What is the best route to travel to Grossglockner.

I will be in Salzbury and would pick up a rental car. Can this be done in 1 day ? Need help finding the best route.

Try mappy.com or viamichelin.com for route information.

The most direct route is to take the autobahn south from Salzburg to exit 46. Turn west there toward Bishofshofen. Continue westward toward Zell am See. Turn south where the signs point toward the Grossglockner Hochalpenstraßse.

Be sure to have change for the tolls along this route. Any other way is slower.

Do you want to make a return the same day? I suggest staying one night in Heiligenblut which is a charming little village at the southern end of the road over the mountains. There is also the Hohe Tauren National Park at the western end of a branch road that is well worth visiting.

Bob,
I already have hotel reservation (priceline) in Salzburg. It will be a day trip base in Salzbury. I would like to start early in the morning and return in the evening. I was hoping using a different return route. Suggestions ?

The shortest way back is to use the same way you came, over the Grossglockner. But that is quite a bit of mountain driving.

From Heiligenblut at the southern end of the toll road, there are limited choices.

I drove this way once:
From Heiligenblut south to Winklern, which is a tiny place.
From Winklern drive east through Obervellach toward Spittal.

Northwest of Spittal a branch of the autobahn is joins the road near a hamlet called Lendorf.

You pick up the autobahn north to Salzburg at exit/junction 130.

It will take you longer and that route is not much cheaper because you have several long tunnels which were toll tunnels the time I drove it. You will have an opportunity to see more of Karnten, but it is mostly mountains and little villages.

You could do it in one day. To give you a comparison, one morning we left Längenfeld in the Ötztal, which is west and south of Innsbruck, drove over the Donner Pass to Italy, turned off the main route in northern Italy, and drove through Lienz to Heiligenblut. From Heiligenblut we drove over the Grossglockner to Salzburg. The sun was setting as we found our pension, and it was a longish day. The car we had was a diesel Opel Astra with little acceleration.

Sure you don't want to visit Hallstadt, Mondsee, and St. Gilgen instead?

You have raised one question I do not know the answer to. If you enter the Grossglockner toll road at the north end, and retrace your steps and exit at the north end, without passing through the toll booth at the south end, what are the toll charges?

Any way you do it, there will be toll charges.

After thinking about your plans a little more, I checked MaqQuest.
It says that the driving time to Heiligenblut over the Grossglockner Hochalpenstraße is a little over 2 hours.

I am sure that does not include stopping at the overlooks and other attractions on the Grossglockner road.

I do think you could do the trip easily in one day and have ample time to enjoy the views and go to the visitor center at the viewpoint over the glacier in the Hohe Tauren park.

The Grossglockner High Alpine Road is for me a special treat because the scenery is spectacular.

It is not like it is my first mountain drive, either!! We have driven the passes in Switzerland as well. Even so, this particular road is a little special.

To handle it takes good tires and good brakes. It also takes a driver who is not afraid of mountain roads or bothered by heights.

If you are comfortable with an 8 to 10 hour day, there are several extensions I could suggest.

Let me know and I will pursue this a little further for you.

Thank you Bob. I will study and mapped you instructions.

I have 3 days in Salzbury and intend to spent I day in Hallstadt, Mondsee, and St. Gilgen.

Do you habve a route suggestion for that ?

Mondsee and St. Gilgen are lake towns east of Salzburg. They are not very far away at all.

Monsee is very close to exit 265 off of the autobahn from Salzburg to Vienna.

St. Gilgen is south of Mondsee on another lake - St. Wolfgangsee.

Hallstatt is farther along.
I have never driven there, but from the map it looks like you drop south from St. Gilgen to the road that leads eastward to Bad Ischel.

From Bad Ischel you head south, taking the road to the east side of the lake to finally reach Hallstatt.

I suggest a good map for these drives. The one to Hallstatt looks tricky.

One thing you learn in Europe is that you must know the names of the towns. I don't expect to find posted route numbers like in the United States and Canada. What I expect to see is a sign pointing to the next town.

brookwood...Thank you for the suggestions. I plan to visit the Lake area on one of the days while in Salzburg.

Hi ba739,
We did the drive from Ramsau through Salzburg to Hallstatt in about and hour and a half. You'll pass St. Gilgen on the way to Hallstatt from either Mondsee or Salzburg. Check:

www.viamichelin.com


Paul

When in Mondsee, visit the church that was the scene of the wedding in Sound of Music. The church is beautiful inside. I recall the tour bus had to park outside of town and we walked to the restaurants and other shopping places.

I might add that the tour was very bad. I recall it being Grey Line, but that may be incorrect. So I don't get all starry-eyed when someone says Sound of Music tour.

For me the 3 activities I enjoyed most was the Marionetten Theater, Schloss Hellbrun, and the Festung high up on the hill.

Thank you for all the input. I am working on the best deal on renting car. Would I get a better deal at the airport ?

I don't know about the best deal.
Best deal and Austria are almost an oxymoron! There are so many taxes slapped on rentals that it is fierce.

I would check several places, like Sixt and Europcar as well as Auto Europe.

Depends. Some rental car companies or consolidators like AutoEurope charge an airport (and station) fee, others do not. Easiest way to find out is to use the web for quotes from a downtown and airport location for the same dates and car, respectively.
Salzburg airport is not far from the city, but unless you get a better deal there, any downtown location would be faster to reach.

With regard to costs for Großglockner toll road.
The road toll is whopping €28.

But: That fee is not only for single use, but a DAY pass, meaning that you can go south from Salzburg via Bischofshofen and Bruck (as bob_brown explained), drive the Großglockner road all the way to Heiligenblut, and return same way without paying extra.

If you took the loop going East from Heiligenblut until you hit A10 autobahn at Spittal, and take that route north back to Salzburg, you will pay an additional €9.50 for the Tauern tunnel.

Cowboy1968,

Thank you for the suggestion, I am going to take your suggestion to go East from Heiligenblut until you hit A10 autobahn at Spittal,and then back to Salzburg. I might even spent a night in Heiligenblut.

The best deal I got for car rental is through Budget 2 days for €92. The car is a VW POLO or similar. Will this car able to handle the Grossglockner Highway ?

You folks have lots of great info. I appreciated your help.

I once had a VW Rabbit which was the precursor, almost, of the Polo. If you got a 5 speed manual, it should be ok. I drove over it in an Opel Astra Diesel, so I am sure the Polo can handle it.

You will have to downshift quite a bit both up and down grade.

When I was about half way down I stopped at an overlook and I could smell the brakes. I waited a few more minutes before continuing.

I think for the downhill sections, you need a manual shift so that you can use third gear, or even second, to get some braking help out of the engine. Most automatics do not do as good a job in that respect.

Besides with that little 4 cylinder engine, the automatics present the engine with considerable overhead.

The only automatic I took over the mountains was an Opel Vectra.
It was ok except we had to ride the brakes a lot coming down from Zinal to the Valley of the Rhone.

Hi,
VW Polo (or similar) is fine. We drove the Grossglockner 2 years ago in an Opel Meriva 1.4 litre car. We spent a night in Heiligenblut at the Pension Ederhof and can highly recommend it.

www.ederhof-heiligenblut.at

If interested, our pic's are at:

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/travel11.html

Paul

You can drive the Großglockner in ANY car. The road is being used for alpine rallyes with historic cars almost 100 years old because there are no really steep grades. Your 2008 Polo will have no problems, besides some loss of power in those sections in higher elevations of the road.

People who are totally unfamiliar with mountain driving and who only drive automatic usually make the mistake to stay on the brake all the time going downhill. Brake, release, brake. Brake before you go through a curve, and not in the curve. Besides that, you don't need no real skills to drive the road.

Have fun!