DH and I visited Hallstatt for a day on our family trip last June and found the area beautiful. We are planning to stay there for 2.5 days, 3 nights on our upcoming trip in mid-May. Recently I've come across several posts from Fodorites whom I respect highly, and they recommend St. Gilgen as a better base for the Salzkammergut region.

I'm certainly open to staying elsewhere and am hoping to discover why St. Gilgen makes a better base. It looks like a larger town but as if it still small enough to retain character and charm. Accurate?

Hello Aggie, I suspect you mean me, among others.
Hallstatt is magical but rather remote. I assume you will want a day trip into Salzburg which can be done by car or train in :30 from St. Gilgen. It is just better located. Spend one of your days going to Hallsatt--it is worth a day. But, the Wolfgangsee area is a base location for all of the Salzkammergut including Berchesgarten in one direction, Salzburg in another, and Hallstatt in the other. Email me for some pics of St. Gilgen, which is still small and quaint. BettyK also has a great photo gallery.

Hi bob,
Yep, you and bettyk are the two posters who I was referring to You both are wonderful sources of info on the area, and many others, so I pay attention when you guys have a strong opinion.
We will be visiting Salzburg for a couple nights at the end of the trip and were there last year for 3 days, so we actually will not be daytripping there during our time in the Salzkammergut. Our plans were to spend the 2.5 days entirely in the Salkammergut area. There were enough remaining things we wanted to see in Hallstatt to fill 1 full day but we would definitely we wanting to explore other lakes/villages for the other day and a half. That noted, it does sound like St. Gilgen is a better base?

Oh, what a dilemma! If you had asked me this question before September when we spent 3 wonderful days on Wolfgangsee, I would have definitely said Hallstatt. We fell in love with Hallstatt on our first trip there in 1999 and have been back 3 or 4 times since. But last year, we decided it was time to branch out and be adventurous so we stayed in St. Gilgen.

From St. Gilgen, you can take the boat to St. Wolfgang, a lovely little town for wandering and shopping. Then take the steam train up to Schafberg for the most amazing views over the Salzkammergut. I checked my trip report notes and found the following:

We sailed on the popular Wolfgang Amadeus and it took about 30 minutes to get to St. Wolfgang. Wolfgang is a beautiful little village with many more shops and tourists than St. Gilgen. Considering that this was Sunday, just about every shop was open. We walked toward the Bergbahnhof where we would get on our steam train to the top of the Schafberg. We came to the lovely lakeside church which had unbelievable views over the Wolfgangsee. Once we reached the Bergbahnhof, we decided to get a bit of lunch then we took the 2 PM train up the mountain. The train ride up to the top of the mountain takes 50 minutes and makes one intermediate stop not far from the top. It is rather bumpy going up but the views are just awesome. Once on top, you have to make your return reservation right away and since the next train at 3:10 was already full, we had to wait until 4:10 to get back to St. Wolfgang where we would catch the last boat to St. Gilgen at 5:08 PM. Since we had over an hour before our train left, we walked a bit and found a nice wooden bench to sit on while we contemplated the amazing sites before us. The Schafbergbahn is the steepest cog railway in Austria and has been running from St. Wolfgang to Schafberg since 1893. In a little over 45 minutes, it travels 1190 meters of altitude over a track 5.85 km long. On a clear day, you have a 360° panoramic view of the Salzkammergut lakes. Today we saw Wolfgangsee, Mondsee, Attersee and Traunsee. You can also see some of the most majestic mountains in the region including the Höllengebirge, Dachstein, Löser, and the Watzmann. A few clouds started creeping into our very blue skies and the air became chillier. Before long, it was time for us to get in line for our return train, which would be a diesel this trip. We arrived in St. Wolfgang about 15 minutes before our boat departed for St. Gilgen. This time we got to ride on the 1873 Franz Josef I steam paddlewheel boat.


Just reading that makes me yearn to go back.

I might add one other thing. While St. Wolfgang was larger and had more going on that St. Gilgen, we were glad that we had not stayed in St. Wolfgang. We liked the fact that St. Gilgen was smaller and quieter yet there were still souvenir shops, grocery stores, good restaurants, etc.

We also took a fiaker ride in St. Gilgen on our last day. In retrospect, we should have done it on our first day but we thoroughly enjoyed the ride and the driver! We'd never ridden in a fiaker before but thought St. Gilgen the perfect place for our inaugural ride!

Bookmarking - I have been following your posts TexasAggie as we are planning a trip around the same areas for May 2009. I hope you do a trip report!
This also answers one of the questions I have about where to stay in the Salzkammergut, I was leaning towards St Gilgen.
Best wishes for a wonderful trip.

Hi TexasAggie,

As you know, we just looooved Hallstatt and spent 3 nights there this past fall. We found plenty to do in that time and they also had an octoberfest going on which added to the excitement and beauty.

We also saw St Gilgen and frankly we were disappointed by it as I had heard great things about it. There is really no comparison between the two in my mind, with Hallstatt being the MUCH more beautiful and charming one.

That said, I understand where the other posters are coming from and perhaps it will better meet your needs. I just thought I would give another perspective.

We found Hallstatt to be one of the prettiest places in Europe, so if it was me, i would stay the whole time in Hallstatt. It is rare to have the opportunity to soak up this kind of beauty.

You will have a wonderful time no matter what you decide!

Not only is St Wolfgang a lovely little town, the local pharmacist stocked a (non prescription) magic potion (herbal I assume) for hayfever when I was there in the late spring of 1986 and suffering terribly with swollen eyes. Almost instantaneous relief after a few drops on the tongue - it sure beat anything I've had from Big Pharma. Regret I didn't keep the small bottle it came in.

Hallstatt has a more spectacular setting than the Wolfgangsee towns/ villages, but was very quiet when I was there. Others may have a view on the merits of using Bad Ischl, midway between those, as a base (with easy bus connections to the Wolfgangsee, train to the Traunsee, & etc).

Hi TA,

>Our plans were to spend the 2.5 days entirely in the Salkammergut area.

You might find my trip report useful.

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=35014078

Hallstatt IS one of the most beautiful places we've ever been. If you just want to stay in Hallstatt and soak up the beauty, I agree, and would have no problem with that. But the OP has been to Hallstatt.

I just feel that St. Gilgen is a good BASE for spending a few days in the area. I think if you look at our photos, you can't possibly think that St. Gilgen and Wolfgangsee would be disappointing.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/561...XxDcvw?start=0

Hi Everyone,

Thank you all so much for the input! I actually escaped the office early last night and was so happily surprised to discover all this feedback and information this morning. I appreciate it all greatly. I'll be looking over everything for the next couple days and will let you all know what we end up choosing

Beautiful photo's Betty, well done!

Thanks, Maudi. It was an amazing trip!

Betty, if I may hijack TesasAggie's post, can you please give me a link to your trip report? I thought I had saved it but now can't find it.
I have clicked on your name but you have soooo many posts it will take me ages. Thanks so much

LOL! Yes, Maudie, here's the link to the 2007 trip report:

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=35079647

Thanks Betty, that's great and will give me some reading to do as we celebrate our Australia Day long weekend.

Wonderful trip report betty! I read it previously and just printed it to read again this weekend Your pictures are lovely as well.

After a lot of back-and-forth, I've decided to go ahead and stay in Hallstatt for the 3 nights... but drive to St. Gilgen for one day and see the town and take the boat across the Wolfgangsee to St. Wolfgang. Perhaps it is just the time of year (we are both accountants in the midst of busy seasons that will stretch to almost the beginning of out trip), but the idea of spending a couple very lazy, very slow days in the middle of our 16-day trip sounds very appealing. We love Austria, so if we fall in love with St. Gilgen during our day there... well we will just have to stay there on the next trip!

Thank you ALL for your input, your links, your photos, and your advice. I appreciate it all very much. Even though we won't be staying in St. Gilgen, I was able to get so much information on what to see and do when we visit.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! - Jill

Aggie, you can't go wrong either way. Hallstatt is a perfect place for a relaxing couple of days and you'll enjoy your outing to Wolfgangsee as well.

Thanks betty!
And ira, I just perused your trip report again as well. Your memory for detail is truly amazing and your wit makes the report such a fun read.

Thank you for the kind words, TA