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.