Need suggestions for small Austrian towns
 

I've traveled a lot around Austria and I like the smaller villages. For my next trip, I would appreciate any suggestions from travelers who have found one or two of their favorite villages.

Our two favorite villages in Austria are Seckau and Grunau. Seckau is in the Steiermark countryside about an hour north of Graz (www.seckau.at). We stay at the Hofwirt Hotel, www.hofwirt.at Great hiking in the mountains about 40 minutes away. The village itself is one of those "chocolate box" villages that has no tourist sites to speak of, other than the working monastery in the village and a museum dedicated to the classic VW Beetle in nearby Gaal (summer week-ends draw VW Beetle owners and fans from all over central Europe; you can also go grass skiing in Gaal, quite challenging) but is a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the scenery and good food. There's a lake for swimming, tennis courts, a little Internet cafe, an excellent pastry shop/cafe and the Hofwirt restaurant serves excellent food.
Grunau (Gruenau) is not too far from Salzburg and an alternative to the Hallstadt tourist crush. Has a very atmospheric hotel, the Almtalhof (www.almtalhof.at) that also has a good restaurant. Grunau is another one of those places perfect for relaxing and walking and taking in the beautiful scenery and fresh air.

Roschitz: A small village in wine country perhaps 60 miles NW of Vienna.
Wonderful pension, with atrium courtyard, 3 room apartment for 1 room price, good food nearby. If interested, will supply name.

The Ötztal, west and south of Innsbruck has many neat little towns plus some gorgeous scenery in the Austrian Alps.
Sölden is one of them, Längenfeld another. I rented a very nice apartment in a village next to Längenfeld for a week and enjoyed driving around that area.

Another is Heiligenblut mainly because of its location at the base of the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse and the Hohe Tauren National Park. The Hochalpenstrasse is a very spectacular mountain drive.

Lienz is south of there, and the Dolomites are not far away at all.

Although I'm NOT a seasoned Austrian traveler, my husband and I went once and stayed in Schladming, about an hour from Salzburg. We enjoyed it immensely! So charming and picturesque...we met an English couple who had vacationed there in Schladming 11 summers in a row, so they obviously found it special, too.

Thanks ever so much to those who shared their favorites. When you have been to Austria and visited those smaller villages, you want to keep finding more. Now I have more to add to my list. Thanks again.

When we lived in Vienna, we made several trips to Mariazell, south of St. Polten, between Annaberg and Kapfenberg. There is a beautiful Basilica there dating from the 12th century where Pope John Paul had mass back in the early 80's. Also, the surrounding area is very scenic.

http://www.tiscover.at/at/guide/5528...,at2/home.html

Any more suggestions to add since 7 years have passed since this last post. We're heading to Austria in early summer.Thanks

Anyone?

Hi
The best small town I could recommend in Austria is Melk. On the Danube in the Wachau region. we were there many years ago and the Melk Abbey is one of the most magnificant sights, especially at night I can recall. The abbey was built in the early 18th century by the Benedictine monks. we stayed overnight in the town of Melk.

Thanks Alan, I'll look at my map to find Melk.

Agree with Alan43 about Melk Abbey... truly magnificent!

Mondsee, Hall in Tyrol, Zell am See, St. Gilgen, St. Wolfgang, Hallstatt

We too like the towns along the Danube in the Wachau Valley. Melk was nice (the abbey is stunning) but as far as the town is concerned I don't remember it being anything special, so we just ate lunch and left. We prefer the town of Durnstein, just down the river. There are other little towns nearby. We caught the boat in Spitz and it too was nice.

A lovely village, near Melk called Durnstein. . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/melk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/durnstein

Durnstein! That's the name of the town I was trying to remember!

Thank-you Joannyc and Iris. tcreath-did the boat in Spitz take you to another town or was it a scenic ride roundtrip?

FACS, there are boats that go up and down this section of the river. What we did was drive the car to Krems, where we picked up bikes. We spent the next three hours or so biking down the river, stopping in various towns along the way. When we got to Spitz we hopped on the boat with our bikes and road back to Krems, where we picked up the car. It was a great day! If you just want to enjoy the boat ride (the valley is absolutely gorgeous) you can certainly do so. Check out http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/desti...chauvalley.htm for more information and boat websites.

Tracy

while we were trying out our hire car on the night before we were leaving vienna, we came across the wine village south of Vienna called "Gumpoldskirchen". despite biblical quantities of rain we really liked it, and when we had an unexpected chance to stay there towards the end of our stay, we jumped at it and loved being there - the fact that they were having a wine festival there might have helped!

although it's not a village as such, we also liked Baden, a large town a bit further south still of Vienna.

if others hadn't mentioned them, I'd also have plugged Krems, Und, und Melk. [the joke is that the village between Krems and Melk is called "und" which means "and"].

Another vote for Durnstein! A lovely location and interesting history.

Near Innsbruck, I had good visits to two towns w/ good train access (on a non-driving trip): Mutters (unique memory of being there on All Saints' Eve, when the village cemetery was lit with candles) and Seefeld-in-Tirol - certainly a busy place during ski season, but nice when it's not too busy. I was there when the cows were being herded through town enroute to different pastures. Fun!

Also enjoyed overnights in Igls and in St Anton.

There is another town I am forgetting the name of...will do some brain searching and see if I can remember!

Agree with Joannyc in regards to Hallstadt. WE were there four years ago, went on the salt mine tour, rented a canoe and spent the day on the lake, did a lot of hiking. Loved the scenery, the quante town, and the history.

Regarding Hallstatt... I didn't think the museum was going to be anything exciting but was pleasantly surprised to see items dating back to the 7-8th century BC! Well preserved due to the salt! And, have to admit, that I thought the Bone Chapel was pretty cool.

It was 26 years ago, but I remember Mauterndorff as a sweet little town with a lovely hotel/spa servicing Austrians. A castle down the way, built in the 500s as I recall. I remember taking a walk by myself and feeling like I had landed IN the Sound of Music. There were the Alps, covered in buttercups, and a gentleman with leiderhosen tending his flock. Magical and beautiful and unforgettable.

1500s. Typo. Hotel Elizabeth.

Tracy,Ann,Joan,arizonaa,Colleen and Annabelle...thank-you very much,now I need to map this out! Hopefully we won't have to dodge the rain like last summer....counting the days! Deladeb/FACS

St Wolfgang and St Gilgen in the Lake district near Salzburg. So charming.

Hopefully we won't have to dodge the rain like last summer..>>

don't know about dodging the rain - I learnt soooo many German words for flooded. I also hope that you don't suffer that way this year.

Gina - we were in St. Wolfgang during dire weather last June - it wasn't charming then, it was dead. in bad weather I'd opt for somewhere bigger.

The town of Melk is not really interesting , but the Abbey a " must see" and just a very short 5 minutes from the A-1 autobahn

www.stiftmelk.at

some other interseting places throughout <austria

not far from Vienna

Rust on the Neusiedlersee-

famous for wine , the lake and its storks that return each year to nest

www.rust.at

Rertz
about 1 hour northwest of Vienna - off the beaten tourist track - a fine old town square of fine architecture- underground a huge series of kellers to age wine

www.retz.at

www.retz-weinstadt.at


Kremsmunster

old Churches, castles , monastery

www.kremsmunster.at

Grein - on the Danube - beautiful views interesting castles and small museum.

www.grein.at

Alpbach- voted the most beautiful village in Austria-

fine old wooden architecture of tthe Tirol- beutiful flowers at most every house - great mountain views

www.alpbach.at

Ginzling

hidden in a narrow valley interesting way to it via a narrow one way tunnel

- best known to hikers and climbers- beautiful mountain scenery - lakes nearby - edge of the Zillertal Nature Park to insure beauty .

www.ginzling.at

Eisenstadt-east of Vienna maybe 70 miles, has a summer palace of the Esterhazy royalty, and the home and studio of Haydn, with the originals of some of his works, his piano, and an interesting 8-man music stand.

Gina, Molker, tomboy thank-you for the suggestions!

Without a doubt, go to Hainburg (an Donau). As the name suggests it is right on the Danube, and is absolutely lovely. It was a walled city, with the Wiener Tor and the Unger Tor still standing, very much a part of daily life. Many beautiful little coffee houses, bakeries etc etc. A great city for walking, lots of view points. My Mother's family lives there, no-one seems inclined to move and I can understand why.
A bit less than an hour from Vienna by commuter train, and a very short drive to Petronell/Carnuntum where you can see the Roman ruins and stand where the Christians stood awaiting their fate in the lion's den.

If you do end up in Tyrol, we stayed 5 years ago in an adorable small town called Stumm. It's in the Zillertal (valley) with lots of opportunities to hike, take cablcars up mountains, etc.

Besides this being a cute small town, we LOVED the place where we stayed and ate some of the best food (prepared by the husband chef) ever (anywhere!):
http://www.landgasthof-linde.at/en/index.html

Way back in 1992 (!!!), we drove through Austria following a book called "Exploring Rural Austria" by Gretel Beer. I'm sure it's out-of-print now, but it's a fantastic wandering through small towns of Austria....I highly recommend it (although the actual hotels mentioned are not going to be current). I have written in my copy of the book, loaned it out to others (and made sure I got it back) and don't plan to ever part with it.

Gute Reise!

Actually, I just doublechecked Amazon, and "Exploring Rural Austria" is still available, in case you are interested.

http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Rura...537869&sr=1-10

Another vote for Retz (not Rertz). It also was the setting for an Austrian television series, "Julia - Eine ungewöhnliche Frau" aired from 1999 to about 2004 - the star was IMO like an Austrian Angela Lansbury and the show attracted the same kind of viewers who enjoyed Murder, She Wrote. Although it was a family drama rather than a cheesy murder mystery show. I think it's still shown in syndication on various German language channels.
You can see some of Retz in this clip of the show's opener:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq7Hfc5K-sw
Pretty countryside, a nice place to rent a bike and cycle around.