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First trip to Austria in Sept 2025

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I have saved for the past 6 years for a trip to Austria. Please take a look at my itinerary and provide any help or recommendations. All recommendations are welcomed!! Thank you!!

Days 1-3: Vienna (Arrival)

Days 4-5: Salzburg

Days 6-7: Hallstatt

Days 8-9: Munich

Day 10: Fly Back Home

Let me know your thoughts

Posted by
3275 posts

How many nights will you be in Europe?
Vienna deserves a minimum of five nights that includes a day trip to Bratislava's old town by direct train (1h). Allow two nights for Salzburg, Hallstatt, and Munich. After your first night in Munich take a direct train to Dachau (15m).

Posted by
2685 posts

Presumably you have a plan for what you want to see in each location, and are using public transportation.

I would move Hallstatt berween Vienna and Salzburg, and only stay 1 night. Hallstatt is beautiful, but there's not much to do there.

Posted by
2690 posts

I would add more time to Salzburg and possibly Munich instead of Hallstatt.

Posted by
539 posts

Hallstatt is very pretty and its popularity is well deserved. As someone mentioned, there's not a ton of stuff to do. You can rent a boat, you can walk around town up to the bone chapel, you can go up the gondola, and you can tour the very cool salt mine. That's a very crowded day or, as you have it a couple of chill days. Nothing wrong either way. Hallstatt is a victim of its awesomeness as it's become very popular. This has caused some friction with locals and in September, you'll see a lot of tour busses and RS guidebooks.

Vienna is fine for 3 days IMO. There's plenty more to see, but it's also a place that you can easily come back to.

Salzburg is a good 2 day destination but there's a lot of cool stuff nearby that would add to that. You have Berchtesgaden and the various Nazi sites along with a (less cool, IMO) salt mine tour, you have Konigsee and the Jennerbahn, you have hiking and biking and just the really beautiful scenery. That's just the stuff towards Germany.

Munich is a good 2-3 day destination. Again, like Vienna there's a lot more to see but you can easily come back.

In general, my biggest advice is to add 4 more days to your trip. You'll have a better, less rushed, less jet laggy trip and you'll amortize the expensive airfare over more days. Even if it's unpaid time off, I'd still do it; especially since you guys don't sound like you travel overseas that often. That gives you another day in Munich, another couple days in Salzburg and another day in Vienna.

Posted by
3459 posts

I suggested dropping Hallstatt simply because you don't have a lot of time. Vienna is my favorite city in Europe, so far - if you like art, walking, and food - it's hard to beat Vienna.

As others have mentioned (I've never been there), Hallstatt is very pretty, but crowded, and there's not a lot to do.

Posted by
20458 posts

I got talked into going to Hallstatt Sept 10 and 11 this year. The town wasn't crowded at all, the weather was great. It was beautiful. Had a great time. Much less impressed with Salzburg. I was expecting more.

mikliz97, what didn't you like when you went to Hallstatt?

Posted by
4894 posts

Nothing wrong with this plan, unless you want to flip the order of,Hallstatt and Salzburg.

You DON’T have a lot of time but you can get a feel for the cities with this time frame. Munich is the one I haven’t been to yet, but your path makes sense and I would include it (flying into Vienna and out of Munich) were I doing this sort of trip. I like all the others.

You can tell that we are all individual in what we enjoy. Some love Vienna - I like it and would never tell someone not to go, but I also would never spend 5 days there. Lol. I enjoyed Hallstatt and an overnight there gives you the opportunity to see it without crowds. Could you use more time in the other 3? Sure! But if you don’t have time, this will work.

Posted by
1225 posts

If you insist on going to Hallstatt, please at least also visit one of the scenic towns on the Traunsee such as Gmunden and Traunkirchen.

Hallstatt is ridiculously expensive, one must use cash nearly everywhere, it's crowded with (primarily) Chinese and American tourists and it's not as scenic as the Traunsee. The food is what you'd expect in a place where fleecing the tourists is the primary competitive sport. And getting there is a pain in the (ahem) neck.

Or such was my reaction to the place. Lots of folks apparently like it.

Posted by
704 posts

I got talked into going to Hallstatt Sept 10 and 11 this year.

When did Hallstatt get moved to Hungary? Just kidding Mr E. Love your unabashed enthusiasm for Budapest!!!

Posted by
704 posts

drewd,

To those of us who plan our trips in weeks rather than days, this seems a little rushed. Add a half day for travel, hotel check-in, etc. and you are really getting just a day and a half in most of your stops.

May I assume you are flying home from Munich. Otherwise you have a long trip back to Vienna on day 9.

Posted by
20458 posts

jkh,

My S.O. wanted to leave Hungary and visit Hallstatt. After all the negative input on the forum I really didn’t want to do it. But what choice does a guy have. So I thought to add Salzburg to the trip so maybe we would enjoy something.

Turned out the forum was wrong in the concept that Hallstatt is ALWAYS too crowded. Wasn’t crowded as all. Same time of year as the OP's planned visit - September Downright beautiful place too.

I got us a room on the square, top floor with a balcony that you could see the mountains and lake from. Really, really nice. The Salt Mine and the funicular up was sort of corny tourist fun. Enjoyed it. The views from up there, spectacular. The town itself was lovely. Sure, its a Disneyland, but so is Prague Old Town or Vienna inside the loop; so what?

Salzburg was the disappointment of the trip. Pure tourism, crowded, nothing terribly impressive. But very, very "nice" for maybe two full days.

The S.O. wants to return in the Spring. Well isn’t that just great. But a few times a year there is a special train that runs once or twice a year that does a trip to Graz from Budapest .... direct on the UNESCO Semmering line without going to Vienna. If i can find a way from Graz to Hallstatt, then it might be a fun trip.

jkh, yes I love my Budapest. But its not for everyone. And I do still travel. The past 16 months, Australia and Bosnia and Germany and Litchenstein and Slovakia and Romania and Malta. Returnig to Germany for Christmas (my son is stationed there) and have one other country in January (also a Christmas trip). Then here till a spring fishing trip someplace.

jphbucks

Hallstatt is ridiculously expensive,

Austria is ridiculously expensive. So?

one must use cash nearly everywhere,

I think most tourists can deal with that. but the heads up makes that easier.

it's crowded with (primarily) Chinese and American tourists

and your point? You would prefer French tourists? Do you have a problem sharing a town with Asians?

The food is what you'd expect in a place where fleecing the tourists
is the primary competitive sport.

i found the food very good, but you do sort of have to do the research and know where to go.

And getting there is a pain in the (ahem) neck.

Trains I guess are difficult for some. The boat ride was sort of sweet though.

TexasTravelMom.

Vienna is really worth seeing. I could easily spend 3 full days there .... then want out in the worst way. Beautiful though but I have a limit on how much dead stuff under glass I can take. And the cost has gone a bit nutz.

Posted by
20458 posts

drewd,

For my attention span this works

Days 1 Arrive Vienna
Day 2 Vienna
Day 3 Vienna
Day 4 Morning Train to Hallstatt
Day 5 Hallstatt
Day 6 Morning train to Salzburg. Not sure about this. I ended up using https://daytrip.com/ transfer service. Not cheap but the drive was really nice and the views good and they offer some interesting stops along the way.
Day 7 Salzburg
Day 8 Late train to Munich
Day 9 Munich
Day 10 Fly Home

EDIT: Now if you are going to Hallstatt and Salzburg as a way of filling 10 days because you really want to see Vienna, then you dont have to color within the lines. You could to Vienna and Bratislava and a day trip to Melk, with a lot less travel time. You could do Vienna and Budapest for two completely different experiences in two of Europe's greatest cities and have no more travel time than going to Hallstatt from Vienna and save on the train/travel time reaching Salzburg and Munich ..... and save a bunch of money in the process (or have a nicer experience with the money you save). Example: most of the 4 star hotels in Vienna mentioned in the forum are $300 and up. Those mentioned in the forum in Budapest are $150 and up. A 3 star in a really great location here is under $75. I mention all of this because you have been saving for 6 years for this trip, which means to me that you havent traveled to Europe a lot and maybe hadnt thought about the options. But your plan listed is good too. Just throwing out ideas.

Posted by
2260 posts

If i can find a way from Graz to Hallstatt, then it might be a fun trip.

Pretty simple. Take an EC/IC train from Graz to Stainach-Irdning, change to REX70 train for going to Hallstatt. Total time 2:46 hours.

Posted by
20458 posts

Yea, 2:46 with a 4 minute change. No thanks. But no other options. And:

Timetable 2025
Graz Hbf - Salzburg Hbf
Due to the flooding, the planning for local, regional and long-distance passenger rail services for the 2025 timetable year has not yet been fully completed.
It is therefore possible that as of 15th December 2024, connections may change again. Connections might be cancelled, additional ones may be added and departure or arrival times may still change

But the MAV Semmering Express train to Graz looks like so great that I will keep working this till I figure something out.

Posted by
2260 posts

Yea, 2:46 with a 4 minute change. No thanks. But no other options.

You don't trust OeBB, do you? :-)
I guess that the regional train will wait for the EC/IC train. To be sure, inform the conductor that you need the connection.

It is therefore possible that as of 15th December 2024, connections may change again. ...

Yesterday (December 15th) the yearly coordinated time table change of all European train operators happened. Therefore the information given by online time tables is definite now.

Posted by
2260 posts

I dont trust myself for a 4 minute change.

It is just the other side of the platform.

Posted by
2603 posts

I’d do Hallstatt as a day trip from Salzburg so you don’t have to have another hotel change. I love Hallstatt. I ran across my favorite photo today that I took there early one morning - lake, boat, church, mountain and fog.

Two things I like to do in Salzburg - Salt mine tour in Hallein and Ice Cave in Wefen

Posted by
1 posts

We just got back from trip to Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Paris. We had the luxury of time to spend in each city. IMHO, given your timeframe and that there is so much to do in each city, perhaps focus on the cities and branch out on future trips. We made a few nice discoveries, Cafe Ritter in Vienna, Krimpelstatter in Salzburg. We always go to Andechs when in Munich (discovered via Rick Steves travel book). Again IMHO and perhaps stating the obvious.....you will want to pick and choose the venues to visit in each city. Check on advanced tickets, especially if there are timed entry tickets. English was spoken widespread in each of our cities, but I recommend getting a German phrase book (Rick Steves' is excellent). Just a few phrases really helps break the ice. If you have an unlocked mobile phone, we used Drei (Austrian cell provider) for an up3 esim. Got it before departure, activated on arrival, worked fine in all our locations. Cheaper than our US provider international plan. have a great trip!

Posted by
15020 posts

Given your narrow time constraint, I would suggest skipping Hallstatt and add that time to Vienna, far more worth it as respects to valuable time.