lake region-austria
 

having a hard time locating a nice hotel in the lake region(salzkammergut)...the castle in Fuschl is out of my price range...

Nana, what is your definition of "nice"? Do you want 4* or 3*? In the meantime, I can make several recommendations.

In St. Gilgen, we stayed at the Hotel Schernthaner. Not fancy but very nice, clean room with balcony and a great location. Good breakfast and friendly owners. They have parking and an elevator.

http://www.hotel-schernthaner.at/sei.../anreise_e.htm

We didn't stay here, but the Hotel Radetsky in St. Gilgen looked very nice and was well located.

http://www.hotelradetzky.at/seiten_englisch/welcome.htm

Another place recommended here on Fodor's, also in St. Gilgen:

http://www.ferstl.at/seiten_englisch...n_wohnen_e.htm

If you are interested in staying in Hallstatt, you might be interested in the Hotel Zauner, a nice rustic property with some rooms having lake views. Their restaurant is one of the best in Hallstatt.

http://www.zauner.hallstatt.net/

The Seehotel Gruner Baum in Hallstatt is right on the lake and several rooms have a lovely balcony overlooking the lake.

http://www.gruenerbaum.cc/?cid=1

Oh Betty, we had made up our minds to go with your suggestion of Hotel Schernthaner and now here are two more lovely places! Decisions, decisions.

We stayed at the Gasthaus Furberg across the lake from St. Gilgen. It was totally quiet, incredible meals, gorgous peaceful lake views. We had the room on the third floor which was huge with the views of the turquoise lake all around. We stopped at the Parkhotel Billroth for drinks on the terrace. It was a little more upscale and traditional, but very nice.

We spent 3 nights at Pension Sarstein in Hallstatt in mid-May of this year and could not have been happier with our choice. The accomodations were immaculate but simple, breakfast was fantastic, the owners are among the kindest and most helpful we've found anywhere, and the views of the lake from our balcony were unbelievable. And the price - 60€ for a double room.
We debated long and hard about staying in St. Gilgen but eventually decided to save it for a future trip (hopefully in 2010). For this trip, remote Hallstatt was perfect for us

This is where we stayed a couple of years ago www.fuerberg.at

It was beautiful, I don't think it was very expensive