My fiancee and I are planning our honeymoon in Austria in early July. We would like to stay in a less touristy town in the mountains for a week and take hiking and bicycling day trips. Any suggested towns/regions? Any great experiences to share?

We also plan to spend 3 days in Vienna. Does anyone know if there's a hotel in Vienna where we can stay and store our bikes while we tour Vienna on foot?

Thanks!!

How about the Salzammergut area near Salzburg?

Even though Hallstatt is "touristy", it won't be a problem if you're out hiking and biking during the day. By the time you return to your hotel, the day-trippers will be gone and the town will be perfect.

About Vienna:
One of the things that surprised us most was all the bike lanes in the city- I don't think you'll have a problem there.

I agree with above, and I would base on the Wolfgangsee perhaps in St. Gilgen. Great location for the hills and Lakes of " Sound of Music" country.

Hello;
First of all. Are you bringing your bikes with you and have you been to Austria before? Let me know, then I can give you some good ideas for a great trip.

If you want an area that allows you to combine hiking and bicycling in a scenic area, I suggest you take a look at the Ötztal, south and west of Innsbruck. The major towns are Sölen and Langenfeld. You can rent an apartment there that is quite satisfactory for less than you can rent a hotel room. We used Haus Michael in Langenfeld-Astlehn. It was the most spacious, well-appointed apartment I have rented in Europe. It had a nice combination living room dining room, a well outfitted kitchen corner, a seprate bed room, and a nice bathroom, plus two balconies that overlooked the mountains.

The floor of the valley is fairly flat and stretches for miles. At the end of the valley, the road ascends steeply to the Timmelsjoch, which leads to Italy.
The south side of the "Joch" is very steep with unlighted tunnels.
The Austrian side is much better engineered.
There is also a Gletscherstrasse that leads up to a glacier where there is year round skiing. That road, too, is somewhat steep. Around Obergürgel there are trails that lead high up into snow country. I think if you want an area where you can ride and walk both, that would be a good setting.
I did not find the area touristy. In fact, if you don't speak a little German you will be at a minor disadvantage.

Many Austrians speak some English, but not all of them are fluent out in the more rural areas. In Vienna and Salzburg, many many people speak good English, but in the smaller towns I found that some knowledge of German was helpful.

At Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, I was amazed at the language bages worn by the guides and information booth staff.
They seemed to have someone around who spoke some subset of about 15 different languages.

We stayed in Bad Ischl and did some cycling from there that wasn't difficult. It is a tourist town but didn't feel 'touristy'

When we went to Vienna, we stored our bikes in the train station at Bad Ischl. We had told the hotel in Vienna that we were cycling and they were disappointed that we didn't have our bikes with us. They had counted on storing them. I think if you tell the hotel you have bikes, they will find a place. I haven't had any problem with a hotel anywhere - including London and Paris.

Thanks so much for all the great suggestions! We are bringing our own bikes so it's wonderful to hear that having them with us shouldn't be a problem. Also, we have never been to Austria before.

If you want one of the best rides in Austria you should consider taking the train(with your bikes) up to Passau or Salzburg and ride back to Vienna along the Danube. It is possibly one of the best rides in Europe! Great paths, plenty of small villages to stop in along the way, many great hiking areas and castles. You can't beat ending a day of riding in this region with a glass of wine from the Wachau valley or some fine Austrian beer. Check my site for a small trip we did in May 01:
http://alexstarke.tripod.com/
Either of the places in Vienna that I have listed on my links page will store your bikes. I'll be doing the Krimml to Vienna route next year, can't wait.
If you have any more questions you can e-mail me through my website. Enjoy!

This is off the Austria topic a bit but would those of you who are bikers please tell me how you go about the logistics of bikes. In France and Germany we've tried rentals and those have been crummy bikes that you wouldn't want to ride for more than an hour or two or totally unavailable even when they were supposedly easily findable. We have thought about bringing our own bikes, but that can be a hassle too since we don't want to do an entire trip on bikes, but rather have them available for use. Now we are actually thinking about buying some folding bikes. How do you transport bikes when flying overseas? While in Europe where do you store whatever it is you shipped your bike in? Do you have any tips? Europe is perfect for biking, but we don't want to take a pricey tour and we are just having problems with the logistics. Thanks.

Julies;
You can break down your own bike and pack it in a bike box (available for free from your local bike shop) if you are a little mechanically inclined it works well. Most airlines will charge, last I checked it was around $175, unless your box comes in under their specs, in which case it will qualify as baggage. You might also consider trying to deal with a bikeshop in the country you are visiting, they may let you purchase a bike from them and then buy it back when you go. Bike boxes or containers can be stored usually if you book your first and last night with your arrival/departure hotel/Inn/B&B; most likely they will store your cases for you if you have that last night booked with them. We rented our bikes from Pedalpower in Vienna; clean, and in top shape 21 speeds, never had a problem with ours (other than a flat or two) Pedalpower is owned by an American ex-pat and a Kiwi partner, they are both great people to work with.

What I did when I lived there was to buy a bicycle and then sell it back to a bicycle shop. I took a 60% loss on it, but I used it for 9 months over cobblestones with barely inflated tires to cushion the shock, which chewed up the tires. I am sure rental cost would have exceeded the difference between what I paid and what I recovered after 9 months of use.

And I got to ride bike better than a rental.

I don't know how viable that type of deal is now, but there was a good market at the time for used bikes. I probably could have advertised and sold it for more, but I did not have the time to negotiate. I needed to unload it and go home. I am sure the bike dealer gave me his bottom price which was to his benefit and my detriment.

Perhaps someone with more recent experience could comment on the feasibility of trying that kind of deal now.

I know some of the rentals I have seen in the mountains of Switzerland looked like real dogs. I looked at a 3 day rental 4 summers ago and decided I would not pay that much to buy the contraption much less rent it.

I took my bike over in a bike box. The best ones used to be from TWA - they were large enough that you didn't even need to remove the wheels.

BIke boxes from the bike shop tend to be small - the bike is broken down as much as possible because shipping on freighters is by volume, not weight so they get it as small as they can.

The airline should be able to provide a box, but you need to start checking in advance because they don't stock many.

Coming back from Europe, I have flown once with a big plastic bag provided by the airline, 3 times totally unboxed, and once boxed with a box provided by the airline at my return airport.

A bent spoke is the only damage I have ever suffered.