May trip to Austria
 

We are planning a 3 week trip in May spending the first few days in Salzburg and the rest of the trip divided between 3 other smaller towns. Can anyone suggest 3 good bases from which we can rent a house/apartment and do day trips to see beautiful scenery,interesting historical sites etc. We do not want to spend a lot of time in cities and have visited Vienna before.(we will have a car)
Thanks for any advice

I love the Salzkammergut. We are partial to St. Gilgen but St. Wolfgang and Hallstatt are also nice, of course. There are lots of ferienwohnungs (vacation apartments) in the area.

Hall in Tyrol is also a charming little town, near Innsbruck.

And finally we loved our day in the Wachau Valley and I hope to eventually return and spend a few days. Most of the towns are charming and the scenery is quite pretty. Do not miss Melk..the Abbey is spectacular.

Have fun!

Durnstein in the Wachau makes an ideal base to explore this beautiful region.
Numerous apartments at reasonable costs available.


Such visits to be made from here

Melk Abbey

the villages of Spitz, St. Michael , Weissenkirchen Joching,
Pilgrimage town of Maria Taferl

Mauthausen concentration camp.

The small city of Krems wirth many sights to be seen.

Mautern, just across the Danube from Krems withits former roman garrison fort.

Thisis wine country and many heurigers to offer fine food and wine.

Castles

The ruins at Dürnstein-
where King Richard held for ransom

Aggstein - high above the Danube .
A real plus - all of the above within easy driving-Melk to Krems is less than 40 kilometers.

for info
www.duernstein.at
www.wachau.at
www.krems.at

ship tour of the Danube

www.ddsg-blue-danube.at

Vienna - just more than 1 hour by train if you wish a visit.

some nice apartments

Brusbauer

www.brusbauer.at

fine wine tavern there too .

a hidden gem are the 2 renovated aprtments directly on the Danube in Dürnstein- fine river views- a great terrace too.
a small cobble stone walkway to it.

town of Alpbach in the Tirol between Salzburg and Innsbruck a fine base too

www.alpbach.at

no website by it is know as

Maler Winkel Family Bohmer-
good rates too.

Thank you both so much -I am checking out all your great suggestions

You have great advice here.
I would stay in St. Gilgen and Durnstein--hard to beat.

Hall in Tirol IS a lovely place but on our second visit to the area we spent several days on the Achensee and absolutely loved it. We stayed at the Vier Jahrszeiten (Four Seasons) Wellness Hotel in Maurach, but Pertisau is also a great place to stay. There are lots of vacation apartments in this area too.

http://4jahreszeiten.at/
http://alpenrose-pertisau.at/

From Maurach, you are less than half an hour from Innsbruck, Hall in Tirol, and the wonderful town of Rattenberg, along with many other interesting towns.

http://www.achensee.info/en/home?_season=at1
http://www.rattenberg.at/en/home.html

Some of our photos if you are interested:

http://travel.webshots.com/album/561...xDcvw?start=48
http://travel.webshots.com/album/574997901jcmXVZ

If you send an email to [email protected] and ask for information in English, they will send you brochures to help you plan your stay.

Betty, your pictures are gorgeous! I never heard of the achensee before and I had to check it out....beautiful! Austria is one of our favorite countries so I'm going to have to do a bit of research.

Tracy

Tracy, we really enjoyed it because we saw NO Americans at all during the 4 days we were there and only a couple of British tourists. But there was no problem with communication as many people spoke at least some English and were very proud that they did!

There were lots of opportunities for hiking as well as spa treatments, swimming and sight seeing. In Maurach and Pertisau, you can take funiculars up to the top of the mountains for amazing views along with watching the hang gliders.

Hi,

We also like Hall in Tirol. We stayed at the Gasthof Badl in Hall in Tirol on 3 seperate trips.

www.badl.at

A particularly spectacular area we visited last Sept. is the Zillertal, about an hour from Innsbruck/Hall in Tirol. Mayrhofen is the largest town in the valley. Zell am Ziller is a bit smaller and quainter. We loved our stay high above Mayrhofen and the valley in Finkenberg at the Gaestehaus Bergland. Fantastic place in a stunning area. We can't wait to go back! Two great drives in the area are the Gerlos Pass and the Zillertaler Hohenstrasse. This is the most scenic area we've been to in Austria.

www.gaestehaus-bergland.at/en/start.html

http://www.zillertalarena.com/de/are...rt_sommer.html

We have some photo's at:

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

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/travel15.html

Just a suggestion, with that much time, you may want to consider visiting Italy's Dolomite region, which is less than 2 hours from Innsbruck. One of the most beautiful (and unique) area's anywhere. A fantastic mix of charming old towns, cute alpine villages and out of this world scenery. Very Austrian atmosphere, as German is generally the first language spoken in the area. Actually, this part of Italy was a part of Austria until the end of WWI. The town of Tirol/Tirolo, which Austria's Tirol region is named after, is now in Italy.

www.altabadia.it

www.val-gardena.com

Hope this helped.

Hi to betty!

Paul

Paul, you need to go to Achensee! And maybe we will go to the Zillertal.

That's a deal Betty! Now we HAVE to go away again! Funny, the Achensee is another place we've been so close to so many times and haven't been to. Actually, if you haven't been to the Dolomites, take your pick... Zillertal or Dolomites and we'll go to the Achensee. It's on the way from Munich (where we usually fly into/out of) to the Zillertal anyway!

paul

We have been to the Dolomites a couple of times. Once many years ago and again in 1999. Both times we stayed in Bolzano. But it's probably time for another visit before too long. I'd also like to see Castelrotto. I'll definitely reread your trip reports before we go!

Hi Betty,
Just for future reference, to really experience the Dolomites, I wouldn't stay in Castelrotto. It's on the "outskirts" of the actual mountains and lacks the real Dolomite scenery. Val Gardena or Alta Badia (just over the Gardena Pass) is optimum.

Sorry to "hi jack" your post firstlake.

Paul

Thanks, Paul!

Not to worry, I am reading with great interest...

I will second the Wachau valley - it's very beautiful and relaxing. We stayed in the tiny village of Weisenkirchen, and rented bikes off the river barge. The biking trails along the Danube are world famous.

Paul, now you too have me intrigued. "The most scenic area we've been to in Austria"...I have to see for myself! Maybe I'll just take both you and Betty's recommendations and do the Achensee and the Zittertal! Sigh...and just when I thought I had decided on Romania for our next travel destination y'all have to make me second guess myself! ;)

Tracy

LOL! Tracy, I'm afraid there are MANY "most scenic" areas in Austria!

We did take Paul's advice and went to Zell am See and thoroughly loved it. Beautiful scenery!

Sometimes you wonder how one truly beautiful place can be topped by another one, but, in Austria, anything's possible!

Sorry Tracy! Austria simply has tooooo many beautiful areas. So far the Zillertal is tops with us for scenery. I won't even get into the Oetztal right now :)

Oh no....now I have to check out the Oetztal! I have been to the Salzkammergut and Hall/Innsbruck and I loved both areas. I just have a thing for cute little Bavarian-style villages and beautiful mountain scenery. I am seriously reconsidering my vacation plans! I keep trying to tell myself to do something completely different, and I am interested in Romania, but I have a soft spot for Austria and southern Germany and I have been wanting to go to the Dolomites for awhile now and it would be a nice, relaxing trip.

Have either of you been to these areas in May? That's the one thing I am concerned about. We were originally thinking the Dolomites but I was worried about the weather so we decided to look elsewhere. We were in Berchtesgaden and the Salzkammergut in May of 05 and the weather was actually quite beautiful, but we do like to hike and I'm worried about muddy and/or closed trails.

Now I'm daydreaming about apple struedels and chocolate croissants.... ;)

Tracy

Tracy, we were in the Hall in Tirol area in May 2005 and our weather there was fine. You're right, though, that the weather can be iffier in May than September IMO.

We always traveled to Europe in May until 2007 when we made a September trip. The weather still wasn't perfect but we only had a day or two of rain. It was mostly warmer and we still had plenty of daylight.

Talking about weather is there any area in Austria that might be warmer /drier in early May and therefore a good place to visit first? I imagine the higher altitude might be best saved for last.

firstlake, hard to say. The weather is very unpredictable in Europe in general.

We've been in Vienna in May when it was freezing and the next time we were there, also in May, it was very warm. The mountains and higher altitudes will definitely have their own weather influences.

I guess you have to be prepared for just about anything.

Betty... we were in Hall in Tirol (Gasthof Badl) during the last week of April 2005! Must have just missed you.

firstlake... Concerning the weather, it's totally unpredictable. During our only spring trip (last week of April, first week of May 2005) we had just about everything. During our stay in Hall in Tirol, we day tripped to the Stubai valley. Temps were in the high 60's in Hall in Tirol and it was snowing at the end of the Stubai valley. Back into Innsbruck/Hall, back into partly sunny and high 60's. Never can tell. On a whole, the spring trip temps were fine (60's and 70's) but we did experience more cloudy/rainy days as opposed to our many trips in October.

Tracy... We're not hikers, so I can't comment on how trails are in the Dolomites in spring. We were in the Dolomites just once in late April/early May 2005. Unfortunately we had mostly overcast days and one day of rain. Temps were pleasant though.
I guess you'd get more/better info if you posted a question like "May hiking in the Dolomites". Posters like Steve_James seem pretty knowledgeable about hiking the Dolomites.


Paul

Paul, we were at Gasthof Badl on May 12-13! We didn't miss each other by much!

I can't believe I am asking this but...Paul, where in the Oetztal do you recommend basing? And bettyk, I'm still interested in the Achensee as well. Is Pertisau the best place to base? Let's just pretend that I'm going to Austria next May (;))....could I feasibly base myself in one area (say, the Oetztal) and daytrip to the Achensee and/or the Zillertal? From looking at viamichelin.com they don't appear to be that far away from one another.

Firstlake, so sorry to highjack your thread! But who knows...maybe we'll end up in the same places in May!

Tracy

Tracy, we stayed in Maurach at the hotel I mentioned above. It was a bit of a splurge for us but it was very nice. Maurach and Pertisau are both small towns. Pertisau seemed to have a few more tourist shops than Maurach but I didn't feel either were too touristy. I remember that there was a decent sized grocery store in Maurach as well as several nice hotel restaurants nearby.

We didn't venture very far from Maurach on that trip but did end up visiting Rattenberg on our trip last September. Very nice little town that would make for an enjoyable few hours. Lots of great shops and cute cafes as wel as the historical parts of the old town.

It is a great base for day trips as there is alot to see and do within a reasonable distance as you've already noted.

Hi Tracy,

We stayed 4 nights in Soelden in the Oetztal. It's been quite a while since we were there (15 yrs).

www.riml.com/pension-soelden-hermann.php?lang=de

www.soelden.com

www.oetztal.com

Two great drives in the area are the Ötztaler Glacier Road and the Timmelsjoch Pass.

The drive from, say, Soelden (Oetztal) to Mayrhofen (Zillertal) is 2+ hours.

The trip between Achensee and Mayrhofen is about 45 minutes.

We also liked Rattenberg for a couple of hours. I think Betty's been following us! (or vice versa!).

This is just my opinion, but for scenery we still like the Zillertal a little better than the Oetztal. The views from Finkenberg just blew us away. I guess we just need to keep exploring Austria and see what's next!

Paul

Paul, I think YOU'VE been following ME! hehe.

And maybe I'll be following both of you! :)

Paul, I know you've stayed in Ramsau and enjoyed the Berchtesgaden area like I do. How does the Zillertal compare in terms of scenery?

And I know this is subjective, but I personally love German food. Is the food in the Tirol good? Please tell me there are plenty of good bakeries...I'm kind of a pastry junkie! ;)

Tracy

Hi Tracy,

Food and pastry wise, there's little to no difference (IMO) between Bavaria and Austria. Fantastic! How does the scenery compare between the Berchtesgaden area and the Zillertal... Zillertal, no contest. The further into the valley you go, the more dramatic the scenery becomes. The Zillertal valley is only about 45 minutes drive long. From where we stayed in Finkenberg, we were simply surrounded by tall peaks and had the valley (and the town of Mayrhofen) way below. Can't wait to get back. Now you have me thinking, we really weren't planning on traveling this year but...

Paul

Ok - we ARE going to Switzerland/Germany/Austria next May...so I will keep looking around to see if anyone is following us!

We were planning on Salzburg and Hallstatt...now I might have to look into how far Zillertal is...

There is never enough time!

Hey Tracy! It's me under my other name - for some reason swisschocolate wasn't working.

Gina

Thanks Paul! Wow...now I'm definitely interested. Better than B'gaden?!! Sounds absolutely stunning!

Hey Gina! We may be following each other if we end up in the Zillertal! I checked out viamichelin and south of Innsbruck, very near the Italian border.

I can't imagine much more stunning scenery than around Berchtesgaden - the Konigsee, etc. It has to be amazing then.

So Tracy, wll you be travelling with your little ones?

Gina, definitely not! With one baby, maybe, but twins...no thanks! My parents will be coming to stay for a week next year so we can take a vacation together. They offered and I certainly won't refuse! :)

Tracy,

Better than Berchtesgaden... I would say just different ( we love both areas). The scenery is more spectacular though. The mountains are higher and more impressive, plus the towns of Mayrhofen and Zell am Ziller are very charming. Sounds like it may be getting crowded though :)

Paul, I think the secret is now out! You better get there before Gina and Betty and I go and come back and rave about it here on Fodors...it will become the new "it" place to visit!

It's not that nice. Actually, it's mostly industrial parks. ;)

Gina,

The drive from Salzburg to the industrial wasteland,aka the Zillertal, is about 2 hours.

Paul

kidding ;)