Driving tour from Zurich to Vienna
 

Hello!
I´m planning a trip for next May and i´m thinking in driving from Zurich to Vienna.
The idea is to stay some days in Zurich, then drive to Innsbruck via Liechtenstein, stay some days in Innsbruck, drive to Salzburg, stay some days there and finally drive to Vienna where i will return the car.

How many days do you recommend to spend in each city? From salzburg i would like to go to Hallstat and i would like to drive the Grosslockner road.

Any sugestions for my itinerary???

Thanks in advance!!

The itinerary is fine - but Halstatt is a detour and the Grossglockner area an even longer detour. If you do it with yourown car I do not see major problems, but if you are hiring a car consider that returning it in a different country often involves an hefty fee. You may consider doing the first stretch by train and renting the car in Bregenz or Dornbirn.

Liechtenstein is not particularly interesting - a small patch of land between river Rhein and a mountain, so dropping it to save on the car hire would not be a big loss. International trains between Switzerland and Austria run anyway in Liechtenstein for a short stretch without stopping, so you can claim having been through the country (almost the whole lenght!) anyway.

Do not get the car until Innsbruck to avoid a large drop charge ----probably 500E or more.

Cars and cities don't mix - just hire a car for the bit you want to drive on fun little roads to pretty villages, around the countryside. Use a train if you just want to get between cities. And yes, avoid car hire where you cross borders.

Use www.oebb.at to book Zurich-Innsbruck from 19 euros with print-at-home tickets.

I read that the route between Liechtenstein and Innsbruck is between mountains and very scenery, do you think is not worth it?

My idea is to stay in Salzburg some days and do day trips from there (to Hallstat, to Grosslockner, etc)

Why is so expensive returning in another country???

Usually it is expensive to return the car in a different country as somebody has to drive the car back to its home country.

The road between Liechtenstein and Innsbruck is scenic and pleasant - but not incredibly so. I assume you will be driving the Arlberg tunnel, the Arlberg pass would be much more scenic but much longer and difficult to drive. The train follows the very same route of the motorway in the same landscape.

The advice to get the car in Innsbruck is a sensible one. But if you absolutely want to drive rent in Bregenz or Dornbirn as I suggested.

And what do you think about changing Zurich for Munich in the itinerary?

How many nights do you have to spend on this trip?

For most of the places on your list, flying into Munich makes the most sense. Innsbruck is maybe 2 hours from Munich. Salzburg the same. Hallstatt is about 1:30 from Salzburg. The Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse is about the same, 1:30, from Salzburg.

If you plan to fly to Zurich, see the alps here before heading anywhere else. Think Lucerne and the Berner Oberland in particular.

CQ

The itinerary i was thinking is the next:

Madrid: 4 nights
Barcelona: 5 nights
Munich or Zurich: 3 nights. Here i will rent a car.
Innsbruck: 2 nights
Salzburg: 5 nights (Visiting from here Hallstat, Werfen, Grossglockner, etc)
Vienna: 5 nights. Here i will return the car.