castlesANDfalls

I will be driving a rental car from Salzburg to visit Hallstadt and also Linz for the Mariendom and the Hauptplatz areas. Where can I park the car in these areas? Also, to visit the Dachstein Caves, how would we get to the valley cable car station to begin the trip up? Would the closest parking for that be in Obertraun?

dweislaw

We parked in one of the public lots in Hallstatt:
http://www.hallstatt.net/parking-in-hallstatt/cars/

castlesANDfalls

Thank you dweislaw. Your link was exactly what I needed for Hallstatt.

Cowboy1968

For Linz you can use this "clickable" map to get info for each garage:
http://www.linz.at/verkehr/34298.asp

In case you don't know German a little glossary:
Tiefgarage: underground parking garage.
Parkgarage: multi-storey (overground) garage.
Öffnungszeiten: hours of operation (0-24 means all day)
"Ausfahrt jederzeit möglich": you can exit any time (even though entry may be restricted to 6am till midnight).
Zahlungsart: method of payment (bar = cash). NB: even when most paypoint machines take credit cards, you may need a chip+PIN card

castlesANDfalls

Thank you Cowboy. Your provided link will come in handy and I do not know any German. I have a chip+ pin card from the US but it is a Discover Card (Diners Club) which I'm not sure is widely accepted there. My Mastercard is chip + signature. They tell me some machines in Europe will allow use without the pin.
Does anyone have information about the Dachstein Cave area? Their official site doesn't give much information about arriving there with a car, at least the translated version is not very helpful.

maxima

There is a parking lot at the Dachstein Caves for visitors.
It is a short drive from the caves to Halstatt where there is a public parking lot.

dweislaw

Here is a link to some more helpful info for Halstatt/Dachstein
http://www.bigboytravel.com/europe/a...tatt/icecaves/

castlesANDfalls

maxima and dweislaw, I appreciate your help. Some days, you really feel like you need a good, detailed plan so there's less driving in circles and wasted daylight. Lonely Planet guide book advises a whole day to see just one cave and the viewing platform so I was worried that we wouldn't get to see Halstatt too. I feel better now, with your input.

maxima

I haven't looked at Lonely Planet but I would guess that if one were to hike everywhere, plus the caves it would take a day. Not many people are going to do that. If the weather is clear you will get great views from 5 fingers.

Cowboy1968

To pay for parking you should not rely on having your MC accepted without PIN. Sometimes the machines don't ask for PIN, sometimes they do. But since the daily cap/max is 15-20 euros in Linz, it should not be too hard to keep a 20 euro bill in your wallet just in case.
By the way: You always pay at machines before you go back to your car, which are usually located at the pedestrian exits/entries. You do NOT pay from your car at the exit barrier to a person (except in very very few exemptions of the rule).