It is a park on the border with the Czech Republic. On the other side of the river Thaya (called „Dyje“ on the Czech side), there is a Czech National Park Podyji. We discovered both of them.
The National Park Thayatal is the smallest in Austria, and yet one can explore nature’s diversity here in small and big ways.
The river Thaya meanders over 26 km through a unique valley landscape. The diversified geological bedrock, of a respectable age of up to 600 million years, is fascinating. The National Park is exceptional as these rocks belong to the oldest mountain range in Austria.
The Thayatal is one of the last semi-natural valley landscapes in Central Europe.
It is an impressive valley with steep cliffs and gentle meadows, natural forests, and fascinating fauna. Further official information about the park you find here.
RV Places
The National Park Thayatall is camper-user-friendly. There is a parking space for campers, next to the building serving as a visitor center:
Camper Site Thayatal National Park
The coordinates: 48.845026, 15.859805
The parking space is very nice, clean, calm, and equipped with everything that campers need:
There is a dump station, incl. in the price per night, and it was 9,20 Eur (one camper with two persons) in 2020.
There is a power source, the price is 1 Eur for 6 hours.
There is a drinking water source, the price is 1 Eur for 100 liters.
The camper parking space is open all year round.
Water and Power Sources
Mountain biking and hiking trails
This is an official map of hiking and cycling trails on the territories of both National Parks (Thayatal in Austria and Podyji in the Czech Republic), hiking trails in red color, cycling trails in green color
We did our own mountain biking trail which was a combination of various existing routes, with that we started and ended at the parking space where we parked our camper.
The map of our trail named Thayatal and Podyji National Park is shown here, our trail is marked in purple with white crosses:
An interactive map of the trail together with the downloadable recorded GPX file you find here:
Attractions & Recommendations:
There are many attractions and interesting places in the Thayatal National Park and Podyji National Park:
The Magic Castle in the village of Hardegg
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The bridge (for hikers and cyclists only)between Austria and the Czech Republic
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The only preserved piece of the Iron Curtain on the border from the old days (in the village of Cizov)
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The castle Vranov
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The dam Vranov
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The castle Novy Hradek
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The ruins of the castle Kaya
We recommend visiting the National Park Thayatal because of many reasons. Some of them:
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It is a camper-friendly national park
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There are beautiful, well-preserved nature and beautiful meanders of the river Thaya (Dyje)
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On the territory of the National Park, there is a rare project trying to bring a wildcat back to Austria after this species disappeared in the last century, you can find out more about it here
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There are plenty of hiking and cycling trails
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Both national parks are not crowded and are very well maintained
You can see our photos here.
Our video blogs about the National Park Thayatal you find here.
