This hotel had an ideal location for us being within 2 minutes walk of the Schafbergbahn, and its ferry terminal, and the very useful small ‘on demand’ ferry that takes you across the lake. The hotel’s bathing area just across the road was close enough to go to in a bath robe (provided by the hotel) or in your swimsuit. We enjoyed having dinner on the terrace with a view of the lake on the three evenings that it was warm enough. The food was overall OK unless you were a strict vegetarian. The staff were helpful, if perhaps in one case over-attentive. Our big disappointment was the room. We paid Thomson an additional £224 for the week for a side lake view and balcony. In fact we got a better view of the lake than we expected, but although nicely fitted out the room was one of the smallest we have ever stayed in. The only clothes storage was a wardrobe with 15 inches of hanging space for the both of us. The room ended up being festooned with clothes, including the two small dining chairs. There was scarcely enough floor space for the cases. The only place to sit comfortably was on the extra large bed. The bathroom was also very cramped. The maid stored the bath towels on the glass shower screen. But there was no space to put them when actually having a shower, and nowhere to dry them afterwards. We are keen walkers and one day got caught in heavy rain and soaked to the skin. What to do with our wet clobber? The hotel reception agreed to put them in the hotel laundry room; which isn’t a public room. They didn’t dry there but at least we didn’t have to cope with them in the room. Fortunately the next day was warm and sunny and we got everything dried on the balcony, which was almost as large as the room. We understood from other guests that some rooms are much larger but we can only report what we experienced and rate the hotel accordingly.

The Hotel Margaretha is in a superb location in St Wolfgang. The room we had was very spacious and superbly clean throughout our stay. The food in the hotel (we were half board) was of a really high standard and always well presented and plentiful. All the staff really cared about the guests and couldn't do enough for you. Thew hotel made it an excellent hoilday for us and, as a result, would highly recommend it.

We have recently returned (3rd August) from an eleven night stay at the Strandhotel Margaretha and have nothing but praise. The staff were all very friendly, professional and all spoke excellent English (as does everyone in the bars and restaurants in St Wolfgang as well). Free afternoon tea and cake at the hotel (no coffee) was an added bonus as was the kettle and mugs in the room (no tea bags, coffee or milk though so you have to buy your own, there is a fridge for the milk). The hotel is only 1 minute from the cog railway and ferry terminal and is about a 10/15 minute leisurely stroll to the centre of St Wolfgang. There is no pool but plenty of loungers/umbrellas just across the road on a decking area by the lake (privately owned by the hotel). We found the selection of food on offer at breakfast and dinner was of a good quality, breakfast was a buffet, plenty of choice and dinner was always 5 courses if you could manage them, you chose your main course for the evening at breakfast each day. Be prepared for a real mixture of weather, we had a couple of days of persistent rain, some cloudy, cool days plus some very sunny and hot days. If you want to go on the cog railway, you need a clear day obviously, but many other people will also want to take advantage of the weather as well. One word of advice is to get there early to get a ticket, we arrived at 10.15am thinking we would get the 11.00am train up the mountain and it was already fully booked meaning we had to wait until 12.00 noon. On arrival at the top of the mountain, you have to decide the time of the train that you want to come back down on. Unless you want to do some strenuous mountain walking (not us !) we found that just over an hour was enough for a coffee, a cake, a stroll and photo opportunities. Ferries are very easy to get, St Gilgen was a reasonable size town to visit, Strobl was quite small but was a pleasant walk from St Wolfgang (part of it by the lake, part on a main road and part around a wooded headland), we then took the ferry back. Overall a very relaxing holiday, fantastic scenery, everywhere was so clean with plenty of places to walk even if you are not a true hiker ! On many evenings there were different types of music being played in St Wolfgang (brass bands, singers playing guitars etc.) but we found the town fairly quiet which surprised us, whether this is the norm or whether it is the current economic downturn I'm not sure. If you fancy St Wolfgang as a holiday then I would be more than happy to recommend the Strandhotel Magaretha as a base. One very small criticism was that on 2 evenings we wandered back from the town to have a drink at the hotel bar (arriving back no later than 10pm) and the bar was all closed up and in darkness, understandable perhaps if nobody had been in the bar all evening but could still have been disappointing to some. We though did have a bottle of wine in our room (we took our own plastic wine glasses), so consumed that on our balcony quite happily !

My wife and I returned to the Strandhotel Magaretha after having a great experience last summer.
We were wellcomed by a very friendly and kind man in the reception, and we were now "the owners" of one of the best rooms - 205 - for the period 20.07.2011 - 27.07.2011. Every day we enjoyed the view from the balcony, where we even got one of our evening meals bought in the town center few minutes walk away. Thats life!
We lived á la carte, and one of the evenings we got filetsteak and experienced a much better cuisine than last year. This year we will recommend the Austrian redwine "Rosenberg" and a little aperitif the Austrian "Bailoni" apricot liqueur. Thats life too!
According to the title we once more met the Strandhotel Margarethas jewel!
If you have a little hunger then go to "Lilli´s Seecafé" just few meters away at the promade and enjoy the male serving personal wearing lederhosen.
Don´t forget to visit "Schildermanufaktur Hofer", Markt 10 in St. Wolfgang, where you can put back the clock and remember the time with Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Elvis Presley and all the other advertisement boards in metal. Then you can cross the road and visit "Bäckermeister Gandl" and be tempted.
We will still recommend the Strandhotel Margaretha.
P.S. To all the grousy people! Live in the present moment and don´t be too expectant - Carpe Diem. Have a nice holiday!
Love from Denmark - Lotte & Bent.