Trophywife007

We are putting together a driving trip to Salzkammergut, Grossglockner, and Bodensee in June 2016. Our interests are in wandering through lovely towns and villages, looking at beautiful scenery, castles, churches, museums, any points of interest, walking, eating, drinking, stopping for coffee, etc. My sister and BIL will be traveling with us and they like to sail... I'm wondering if sail boats can be rented.

We've been to (and loved) Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, Innsbruck so we'll probably pass them by this time.

We plan to stay in Hallstatt for several nights -- possibly 6 if there's enough in the area to do. It doesn't seem to be the most centrally located village but it's so pretty that I can't resist it. We will probably skip the salt mines as we've be to the ones in Berchtesgaden. Some places I've looked at visiting in the area (not in any particular order) include:

Hallstatt -- ice caves, museum
St Wolfgang - Schafbergbahn
Bad Ischl - Kaiservilla
Gmunden - ceramics
Schloss Ort
Mondsee
Attersee
Gosau/Gosausee
Schladming
Grundlsee, Toplitzsee, Kammersee
St. Gilgen -- gondola lift

From there we'd move on to Lofer, Austria for a few nights to visit:

Schloss Hohenwerfen (do ice caves here or forget about it if we see the ones near Hallstatt)
Zell amSee
Heiligenblut
Grossglockner
Edelweissspitze and Franz-Josephs-Höhe side trips
Krimml waterfall

And from there drive to Meersburg for several nights (have not started researching much here) for:

Mainau
Stein am Rhein
Lindau

I've allotted a total of 15 nights for these three areas. I'd like to know how might you split this up time-wise in each place and if there are places/things of interest that I'm overlooking.

Thanks in advance for any direction or ideas you can provide!

Trophywife007

So, to clarify my questions:

1) Are their places of interest in these areas we need to include or leave out?

2) Hallstatt - 6 nights, Lofer - 4 nights, & Meersburg - 5 nights: is that the best way to spend our nights?

3) Anything else (or other ideas) I haven't thought of?

Thanks!

ira

Hey TW,

Looks like a great trip.

You will need an International Driver's Permit in Austria:
http://www.aaa.com/vacation/idpf.htmlrive

You will need a a ‘vignette’ (road tax sticker) if you wish to drive on any of the thruways in Austria. If you rent a car in Austria it should have the vignette attached. Otherwise, they are available at any gas station as you approach Austria.

On your way to Lindau, I strongly recommend "Linderhof Palace".

You might find my trip reports useful.

Ira Visits Zurich, The Bodensee, Alsace and Paris – May 2008
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=35136218

Ira Visits Europe – May, 2007 (Salzburg, Fuessen, Bodensee, Burgundy, Alsace)
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...2&tid=35014078

Enjoy your visit.

pja1

Hi,

Just a few comments.

I thinking that staying in Hallstatt for 6 nights is too long. The village is nice and the scenery is extremely picturesque, but I think you'll get tired of driving from there to somewhere else everyday. This is just my opinion, as a person who visited Hallstatt as a day trip and spent an afternoon there. That was about the right amount of time to spend there for me.

By Schladming is the village of Ramsau am Dachstein. The "Der Dachstein" cable car trip is the best one we've ever done, plus you can actually ride on top of the cable car cabin on the roof. They call it the balcony.

If you're friends like to sail, I'd suggest staying in Zell am See (pretty old town on a gorgeous lake surrounded by snow capped peaks) instead of Lofer, Austria. We've stopped in Lofer twice while passing by. Nice, small town/village. Me, I couldn't base myself there. Like Hallstatt, pretty small and kind of remote.

Paul

Huggy

Another alternative is staying in St. Wolfgang. Enjoyed our time there but you can't go wrong with the suggestions by Paul.

Trophywife007

Ira, I read your two reports and found several gems there. Thank you for sharing!

@ pja1 and Huggy: Thanks for the advice. I was wondering about the number of days in Hallstatt and whether it was too remote to work as a base for several days. Would it be better to split up the time 3 nights in one place then move to another town? Or alternatively, should we base somewhere else for all 6 nights? Is 6 nights too many?

Thanks for the information about the cable car in Ramsau am Dachstein. We'll definitely be doing that.

pja1

Personally, an overnight or two in Hallstatt would be enough, depending on how much you want to see and do in the immediate area. I'm probably in the minority, but thought Hallstatt itself was just worth less than a day. We didn't visit the salt mine or lookouts, etc. and we're not hikers, just looked around the village itself, which is very small.

The bad about Der Dachstein cable car trip... the other cable cars won't seem as good. There's an "ice palace" carved in the glacier, a Skywalk (lookout standing over nothing) and a suspension bridge, plus a restaurant at the top. All that, the magnificent scenery and riding on the roof, wow.

I'm biased, but I'd try to spend 2 or 3 nights in Ramsau am Dachstein. (Everyone has their favorites. The cable car is worth half a day, zip lines, paragliding, etc. Schladming is about 10 minutes away.

If interested, we have photos of all these and more at:

www.flickr.com/photos/pjbassplyr/sets

Paul

Trophywife007

Hi Paul: Thanks for your suggestions; we'll take them to heart and modify our plans. I spent quite some time going over your beautiful photos and am going to look through them again. Thanks for sharing!

We may also be cutting down the time for Bodensee. It looks like there's more to do and see in Austria for now.

Jaye

immimi

Two observations: Hallstatt is a v cute lsmall (note: small) village that I would not want to spend 6 days in esp. if I wanted to tour around the area. It is Honeymoon
Central for Asian newly-weds so there are busloads (bussloads?) of sweet young
things filling up the few restaurants. This was in May last year so I'm pretty sure it
will still be a popular wedding destination next year.

Secondly - Lindau is also a very sweet town that is chock-a-block full of European tourists plus bus tours. When we were there iit was jammed and that was May.

Trophywife007

Hi Immimi: Thanks for your response! Yes, I've come to the conclusion that 6 nights there are too much so we'll be looking for a better, less isolated location as a base for day trips... possibly splitting up those 6 nights between 2 locations.

pja1

Hi again,

Not to push one of our favorites, but Ramsau am Dachstein/Schladming area is beautiful. We stayed at a wonderful B&B called the Pension Haus Maria. Very sweet British couple owns and runs it. Alistair and Denise make their own videos (excellent videos) of attractions in the immediate area and in the Salzkammergut. Maybe you'll get some ideas from them.

www.Pensionhausmaria.com

pja1

Forgot the link to the videos:

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=...JZTcEfwuZNZBU_

Trophywife007

Great videos. Re. the zip line: If one is afraid of heights will it absolutely terrorize them? Mr. 007 is okay on a chairlift and he can sort of tolerate a cable car but we're not certain about the zip line.

Thanks!

pja1

Terrorize, probably not. But if heights are a real problem, best to pass on it.

Trophywife007

Watching the video, it looked doable because they didn't seem to be going that fast. If it, in fact, felt as though one were plummeting, he couldn't do it. In your experience was the speed indicated on the video pretty close to what it actually is?

pja1

The speed isn't too fast. It's hard to judge for someone else. Heights don't bother me, nor does speed. My wife likes neither and would never attempt this. She wasn't crazy about the luge rides (Sommerrodelbahns), which I thought were rather tame. Fun, but nothing scary.