bathrooms and we converted an existing bedroom into two more bathrooms. This created four en-suite bedrooms available for our first commercial season 2011-12. For the first few years we concentrated on building up the winter business whilst we completed yet more conversion work over the summer months.

We converted the old stable area at the back of the house to provide a guest lounge and downstairs toilet, a guest utility room, table football area, freezer room and pellet storage area. We cleaned out and renovated the old dairy room to provide us with extra storage and completed a full revamp of the garden and gazebo.

More recently:

In 2019 we extended the ‘dressing area’ of bedroom 4 to comfortably take an additional single bed and in 2020 we had a new pellet boiler heating system installed which involved some more knocking through walls for a new chimney entry and to provide a route for the automatic pellet feed pipes. We took the opportunity to clean and paint the boiler room and also board and put a new ceiling in the adjoining room housing a new hot water tank. In 2021 and 2022 we made more improvements to our garden and Alan built a boot warming cabinet along with additional seating in our equipment room, plus new bed headboards for new beds which we can have as singles or a double. In 2023 Alan’s main project was building an amplifier for rear speakers newly installed in the lounge and we have replaced the old furniture in one of the bedrooms.

The diagram below shows the layout of our bedrooms. All the bedrooms can be made up as a twin with separate beds or as a double with a king or super-king size bed, and each can take an extra bed or bunk beds.

Our Chalet Gove Experience

Our Chalet Gove experience is all about you being relaxed and feeling at home, having fun in the company of friends, enjoying good food and having all the worries of ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do it’ sorted out for you.

Chalet Gove is our home, so is not set up like a hotel or guest house and it’is also very spacious. We feel this all helps our visitors feel relaxed and at home - and we find that children always settle in very quickly. And that makes for more relaxed parents!

Everything we do is based around providing you with an enjoyable and memorable holiday, one which exceeds all your expectations. To enable us to do this, we always aim to gather all the information we need and plan well ahead to ensure everything goes smoothly for your stay.

If we are providing your transport Alan will be there at Salzburg airport or station to meet you personally and transport you in our own minibus to Chalet Gove.

Once you arrive at Chalet Gove we’ll invite you to relax and make it your home for the week. We’ll be ‘on hand’ to help out, answer questions and sort out any problems, plus we will clean and cook for you and transport you. While you’re here, we’re here for you (we have plenty of guest-free weeks when we’re free to do as we please 😉). Within reason we can adapt timings and what you want to do each day according to your requirements.

We can also book activities for you and transport you to the right place and make sure you know what is required. We can advise on places to eat and where you’ll find certain things and, of course, the best places to ski or board, walk, cycle or for any other activity.

Our food

For Breakfast we offer you a choice of cereals, muesli, porridge, local organic milk, homemade freshly baked bread rolls, ham, cheese, eggs – poached, boiled, scrambled or fried (cooked to order, as you like them), toasted homemade bread, freshly made fruit salad, yogurts, fruit juices, homemade jams, marmalade and local honey all served with freshly made tea and filter coffee (speciality teas and decaffeinated tea and coffee are available on request).

Afternoon cake is homemade and served each day on your return with tea and coffee

Our three course evening meals are served with complimentary wine and beer on six nights of the week in winter and on five nights in summer. They are mainly Mediterranean in style and are designed to suit most peoples’ tastes. We plan each week’s menu based on the needs of the guests staying with us, ensuring it’s children-friendly when required. We try to vary the menu weekly - and for returning guests - to provide something different, but there are a couple of staples on the menu, such as a traditional roast dinner on Sunday and Alan’s curry night, which are always requested!

To some Sample Menus

We are happy to cater for special dietary requests if guests let us know in plenty of time, preferably at time of booking. It’s also helpful to know in advance, whether anyone has any particular food they dislike.

We cook and make almost everything from scratch using local, organic produce wherever possible. We are fortunate to be able to source our dairy products and beef from local grass fed cattle, along with pork, chicken and eggs from the region, honey and potatoes from the village - our Lungau potatoes known as ‘Eachtling’ are famous throughout Austria and have their own special festival in autumn! As well as our homemade cakes and biscuits, we make our own, bread, ice cream, jams, lemon curd, chutneys, sauces and our very popular sage and onion stuffing.

Salzburgerland is known as the gourmet region of Austria and our Lungau region is rich with its own produce and specialities, which can be sampled at the many restaurants and mountain huts.

We have an excellent restaurant in the village less than 5 minutes walk away, serving local produce for your evening out.

The open views from our house are quite stunning and the mountains surrounding the village are softly rounded and not oppressive in the least. The valley area is pastureland which is filled with wild-flowers throughout spring and summer. Moving higher, there is forest - much of which is populated with Larch trees which give a beautiful golden colour to the mountainsides in autumn and a fresh bright green in spring.

Known as the sunniest area in Salzburgerland, it’s is rare for us to have consecutive cloudy days; we find it is a very uplifting place to live in, especially on a beautiful winter days with crisp white snow and clear blue skies. There’s nothing better for the spirit!

Behind our house heading north, the Lessach valley continues for 7km to the Lasshoferalm hut (serving excellent local delicacies) and from here you’re at the start of three wonderful hikes leading up to beautiful Lakes.

In summer step out of the front door, and whichever way you turn you’re at the start of numerous mountain hikes, valley walks and bike trails. And in winter just a few metres from our house you’ll discover ski runs, cross-country ski routes and toboggan runs, as well as snow-walking trails.

0ur sparsely populated Lungau region is a deeply rooted living environment with distinctive traditions and a high level of biodiversity and has proudly been recognized as an UNESCO's Biosphere Reserve since July 2012. The word “biosphere” denotes a region of exceptional value in terms of the people, the environment, the local economy as well as deeply rooted traditions and folk customs. For holiday makers, this means a truly authentic experience, in one of the most beautiful natural landscapes in all Salzburgerland.

For us ‘respect’ is the word that comes to mind to describe why the Lungau is so different; people respect each other and also the place they live in. Everywhere is pristine and everything - be it a job, service or food - is always of the highest quality.

With shops closed on a Sunday and many closed from lunchtime on Saturday, families have time to enjoy themselves at the weekend and at the many traditional events, to which our visitors are always welcome.

Essentially a climatic island, nestled between the mountains of the Radstädter Tauern and Carinthian Nockberge, the whole of the Lungau region lies at, or above the 1000m mark and is known as the sunniest region in Austria. The air and water are of exceptionally high quality and the mountain air is known to help alleviate respiratory complaints and the high altitude can optimise endurance training. Our unique climate provides perfect conditions for long snowy winters and warm sunny summers.

The Lungau consists of 15 picturesque towns and villages. The main town of Tamsweg has a beautiful square surrounded with bars and restaurants where in summer you can sit and while away your afternoon or evening, often accompanied by traditional Austrian musical entertainment. Fanning out from Tamsweg are ten different valleys and mountain ranges providing a wealth of variety both in scenery and activities. It’s impossible to cover all there is to do in a month, let alone a week, and this is why so many of our guests return year after year, each time discovering another new and magical place or favourite view.

With its crystal-clear rivers and over 60 lakes to discover, the Lungau region provides a ‘Still or sparkling’ choice of holiday.

Still - For those of you looking for tranquillity and the opportunity to relax and unwind. In summer our beautiful alpine pastures, teeming with plants, berries and herbs, our mountains, crystal clear lakes and rivers can be enjoyed undisturbed by others, allowing that all-too-rare time for reflection and recuperation. In winter, our Lungau region provides magical peaceful walks through the snow, time to sit at a traditional hut and in January and March almost empty slopes on which to ski.

Sparkling – For those of you looking for exercise and adventure, our Lungau region provides lots of winter fun: skiing, boarding, snow biking, tobogganing, ski touring, horse riding, snow shoe walking, along with plenty of opportunities to drop into mountain huts for a hearty meal or just a snack, and traditional après ski. In summer it provides countless valley walks, mountain hikes, quiet road cycling, mountain bike routes, outdoor activity centres, white water rafting, paragliding, horse riding, golfing, traditional festivals, musical events and so much more.

Our weather

The Lungau region is one of the most southerly in Austria and in summer enjoys quite a Mediterranean feel. Obviously, being in the mountains the weather can be quite varied, but we are fortunate to have a number of different valleys to explore, each with their own micro-climate, so whilst the sun might be shining in one, it could be raining in another.

In summer the day can start in beautiful sunshine and end in a heavy storm shower. The beauty of the place is its fresh clear air and even if hot during the day, the nights are usually cool making for a good night’s sleep. Humidity here is low, which also helps it feel cooler.

The whole of the Lungau plateau lies at 1000m above sea level and Lessach although a village in a mountain valley, lies at 1200 m (above the 978m top of Scafell pike in the Lake District!) and this means it tends to stay above the mist of the lower villages. We see the sun almost every day, which makes living here very uplifting. Being at altitude, you just need to be aware that the sun’s rays are a lot stronger, than at sea level.

It is rare for us to have days of grey cloud and rain but we do of course have rain, which keeps everything lush and green and fills the streams and rivers with crystal-clear water. This provides us with the best drinking water in Salzburg - available on tap in Chalet Gove!

In winter, the Lungau benefits from two different weather systems, if the snow comes from the South through Italy our southern ski areas receive snow and if it comes from the North West our northern ski areas receive the snow. So there is always at least one ski area with good snow and we have the luxury of selecting on a daily basis the best area to ski based on its weather and conditions.

Our nature

Flora

So much of the land is natural pastureland, rich with a variety of wildflowers and herbs, a flower enthusiast’s heaven. An hours’ walk up the valley can soon become two, as you stop to study and photograph each different species. As you move up into the mountains the variety of alpine flora increases and in summer there are wild strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and cranberries to pick.

Animals

All the farms in the area keep a few cows which graze on the pastureland in spring and autumn and spend their time higher up in the mountains during the summer months. In winter they are kept inside, feeding on grass from the lower pastureland reaped throughout the summer. The land is fertilised with manure from the cows, a complete natural cycle.

Besides the cows with their tinkling bells and the sheep with their long, floppy ears, if you’re lucky you might spot a red or roe deer or chamois.  Higher up on the mountain trails you may hear the warning whistles of the marmot. The pine and stone martens are also common in the area although rare to spot; you’re more likely to see a squirrel.  The squirrels in our area are related to the red squirrel and are very dark brown, almost black in colour and very sweet. You might also spot foxes, badgers, rabbits, hares, stoat and , otters

Birds

The Lungau Mountains are home to many birds of prey including the golden eagle, bearded vulture, hen harrier, northern goshawk, black kite and numerous species of owl. There are of course many smaller birds to spot and enjoy such as the wheatear, alpine brown ellen, black redstart, choughs, nuthatch, and various species of woodpeckers, besides the traditional garden birds.

Butterflies

With the rich abundance of wildflowers comes a wonderful variety of butterflies of all beautiful colours. Not being experts, we can’t name them all, we just know that there are so many more than we ever came across back in England.