go to prague, lots of tourists & cheap beer

i spent about a week in austria last summer, i went to Vienna and Salzburg, both nice places with lots of travellers & backpackers. So don’t worry about meeting people over there. From salzburg i also went to Hallstatt on a day trip, it’s really beautiful.
 
Austria is kind of in the middle of Europe, so there’s a lot of cities around to visit. I’m thinking Munich, Prague, Budapest …

I went to Salzburg, Hallstatt and Innsbruck (briefly.) I wish I could’ve gone to Vienna, I hear it’s great. Salzburg was pretty neat, but I’m not into “the sound of music” and while I’m into history, I’m not too huge on composers’ lives so all the Mozart stuff wasn’t really appealing to me. I’d love to go back again though Hallstatt is just amazing. I’d recommend AGAINST doing it as just a day trip, because you end up missing a lot. I could’ve spent a week there personally, but if you’re into the whole ‘nonstop backpacker party’ thing you’ll think it’s rather boring. It’s just this really nice town in the middle of nowhere in basically the most amazing setting you could ask for. If you get bored with the town, there’s pretty much no limit to the amount of trails around town that lead into the mountains and whatnot.  
 
 
Oh…. Don’t worry about meeting backpackers because it’s pretty much impossible not to.

i absolutely adore austria moreso than any other country, though i can’t really explain why. It just has a nice feel to it. Vienna is an amazing city, with a really unique vibe, and tons to see in the way of museums/art galleries. Salzburg is amazingly beautiful and i am a fan of mozart, but i wasn’t all the crazy about salzburg. way too many tourists, for one thing. I would reccommend the city of graz, in the idyllic styria region of austria. it’s a gorgeous city with the ornate facades an all of the buildings, there’s lots of nice restaurants, places to walk, etc. not to mention the people are so nice and friendly (which i didn’t find in some other places in austria), plus it was really cool to see the kunsthaus graz in person.
 
on another note, to feicht: may i ask where you stayed in hallstatt? was there a hostel there, and is it open all year round?
 

Well, the Zell am Zee & Vienna questions are a bit more complex to answer, but I can address Salzburg.  The town is not very big, and one can walk all-over the city, and see just about everything (on foot) in one day. 

Yeah there’s at least one hostel there. The one I stayed in was called “Gasthaus zur Mühle.” I was kinda worried because I tried to email for months on end and got no response, but I heard there’s almost always an open bed SOMEWHERE in town, so I went anyway, and I’m glad I did. I got there in like the end of July, and when I found the place, not only did they have beds available, but I was all by myself in a big room with like 20 beds for two days! (Maybe BECAUSE they don’t answer emails []). Anyway, it was a great place to stay, only weird thing was like, the men’s shower is down by the kitchen if I recall, so like it can be a little awkward if you’re ultra modest, hehe…. oh yeah and the place doubles as a cheap restaraunt too, which is great, except their hours are a little suspect; I think the guy (Ferdinand, I believe his name was) closes down if noone comes in for a while… my second day I was hoping for some more great pizza, but noone was there… kinda weird. But that’s okay as there’s a handful of other great places to eat. I “settled” for the fresh trout at Gasthof Zauner instead, which was amazing As for their seasonal hours, I really don’t know. However, I’ve heard if you go to Hallstatt anytime before or after high season, you’re basically guaranteed a room/bed somewhere at under 25 Euro. Everything there is small and family run, so I wouldn’t be surprised if prices are cheaper in fall/winter; however I also hear the town is kinda dead in wintertime. But then again, so is everywhere, basically.

Anyway, Hallstatt is great. It makes me sad that I won’t be able to make it there this summer, but I just don’t have enough time It’s just like…..quaint, I guess is the best way to put it. Like I said above, if you’re looking for the big city party crowd, stay in Vienna or something; Hallstatt is just a nice, beautiful, tiny little town that looks like a mountain is trying to push it into the lake. And a walk half an hour in either direction from the town gives you some of the nicest scenery anywhere. I went up the valley to the east (?) of town, and was all by myself amongst all these amazing waterfalls and gigantic trees… if it weren’t for the few bridges over the water, I’d swear noone else had ever been there.

But yeah, I can’t say enough about the place. Just go there, you won’t be dissapointed []

thanks for the info! it sounds great, i’m sorry i never made it there. ah well, maybe next time!

hi
 
hey thanks for all the info,its going to help.so out of the backpackers/travellers that you meet in austria where do most of them tend to be from?
….ie USA , OZ etc?
also what is the recomened time you would say to spend in austria?
 
thanks

 
No problem, dude. And yeah, I almost skipped it too… I am SOOOOOOOOOOO glad that I didn’t
 
@ jon_b: 1) Pretty much everywhere I’ve been in Europe, the mix is about the same… no matter where you are, you will meet Americans, Aussies, Asians and “locals” just roving around. And don’t worry; if you’re in a hostel with other travellers, they WILL speak English. I’ve spent two summers in Europe now, and the whole time, I met one person who didn’t have relative fluency in English and it was like this older chick from Japan.
2) It’s entirely up to you. You ask 10 people and you’ll get ten different answers. As far as I’m concerned you could spend a lifetime there exploring all the little villages and whatnot.

hey there….
has anyone been to graz?
whats it ike there?………..worth visiting?
 
thanks

I met a guy from Graz actually… he claimed it was an amazing city to live in… but other than that, I can’t really help ya

has anyone ever been to the Carinthia region of Austria..meaning the town of Villach and on towards the town of Spittal an der Drau and onto the town of hermagor?
just wandering if it is worth visiting and if so is it a summer or winter destination?
i no there is a ski resort quiet close on the Austrian/Italy border.
 
thanks

I’ve never been to Villach, but I hear it’s kind of a nice little city. I’ve also heard that it’s kind of one of those regions with a ton of outdoors stuff to do. Lots of lakes, camping, skiing in winter, etc. Also might be a little cheaper than the rest of Austria too.

thanks mate.
 
realy appreciate the advice.im going for a week at the end of march for like a holiday,travelling around.anyway thanks again

Just that region for a week, or all of Austria? That would be some major cramming!

If you only have a week,  I’d say definitely hit 2 great cities,  Vienna and Prague, if you can. If I remember, between Vienna and Prague, Bratislava was a neat place to visit (not for long, but great if you’re switching buses, trains- spend the morning/ afternoon).
 
Halstatt is absolutely gorgeous and amazing,  if you like small towns.  We thought we had reservations in 1 place, and they fell through.  They called another inn, and the other place took us for the rate we were supposed to get at the other one… gorgeous, on the lake.
 
Halstatt, as I remember, has an interesting ossuary and some kind of mine (salt mines, I think).
 
Good luck and enjoy!

 
Yep, it’s a salt mine. In fact the whole region is known as the “Salzkammergut” which means something like “the salt chamber estate.” Salt has been mined all around there going back like 4 thousand years.

hey.
yea im going for like a week was just looking for some info on austria in gereral,the sorts of places a backpacker/travelling crowd would go.
im thinking of going back again in the summer but i seem to read alot of stuff on the internet that says its mainly a winter destination and that alot of places tend to close up when its not winter except for the cities of course.

 
Eh I dunno about that… maybe the places that are exclusively ski resorts… but most other places it’s the opposite.

hi how are ya
 
i was just wandering if on your of austria you happend to visit any of these places called Gmunden , Freistadt , Bad Ischl , Attersee around the salzburg area.if you have what did you think of them and are if any worth a visit?
 
cheers dude

Nah, sorry. The only other place I went “near” Salzburg was Hallstatt… those names do sound a little familiar though.

i did spend a few hours in Bad Ischl last summer, waiting for transit on my way to Hallstatt. All i did was walk around. It was alright, but maybe not worth more than that.
 
However, i saw this other&nbsplace on my way to Hallstatt, Sankt Gilgen i think, that looked great (at least from the bus window). So that may be another option you may want to look into …

Yeah, I may have switched trains in Bad Ischl, but I’m not sure. Either way, I didn’t see the town