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