we are traveling for 2 weeks.... we are not hikers or need to be in every museum we like to sit have coffee...take in the people and feeling of the city. also dont need to get up at 7am everyday

flying into zurich and drivong to luzern....the next day 2 nights in bernese oberland....do we need 2 nights there?
then driving to lugano / lake como are for 2 nights....
then drive to hall in tirol as a one night stop on the way to vienna. this is our only time near innsbruck and the tyrolean area.
3 nights in vienna

3 nights in salzburg(salzburg festival) and the sound of music tour...also a side trip to hallstatt.....
then to zurich to fly home ....

we have one extra night....should we take a day trip to budapest?

any suggestions on the extra night? or any suggestions on the entire trip? maybe drive thru northern ital to vienna instead of back thru the mountains?

help!
thanks in advance

2 nights in the BO is probably not long enough IMO. We spent 3 nights there and wished we'd had more time and we aren't hikers either. Since we had already been to Jungfrau twice, we went to Schilthorn instead. But you don't want to go unless the weather is good so it's nice to have an alternate day (or two). We also drove around Lake Thun, stopping in Spiez and Thun. Very scenic. You could spend a week or more EASILY in the BO.

Hall in Tirol is small and can be seen in a day if that's all the time you have. We stayed 2 nights and visited Swarovski's Crystal World in nearby Wattens one day.

Hallstatt is definitely worth a visit, but so is Wolfgangsee (St. Gilgen and St. Wolfgang) and any number of other places nearby.

Instead of using that extra day to go to Budapest, I would add it to the BO or Salzburg and then visit Wolfgangsee.

Nice trip but you are going too far. I would skip Vienna in this itinerary---it is a long way. I would add the time to the BO which is easily the best of the Alps.

thanks for your info. can i use salzburg as a base and go to towns in the lake region and stay there an extra day? we do not want to spend the entire trip in the mountains.... should we skip lake como? that might make it easier to get to vienna? or if we skip vienna will the entire trip then be in the mountains?

Skip Vienna. It's too far.

Use Salzburg as your culture fix.
The lakes region around Salzburg is wonderful. I could easily spend 4 nites in St. Gilgen with day trips in 3 directions--to include Hallstatt and Salzburg. That makes a tighter loop--- to Vienna is dead head time.

great ideas betty and bob...... i like the idea of a tighter loop i was worried about how far vienna is ........i could stay in thun or spiez and use that as a base to see bern and other day trips.... but do i want to stay overnight in one of the mountain towns(grindelwald or gimmelwald).
is then staying the first night in luzern too much moving around?
also....could i use salzburg as a base and see
st gilgen and st wolfgang and zell am see?

It's an hour and one half from Salzburg to Zell am See each way, so I think that would be too long for a day trip. However, it's under one hour from St. Gilgen to Salzburg.

I think if you are going to do day trips, you might want to base in St. Gilgen since it is easier to get into and out of and then you can easily do a day trip to Salzburg and a day trip to Hallstatt. There is enough in the immediate area of St. Gilgen to easily fill a couple of days.

This is a partial excerpt from my trip report in Sept. 2007 from our 3-day stay in St. Gilgen at the Schernthaner Hotel Garni:


The Schernthaner is a lovely little hotel only a few steps from the Rathaus in the center of St. Gilgen. We have a good size room with a balcony overlooking the street and a little view of the lake, which is maybe 5-8 minutes from the hotel, for 76E . The owner, Anneliese Eisl, greeted us warmly when we arrived and was very helpful with any questions we had.

We enjoyed a nice lunch at the lakeside Fischer Wirt restaurant and since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to take the Zwölferhorn chairlift which was just a few minutes walk from the hotel. The Zwölferhorn is considered one of the most beautiful lookout mountains in the Salzkammergut with magnificent views over seven lakes (we saw five today) and all the way to the Dachstein. The summit station is at 1476 meters. With discount, the cost for two adults was 33E. Later we had dinner at the Wirt am Gries, a restaurant specializing in local wild game such as deer, wild pigs and pheasant.

The next day, we sailed from St. Gilgen on the popular Wolfgang Amadeus and it took about 30 minutes to get to St. Wolfgang. Wolfgang is a beautiful little village with many more shops and tourists than St. Gilgen. Considering that this was Sunday, just about every shop was open.

We continued walking toward the Bergbahnhof where we would get on our steam train to the top of the Schafberg. We came to the lovely lakeside church which had unbelievable views over the Wolfgangsee. Once we reached the Bergbahnhof, we decided to get a bit of lunch and then we catch the 2 PM train up the mountain. The train ride up to the top of the mountain takes 50 minutes and makes one intermediate stop not far from the top. It is rather bumpy going up but the views are just awesome. Once on top, you have to make your return reservation Since we had over an hour before our return train left, we walked a bit and found a nice wooden bench to sit on while we contemplated the amazing sites before us. The Schafbergbahn is the steepest cog railway in Austria and has been running from St. Wolfgang to Schafberg since 1893. In a little over 45 minutes, it travels 1190 meters of altitude over a track 5.85 km long. On a clear day, you have a 360° panoramic view of the Salzkammergut lakes. Today we saw Wolfgangsee, Mondsee, Attersee and Traunsee. You can also see some of the most majestic mountains in the region including the Höllengebirge, Dachstein, Löser, and the Watzmann. A few clouds started creeping into our very blue skies and the air became chillier. Before long, it was time for us to get in line for our return train, which would be a diesel this trip. We arrived in St. Wolfgang about 15 minutes before our boat departed for St. Gilgen. This time we got to ride on the 1873 Franz Josef I steam paddlewheel boat.

Further to your question about the BO, we stayed in Lauterbrunnen which is not up in the mountains but was a convenient base for us for the trip up to Schilthorn (we drove to Stechelberg where we caught the cable car, etc.) and the drive around Lake Thun. On the way down from Schilthorn, we stopped in Murren for several hours just to walk around.

I love Lucerne, so I can't tell you not to overnight there. I'd probably do the same thing if I had the time.

I agree with bettyk the BO does warrant more than 2 nights. If you want to feel you are in a true Alpine village, try staying in Murren. I highly recommend Hotel Alpenruh which is right next door to the Schilthorn...so it's handy to do the Piz Gloria, Gimmelwald, & Lauterbrunnen. Murren is also convenient for the Jungfrau.

If you stay in Murren, you can't drive there -- no cars allowed. You have to park your car in Lauterbrunnen and ride the cable car up.

what is spiez like? that looks like a great base to see the mountains, and bern...use that as a base for 3 or 4 nights? or thun?

I've been to all the places you describe except Vienna. I think you'd have a much better time traveling by train. Very easy, very relazing. You can take a 45 min bus from Salzburg to St Gilgen. The bus and ferries run between the small towns as well. I like Murren, but I liked staying in Wengen then visiting Murren and Gimmelwald. I would have hated driving to Lugano- traffic was pretty bad in places.

Hi,

Don't know if this is any help but we stayed 4 nights in the BO (Wengen) and could have stayed longer.

We did Zell am See as a day trip from Ramsau (by Berchtesgaden/Salzburg). It is an hour and a half each way but we loved it. The drive was through beautiful Alpine scenery also.

Paul