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3 day trip on Salzkammergut

Hello all,
I need a help about my trip on Austria and how is best to organize my trip. I will have 5 days on Austria and I will spend 2 days on vienna and then i will rent a car to travel to hallstatt and stay in the area for 3 days(2 nights). My issue is WHERE to stay for these 3 days so i can see salzkammergut region and make full use of my car for trips?Should I stay on Salzburg and make trips across salzkammergut or to stay somewher to salzkammergut? How you will organize it?

1) 2 days on vienna
2) rent a car to travel hallstatt
3) 3 days on Salzburg or somewhere around salzkammergut

Posted by
226 posts

If you mostly want to see the natural beauty of the region, stay in Hallstatt.

Salzburg is great and worth at least a day on its own...and less than a 1.5 hour drive from Hallstatt and only 30 minutes from St. Gilgen. But if you are focusing on the Salzkammergut region, stay there, not Salzburg.

Melk Abbey is right on your route from Vienna to the Salzkammergut region or Salzburg. Worth at least a quick stop.

Posted by
7908 posts

We like Vienna and love Salzburg! We also stayed one night at Melk and two nights at charming St. Wolfgang on the lake. We would definitely stay at St. Wolfgang again.

Posted by
7908 posts

We have also stayed at Hallstatt during the Rick Steve’s GAS tour. A beauty, but also very crowded.

Posted by
1971 posts

If you want a convenient base from which to travel by car, St. Gilgen is a fabulous, highly scenic village that is easy to Salzburg and the rest of the Salzkammergut. Hallstatt is lovely but a dead end way far from Salzburg - I wouldn't want to drive in and out of there. St. Gilgen is overlooked - most travelers go right past it and you can't see it well from the road, but it is pretty and right on the lake, with good food and hotels. When we were there a major film company was using the main squares as setting for a period drama. Excellent little beach club (strandbad) if you want to relax, swim, have a drink or lunch. St. Wolfgang is a neat spot too, not a mistake to stay there, a little bigger and more capital T touristy. You could also center in Bad Ischl, not on a lake but the regional seat and location of choice for royals. It's a little bigger and an elegant lively town, also quite center in Salzkammergut.

If though you imagine you'll go to Salzburg a few times but don't want to stay in Salzburg St. Gilgen isn't a compromise

Posted by
509 posts

Good advice from Hlaufenberg. Our similar strategy was to stay in the nearby town of Mondsee. Slightly closer to Salzburg, but like St. Gilgen, very convenient to the rest of Salzkammergut. (Once we discovered the Bakeri Obauer in St. Gilgen, it became our favorite spot for breakfast: https://www.obauer-brot.at/ ) I think St. G would be more central for your purposes and, as I recall, slightly more charming than Mondsee. We found a day trip in Hallstatt to be sufficient; an early start had us in the parking lot before most of the crowd arrived. About an hour's drive each way. That said, a night in Hallstatt would be a great antidote to the daytime crowds. (As you approach Hallstatt, keep an eye out for a pull-off area on the left side of the road. Nice long-distance view of the town for your photos.)

Posted by
32382 posts

You may already be aware of this but I wanted to mention it in case you weren't. If driving to Hallstatt, you won't be able to park in the town close to your hotel. There's a car park in Lahn close to the Funicular that goes up to the Salt Mine and it's an easy mostly level walk from there, about 10-15 minutes. This may help - https://www.hallstatt.net/parking-in-hallstatt/cars/ .

It would probably be a good idea to have an International Driver's Permit for Austria. The IDP is used in conjunction with your home DL.

Posted by
1 posts

We have visited the Salzkammergut some 7 times since 2003. We used Bad Ischl as our hub once and the last 6 times we stayed in St Wolfgang. There are several very comfortable hotels and our favorite is the Weisses Roessl (White Horse Inn) http://www.weissesroessl.at/. (There is even an opera and a movie about the Inn). St Wolfgang has a wonderful small-town ambiance and the town band plays in front of the inn each Friday evening. There are several restaurants serving a wide range of fares. I would not suggest Halstadt because, thanks to Rick, the village is absolutely overrun with bands of tourists - but do visit for an hour or two.

St Gilgen as recommended above is also nice but we believe St Wolfgang to be a notch better. Be sure to find your way to one of the smallest lakes in the area - Gosausee with a wonderful path around the little lake and a jaw-dropping view of the snow-covered Dachstein. Have an adult beverage at the little restaurant with a million Euro view there at the lake. Be sure to visit the church in Mondsee which is where Maria was "married" to the Captain in the Sound of Music. Bad Ischl is worth a half-day to explore where Sissi visited each summer. Gmunden on the Traunsee is also well worth a visit. There you can visit a museum centered on Gustav Klimt. He spent his summers there where he painted almost all of his lesser-known outdoor paintings. Also, there is a gondola lift there which takes you to a stop well above the Traunsee with incredible vistas.

I could go on for another 18" of text so I will finish with two more tidbits:
Mozart's sister lived in St Gilgen, and if you look at the beginning of the Sound of Music movie there is a shot taken behind St Gilgen looking out towards Wolfgangsee... folks it don't get no better than the Salzkammergut

Posted by
540 posts

I would spend a couple nights in Hallstatt. It's really a special place and your blood pressure will appreciate it. And there's stuff to do; The Salt Mine w the gondola trip and the bone church renting a boat.

Vienna night time activity; Haus Der Musik empties out in the evenings and it's a really fun museum. Finish the night with dinner at Plachutta's Zur Oper.

Posted by
1 posts

Hallstatt is best visited by train and boat (the boat because the train station is across the lake; timetables are coordinated), as this way you get the best views of the village, don't have to worry about expensive parking and the narrow roads, and you don't pollute the environment. Therefore, Bad Ischl is your best choice to base yourself in. It is a beautiful, historic small town with a wide range of food and accommodation options, and it is where the two main roads of the region meet, and where all the public transport starts and ends (including the train through the region, the bus to Gosau, the bus to Salzburg). Every destination in the region is therefore within an easy distance both with car and public transport. With good reason, the town is labelled the heart of the Salzkammergut. Hallstatt itself is stunning, of course, but it's quite remote and there is not a great deal to do there, so if you want to see other parts of the region I would do Hallstatt as a well-organized day trip. As for the suggested St. Gilgen and St. Wolfgang, well, if you want to visit the actual, historic Salzkammergut (not just the watered down modern take on it) Bad Ischl or Hallstatt (or alternatively Bad Goisern as a cheaper and less touristic option closer to Hallstatt and also on the train line) are your best options. Good luck! I hope you will have a great time.

Posted by
1971 posts

I've stayed in St. Gilgen, St. Wolfgang, Bad Ischl, Hallstat, and Gosausee. All are really great places. I wouldn't at all characterize St. Gilgen as watered down and touristic compared to Bad Ischl. The are both towns with some tourists. What St. Gilgen is is a lake front town, whereas Bad Ischl has no lake. As a lake front town it attract people who want to easily spend some time on the lake, ride the ferry, rent a paddle board, etc, so maybe more relaxed tourism compared to Bad Ischl as a base for more exploring tourism.

St. Wolfgang I will say is a touristy town, but still charming.

Bad Ischl, while not a lake access town, does have the spa, and it does have direct access to very nice hiking. It's a transit hub too. It's a good base for exploring the Salzkammergut without a car. But if I was going to stay in the Salzkammergut with a car, and if I intended to also be travelling to Salzburg a few times, I'd pick St. Gilgen.