Hi folks,

with our trip to austria only 2 months away [hooray!] I'd like to get it as finalised as possible. but I'm a bit confused about how much time we should spend where.

this is what we've got so far

Day 1 – Fri19th Leave home at 7am, Check in @ Bristol by 10.30, flight leaves at 11.30, arrives Bratislava 14.55. Taxi to hotel
Check in Marrol’s hotel [€150/ double room including breakfast] [1 night]
tour old Bratislava. [castle stays open to 8pm, so that's lucky].

Day 2 –Sat 20th Hydrofoil to Vienna, leaving midday. looks like a 10 minute walk down to hydrofoil station. ? need to book in advance?

arrive Vienna [4 nights] Stay hotel Austria [€144 /night]
looks like a 5 minute walk from the hydrofoil terminal.


Day 3- Sun 21st Vienna
Day 4 –Mon 22nd Vienna. Staatsoper Aida. ? time.
Day 5 – Tues 23rd Vienna
Day 6 – Wed 24th Check out . Pick up hire car. [probably at city airport terminal. about 10 minute walk from hotel].

Leave Vienna and drive along Danube to Salzkammergut area.
Check-in Gaestehaus Buchinger, St. Wolfgang. €30 pppn. [4 nights]

Day 7 – Thurs 25th St. Wolfgang
Day 8 – Fri 26th St. Wolfgang
Day 9 – Sat 27th St. Wolfgang

Day 10 – Sun 28th Leave St. Wolfgang. Drive to Kitzbuhel.
check into Pension Hinterseer. €45 pppn. [2 nights]
Day 11 – Mon 29th Kitzbuhel

Day 12 – Tues 30th Leave Kitzbuhel. 3 nights free .
Day 13 – Wed 1st
Day 14 - Thurs 2nd

Day 15 - Fri 3rd Drive to Vienna and return hire car to Vienna airport. Take airport bus to Bratislava airport. [leaves every 30 mins on the hour, takes one hour].
Check in Bratislava airport 14.20, flight leaves 15.20, arrives 16.55.

my main queries are these:

do we want to spend another night in St. Wolfgang? we have 3 full days there and hope to do walking, biking, going up cable cars, boat trips, etc, but also to eplore the area - like Hallstatt for example. is this long enough?

After Kitbuhel, wohin? I'm thinking Grossglockener pass, Lienz, Villach, Klagenfurt, finding our accommodation as we go, and finally Graz on the last night, so we have an easy 125 miles drive back to Vienna on our last day.

are 3 days enough for this? or , if we take another night for st. Wolfgang, would two be insufficient? should we book these three nights in advance or in early July can we play it by ear?

is St. wolfgang the best choice of base for the salzkammergut?

decision, decisions.

thanks in advance for any help,

regards, ann

Nice trip--sounds like fun. I prefer to stay in St. Gilgen only because it is closer to Salzburg. I would spend 4 nites on the lake and spend one day in Salzburg--easy bus ride from St. Gilgen--and another day trip to Hallstatt and Gosausee. Have you seen the fabulous pics from Bettyk and her hubby?

I agree with Bob on St. Gilgen. St. Wolfgang is larger and has many more shops (and tourists). We really liked the feel of St. Gilgen and the cable car to Zwoelferhorn Mtn. is located there.

However, the steam train to Schafberg is in St. Wolfgang. We took a wonderful boat ride from St. Gilgen to St. Wolfgang and then walked to the Bergbahnhof.

We spent 4 nights in St. Gilgen at the Hotel Schernthaner (http://www.hotel-schernthaner.at/sei...sh/index_e.htm) and loved every minute of it. We never ventured further than St. Wolfgang because we have spent a lot of time in Hallstatt and surrounds on previous trips.

There is much to do in this area and you could spend a week and never get bored. Even Berchtesgaden is only an hour away and, as Bob says, Salzburg and Hallstatt are also nearby.

http://www.tiscover.at/at/guide/5011...,at1/home.html

http://www.wolfgangsee.at/en/4-05-1-...lugsziele.html

You may want to think about booking accommodation before you go as this is a very popular area in the summer. I'm sure you'd be able to find something upon arrival, but the pickings may be slim and you'd be wasting precious vacation time.

I also can't argue with a visit to Klagenfurt and Graz. It's been many years since I was there, but I remember each very fondly.

If you ARE interested in my trip reports and photos, you can click on my name and find them. There are a couple on Germany and Austria. St. Wolfgang was on our last trip in Sept 2007. Hallstatt would be in previous reports.

It's a beautiful country -- one of my favorites.

I think I've posted before that I've read that you get no view from the boat between Bratislava and Vienna, and will be better off on the train.

I really liked the Grossglockner road, and also Krimml waterfall, which is a short drive the other way from Zell-am-See, which I liked as a base. Liked Graz, see if you can find the deli with great open-faced sandwiches for lunch in the town center.

Here's a link to the photos from our 2005 Germany-Austria trip:

http://travel.webshots.com/album/354616542PMkPVQ

The 2007 trip photos are here:

http://travel.webshots.com/album/561038806XxDcvw

thanks everyone, especailly bettyk for the blinks to your report. I did read it when we were looking at which country to visit, but I realise I may have missed some of the detail. the photos are gorgeous - thank you.

all our accommodation is booked, apart from the last 3 nights. we are torn between extending our stay in the Salzkammergut by a day, and leaving ourselves some flexibility at the end. as there are only two of us, we should find somewhere to stay, but are pondering whether we are selling ourselves short in st. Wolfgang.

we decided on there because of its proximity to the bergbahn, and the fact that it is the most south-facing of the lake resorts so we hope that swimming in the lake at the end of a hot days sightseeing may be possible. [the place we have booked advertises direct access to the lake shore and swimming and boating]. it is also slightly out of town, has parking, and is next to a boat station so I'm hoping that it has the best of both worlds - or possbily, it may fall between two stools!

incidentally, we are not bothered about visiting Salzburg on this trip - we have been in the winter a couple of times, and I went three summers ago on a choir trip to the area. DH has opined that after 4 nights in Vienna, he wil have had enough of big towns for a while, and as I'm getting Vienna at last, I'm happy to go along with him. and we can always change our minds when we get there.

but I had not appreciated the proximity to Berchtesgarten, which I have always wanted to visit. did you go to the salt mines and the Dachstein caves, betty?

thursdaysd - you're absolutely right - you did say that before. and I accept that you may well be correct about the relative merits of the boat v the train. but DH likes boats, and out hotel choices [seem to] make it relatively easy to love between the two cities. [LOL - i meant "move", i think].
Graz is penciled in for our last night, so we may not be there for lunch! any dinne recommendations?

regards, ann

We visited the salt mine in Hallstatt but have not visited the Dachstein caves.

But Berchtesgaden offers boat trips on Koenigsee, the Jennerbahn and, of course, the Eagle's Nest and Documentation Center. And the town itself is attractive with shops and restaurants. There's plenty there to do for a couple of days.

We spent 3 nights in Berchtesgaden and then moved on to St. Gilgen for 4 nights.

You'll enjoy St. Wolgang just fine. The whole area is lovely.

thanks bettyk,

would it be worthwhile to go to Berchtesgarten for a day trip?

and would you, if you were us, extend our stay in st. wolfgang by another night?

regards, ann

Hi Ann,

Do try to fit in the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse. Beautiful drive. We did it from the Berchtesgaden area and stayed overnight in the very picturesque village of Heiligenblut at the southern end of the road.

Zell am See is a beautiful place (and area) as well.

If you're interested in some more pic's:

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

or another trip report or two:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...nd-austria.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ith-photos.cfm

Hope this helps. Austria (and Bavaria) is beautiful!!!

Paul

You could do a day trip to Berchtesgden, but it would be a 2 hr drive round trip. If it were me, I'd just overnight there.

If that's not an attractive option, then, sure, just do the day trip since it's a place you really want to visit.

And I certainly don't feel that 4 nights in St. Wolfgang is too long, especially if you do a day trip to Hallstatt or Berchtesgaden or any one of the many lovely little towns in the area.

http://www.salzkammergut.at/

Hi ann - I don't really have a dinner rec for Graz, only a place to avoid - Altsteirische Schmankerlstube.

Also, don't know if you took another look at my TR: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ria-venice.cfm and pix: http://kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/264391 (at the end) and http://kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/419378

hi paul,

I'd got the grossglockner on my radar, though I wasn't sure whether to do it as a day trip, as part of our return journey back to Vienna. I'm interested in what you say about Heiligenblut - where did you stay?

Bettyk - my question was not so much whether 4 nights in St. wolfgang was too long, but whether it is too short. i reckon that we need a minimum of 2 nights to return comfortably to Vienna, and see some places en route, and at the moment we have three.

the question which is exercising us is whether to spend one extra night at St. wolfgang, OR one at Kitzbuhel, OR to use all three for the return trip. if we plump for the latter, we will probably wing it. but if we wanted to extend our stay in St. W or K'buhel, we'd need to book it now. Hence my quandry!

thursdays - I remember reading your TR, but appreciate teh link to it to refresh my memeory. thanks.

regards, ann

Hi Ann,

We stayed at the Pension Ederhof in Heiligenblut (we'd stay there again in a minute!).

www.ederhof-heiligenblut.at

Very nice place a few minutes drive from the village of Heiligenblut. The scenery from here is gorgeous!

www.heiligenblut.at

A few of our photo's from here:

www.worldisround.com/articles/324599/index.html

Paul

Ann, sorry if I misread your post. I know I could spend a week on Wolfgangsee and never get bored because there is so much to do in the surrounding area.

The Salzkammergut is so beautiful, I could stay there forever if I could afford it!

However, I haven't yet been to Kitzbuehl, so I can't compare the two areas.

I don't know that you can go wrong, no matter what you decide.

hi, paul

that was quick. it looks ideal for an ovenight stop, or even longer. I've sent off an enquiry to them via your link so we'll see if they can fit us in before we make any changes to our plans.

Bettyk - no need to apologise. I'm being greedy - i want to be able to see lots, but stay put as well. Doing just what I advise other people against.

I think I need to research the route to see how long it should take - though the via michelin site is far lsee useful than it used to be, IMO.

thanks again for all the help,

regards, ann

hi paul again,

would you think that Heilgenblut is worth staying two nights?

I was thinking we could use the 2nd day to do some walking in the area, [which we don't know at all] relax etc. before making our way back. and it's cheap - €23 pppn! which wil offset some of our extravagance earlier in the trip.

according to Via michelin, it's about 300kms from Heiligenblut to Graz, which they say should take about 5 hours, whcih seems quite a long time to me. Anyone ever driven this route?

the alternative is to split that drive in two, and stay the 2nd night somewhere like Klagenfurt. but that get's very bitty - I don't really like one-night stands!

regards, ann

Hi Ann,

We're sorry we didn't have another night to stay in Heiligenblut. Such a beautiful area. If you're interested, Lienz, Austria is about 40 minutes from here also.

If staying at the Ederhof, ask for a Grossglockner Panorama room if it's available. So worth the extra 2 or 3 Euro per person per night to have a view of the Grossglockner from your balcony.


Paul

thanks Paul,

I think that we've decided to do just that.

regards, ann