We will be in Austria traveling by car from Munich to Graz in mid-April. We will need a few days to rest and enjoy nature between visiting relatives. We won't be looking for churches or museums, just beautiful little lake towns. I have considered staying in Hallstatt and using it as a base to visit St. Wolfberg, taking a boat to St. Gilgen, up to Grossglockner, and the Salzkammergut area. We will have three nights and two days in the area. I'm hoping one of you have some recommendations for me as to idyllic accomodations and good restaurants or any other advice you may wish to offer.

Maggi, do a search here for Halstatt, and you will find losts of posts. My recent report is entitled: &quot;Halstatt and Salzburg - Outstanding.&quot;<BR>We loved Halstatt, and envy you with more than 24 hours, we should have scheduled more. The Gruener Baum is about it in Halstatt. And not many choices for dining. But oh my, when the day trippers leave. . . You'd think you are in some fantasy land. Enjoy. It's a place we have on our &quot;go back&quot; list. However, I'm not sure its a good base for such things as Grossglockner. Maybe some others can help.

I too envy your opportunity. That is a fantastic area, but you may be a bit early. It will still be chilly. I would spend a nite in Hallstatt and drive up to the Gosausee, and then I would stay in St. Gilgen to explore the Lakes region. We like the Gasthof Kendler in St. Gilgen, but it is hard to go wrong. Have fun !

Thanks for the good advice Bill and Bob. Just want to find a lakefront room where we can kick back and relax. Too bad we will be there out of season, but our trip was planned around a family party. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Just a word of caution re: restaurants. Austrian towns are the pits when it comes to eating a bit late. When we went to the Salzkammergut in the summer, went down to totally full hotel restaurant at 829pm to be told kitchen closed at 830 so too late - when I pointed out that it had not just turned 830 - sorry too late. So to next restaurant in the village - closed at 830 for last orders. Into Bad Aussee - reasonable size town for area - by this time closer to 9 - all closed, except 1 restaurant, which had run out of food. <BR>Also been told that even significant places like Klagenfurt has same difficulty. Even some places in Vienna surprise me - Friday night at Meinl regarded as one the top 3 luxury restaurants in the city had no orders for hot stuff at 10pm, even though they advertise they are open until midnight.<BR>For beautiful lakes - check out Traunsee - especially Traunkirchen en route (further east than most of the other lakes, so perhaps go for lunch as you move on to Graz).

Yeah, that's a shock to us Americans isn't it? We are so used to getting food whenever we want it. Had the same experience on a six week camping trip in Europe some years ago. Being in transit, we often missed the dining hours and had to rely on the kindness of strangers. In Venice some kind restaurant owners took pity on our teenage boys at 9:00 at night a thawed out some frozen burgers for us. After a harrowing border crossing from Czechoslovakia into Germany the chef actually prepared our food for us alone and sat and chatted with us while we ate. Thanks for the advice on Traunsee - I will definitely look into it.

It's always a good idea to travel with some munchies and maybe canned tuna, peanut butter &amp; crackers, etc., for eating at odd hours. When we were in Hallstatt last May, we noticed the only grocery store in town had closed at Noon on Wednesday!

Not American actually - Oz but lots of time in UK (and now in Vienna), and while UK's customer service has improved immeasurably I am afraid my experience in the past 18 mths here and more so in previous 18 mths in Munich is that service on quite basic things is abominable. Sure everyone can give examples of all countries - we had just awful service in Miami's Delanos hotel and London transport will give plenty of examples of all levels of staff requiring voodoo doll creations so we can poke needles in them, but some times things here astonish me. e.g show up at Bad Aussee at 12.30pm to find the towns tourist office is closed from 12 to 4. The other great thing is showing up to stores, especially on Saturday,up to an hour before their advertised closing time to find that they shut up shop - it was quiet, so lets stuff up potential customers!

<BR><BR>Maggi,<BR><BR>try this one:<BR><BR>http://www.fuerberg.at/_frs/en_start.html<BR><BR>

Thanks for tip, Jochim. Looks like a pretty area, I will check it out!

For the lakes area I loved the Villa Langer on the Attersee, at the edge of the mountains. It's the biggest lake with the cleanest water, and there's a very exciting gorge nearby: the Burggrabenklamm. And the villa is a beautiful country home of a friendly aristocratic family, with huge olde-worlde rooms. It's more of a &quot;discovery&quot; than Traunkirchen St Gilgen etc<BR>I've led many hiking and cultural trips in the area so know it well.<BR><BR>www.villalanger.at