10 day itinerary Budapest, Vienna,Hallstatt,Innsbruck in May
 

Dear All,

We are a couple and are planning a 10 day trip (Departure day excluded) in May 2019 to Austria/ Europe. We have seen Salzburgearlier and are now planning to do the following - Budapest, Vienna, Hallstatt & Innsbruck. I have the following questions and will be thankful for suggestions please :

1) Is this a good itinerary...seeing the places on the map, we plan to do the trip in the same order...Budapest, Vienna, Hallstatt & Innsbruck. Is there anything that we can add.

2) How many days in each destination will be sufficient

3) We plan this time to do a backpacking trip and stay in Hostels. Would request recommendations of some good clean lively hostels in these places.

4) We will travel internally by Trains

5) We love Culture, History, Heritage, love to explore local cuisine...and love to do free walking tours. We also love to visit pubs/ taverns which the locals frequent.

Thanks & Regards,
Nitish

These are all lovely locations and I can easily understand why you want to see them -- but are you sure you can see and do what you want in all these locations in the same 10 day itinerary? I wouldn't be able to -- for example, i wanted 5 full days for Vienna and at least 3 or 4 days for Budapest -- but your interests could easily be different than mine. If you haven't already done so, you night want to plot the things you most want to see in each location on a calendar. Then pencil in your transportation, add some time on either side (forgetting to/from your lodging, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting lost/oriented, etc.). Then see how things fit together.

Hope that helps!

I agree that it will be a very rushed trip to include all of that. In your time frame you'd have a nice trip with just Vienna and Budapest and perhaps day trips near them.

Hallstatt is quite a ways from Vienna, will take much of a day. I have to say that it's one of the very few disappointments I've had in over 30 trips to Europe. Not that it's not a lovely little village, but it's waaaay over rated . And way crowded. Apparently it became so popular with Chinese that someone built a full scale replica town in China which only served to make it even more popular. And when I was there it was very crowded. If you do go, plan to arrive mid to late afternoon and leave mid morning the next day. If you also included Innsbrook and that was your end point where would you fly out of - you'd need more travel (versus 'being there' time) to get to a city with a major airport.

I would do Budapest and Vienna with either a stop over (one or two nights) or a day trip to Bratislava. That would make a good trip for your time frame. If you still feel you needed something more, a day trip (or overnight) in the Wachu Valley would be good.

Well for trains booking early can save lots of euros - book yourselves online at Austrian railways site - great insights on doing that are found at www.seat61.com - great train info - BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com. Don't add anything as you already figuring in transit have little time in each place now.

Basically, you need to return to your travel drawing board. At the end of the day, unless you have identified what are the most important sights in each of your destinations, many responses on your post will fall into the following categories:

Some will suggest that you consult guide books and return when you are further enlightened.

Some will write that you need a "minimum of X days" to enjoy a destination. Others will write that you need less/more days to enjoy your holiday. There will usually follow a discussion about said "days" necessary.

Some will copy and paste links to train schedules to assist you in traveling from A to B.

If you are fortunate, some posters will actually offer their experiences on traveling your itinerary.

It is a fact that there is enough to see in and around Vienna to keep someone happily occupied for the full ten days.

It is a fact that there is enough to see in and around Budapest to keep someone happily occupied for at least a week.

More facts: That someone is me, whether it is the OP can only be determined by the OP figuring out what they want to see.

I have traveled from Vienna to Hallstatt. It currently takes over three hours with at least one change at a rather bleak station, after which you take a ferry across the lake. That gives you part of the afternoon and the next morning to explore, which is probably enough given what I am reading about the current crowds. (It was not especially crowded when I was there.) Have no idea whether there is a hostel.

I like Innsbruck, but it is perhaps best used as a base for exploring the surrounding area.

If you go here and put Vienna, etc., in the search box, you will find my reports:
https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com/

<<Hallstatt quite a ways from Vienna, will take much of a day. I have to say that it's one of the very few disappointments I've had in over 30 trips to Europe. Not that it's not a lovely little village, but it's waaaay over rated . And way crowded.>>

Thank you Isabel! I felt the same way when we visited this past December. Pretty yes, but worth the time and effort to get there? Not-so-much IMO. And don't get me started on the droves of selfie-snapping Chinese.

I suppose one option instead of Hallstatt could be Zell-am-See. It's much bigger than Hallstatt, but it's on a lake, it's a good base for the Krimml waterfall and the Grossglockner road. When I was there back in 2006 there were a fair number of tourists, but they seemed to be mostly European families.

I have no first hand experience with Zell-am-See, but I suspect it's changed a bit since 2006:

https://www.theguardian.com/artandde...ot-in-pictures

Hallstatt is just over 3 hours from Vienna by train - instead of going to Innsbruck just head to Salzburg- nicer town and lots of mountain excursions. If must return to Budapest or Vienna for flight home Innsbruck is a much longer way away. Salburg is just over an hour from Munich Airport by train too.

@Melnq8 - wow! Somewhere else I'm glad I already visited!

I based in Zell once a few years before melnq8 and like it a lot - especially the Krimml Bahn that climbs into the Alps lovely flat walks around the lake Lots of tourists but mainly European. Gorgeous vistas all around. Train station in heart of town.

https://www.google.com/search?q=zell...w=1280&bih=625

Yes. You absolutely can do it and do not need to go back to the drawing board IF this type of trip suits you. And, that is all that matters. It appears you are a seasoned traveler, so only you know for sure.

We have done a lot of fast-paced trips, but some very slow ones as well. In 2015, we took my wife’s sister on a 30-day tour of Europe that we blogged about: https://16countriesin30days.wordpress.com

We saw and did a lot and for my sister-in-law it was her trip of a lifetime.

In the 10 days you have, we covered ALL of the places you list plus Brussels, Bruges and Salzburg. And, we make no claims that we saw everything, but we had full and great days each day.

In Budapest we had the benefit of friends from Serbia show us around, although we had been before; in Vienna, we visited two palaces, saw the renowned Klimt paintings and went to a performance at the Spanish Riding School. Hallstatt was a day trip in an October sleet storm (and we still loved it!); and Innsbruck, which we had been to previously, was mostly an overnight stay.

This past fall we took the scenic railroad from Salzburg on a repeat trip to Hallstatt for a day trip, and enjoyed the funicular ride to the world’s oldest (and still operating) salt mine. The tour of the mine was memorable for us and our daughter. The views of Hallstatt from the lake are incredible; they are even greater from above. The Hallstatt portion of our most recent trip is Day 8: https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...esome-1659589/

A trip such as this, and even the one this past fall, were fast-paced, required a lot of daily walking, and we travel with only carry-on luggage. We get up early and stay out late. if this sounds like you, this can be an incredible trip.

I always suggest that you google one day, two days and three days for each location and see what others suggest you can do within these time frames. Once you determine how many days you might require in each location, add that number of days to travel times and you will see what can be done. If it were me, I would probably split up my time: Budapest 3 nights; Vienna 3 nights, Hallstatt 2 nights; Innsbruck 2 nights. (You don't need more than a day in Hallstatt, but I am factoring in some travel time there (a good half day from Vienna).

Pal - As I said, I have no first hand experience with Zell-Am-See. I've only seen it from a train.

If you have not had enough of the Austrian Baroque I would suggest a stop in Wilhering:
The outside of the convent church does not look like much:
but the inside is overwhileming: