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Itinerary suggestions for nature lovers (13 day trip)

My wife and I are planning a 13 day trip to Austria for our honeymoon starting October 1st week. We land in and fly back from Munich. We plan on driving down the Romantic road in a day and spending some time in Fussen region (2 days including a visit to the castles), Lech am arlberg (2 days), Innsbruck/Seefeld region (4 days) and end at Salzburg/Halstatt region (4 days).

We really appreciate natural beauty and enjoy scenic walks. We don't enjoy museums too much and therefore are planning on skipping Vienna (and other big cities). Is there any must-do region that we might be excluding from our itinerary? Also considering our tastes, would it makes sense to try to squeeze in a day for Vienna? We will be renting a car and driving through the country.

Posted by
5384 posts

What time of year? This will greatly influence suggestions...

Posted by
12040 posts

What time of year? That makes a big difference. December to March is usually the ski season. Some resort towns have groomed winter walking trails, but most do not. Late October to early Decemeber and April to early June (varies from year to year) are the shoulder seaons when it's generally too wet and cool to hike, but not cold enough yet for skiing. Most of the tourist infrastructure in the mountains usually goes on hiatus during this time. Late June to early October is the usual summer hiking season, with the single best month usually being September. I would not plan an Alps-centered trip during the shoulder seasons. Too low yield for your money and time.

In general, especially if your trip will occur at a time with less consistent weather, buget at least three nights for each Alpine location. If you only give yourself one full day, you risk having that day becoming nothing more than a foggy rain-out. Adding an extra day gives you a better chance of catching at least some of those views that you traveled so far to see. Since the castles are the main attraction in Füssen, though, and your enjoyment of these are far less weather-dependent, I think you can safely give yourself a single full day here. Lech am Arlberg is abosultely stunning, but I would add an extra night, for the same reason.

"We land in and fly back from Munich. We plan on driving down the Romantic road in a day" A couple of points here. One, the Romantic Road is significantly to the west of the Munich airport, and this would be a very indirect route to reach Füssen. Two, the intention of the road is to link together a series of attractive towns, not that the road itself is more scenic than any others in the area. There's nothing really special that you wouldn't see taking the most direct route from the airport. Three, think about the effects of jet lag on your ability to drive. Some people claim that jet lag doesn't affect them, but when they've done experiments on aircraft pilots to test higher level executive functions (like driving a car), their performances and reaction times were little better than that of someone who is legally drunk, no matter how tired they reported feeling. Especially if you've never driven in Europe before, I would spend your first night somewhere in the vicinity before driving a long distance. Since this is your honeymoon, may I suggest the fabulous Therme Erding? They're about to open an on-site hotel. Or if you want to treat the new wifey to a night of luxury, you can't do better than Munich's Hotel Bayerischer Hof (although you could easily do much cheaper!). You can easily reach Munich by train, and after a night of adequate sleep, grab a rental car at the Hauptbahnhof.

I don't think you have time to fit Vienna unless you drop Salzburgerland or Füssen and Lech am Arlberg. Vienna is lovely, but for nature lovers... well, it's a huge city.

Between Füssen and Lindau, plan to make at least a short stop-over at beautiful Lindau on the Bodensee, epsecially if you have a clear day with an unobstructed view of the Alps. Try to time it to coincide with lunch.

Finally, just realize you'll need to purchase a vignette sticker to drive the rental car on the Austrian Autobahn network. If you approach the border on the Autobahn by Bregenz, there's a border station where you can purchase the vignette. I can't remember if there's a border station on A8 (the Autobahn that connects Munich to Salzburg), but if not, you can buy the sticker at petrol stations near the border.

Posted by
527 posts

You have posted the same question on TA and I have given you a response there as well.
Tom has given you great advice and I would heed it. It really depends on what season you are going in.
You only have 13 days and if it were me I would not use up a lot of it by driving, rather I would base myself in just a couple of places and get out there to hike.
Vienna for a day? Forget that, it deserves at least 3 or more.
Totally agree with Tom about adding at least one more day to Lech, it is stunning and has many excellent trails to hike, from beginner to highly advanced. Our first visit to Lech was for 5 days and now we return for 8 more in September.

Posted by
12040 posts

PS- There IS a border station along A8 (drove it today, by coincidence). But as always, this is one of the worst roads of the Autobahn network for congestion and Staus, even though it's also one of the most scenic.

Posted by
154 posts

Tom has given you a very detailed answer and there isn't much to add to that. You already have a pretty full itinerary and they all offer a lot of nature options around each. You can do some great and simple hikes in the Salzburg and Hallstatt areas. Even walking/hiking around Neuschwanstein is very easy and beautiful. If you do try to go towards Vienna you could spend some time in the Wachau Valley but I would only add that if you decide Vienna is important to your trip.

Posted by
868 posts

Sicne you travel by car: from Lech you can do two impressive trips by car. The shorter one, a toll road, is the Silvretta-Hochalpenstraße (Silvretta High Alpine Road), one of the most popular tourist roads of Austria. Here are some impressions: pics. The longer route is a round trips that crosses the Vinschgau in Italy and Switzerland: Landeck - Nauders - Reschensee - Churburg castle - Stilfser Joch/Stelvio - Müstair - Scuol - and back via Landeck. This is a day trip full of highlights. A cool castle, a impressive mountain pass, a Carolingian church (World Heritage Site), a cute Swiss village (Scuols) and a photogenic lake.

Posted by
11 posts

Thanks Tom, Alex, Kevin and Martin! Those are some great suggestions.

Tom, we are definitely planning on spending a relaxed day at Munich before traveling to Fussen (and also enjoy the oktoberfestivities on our day 1). We will now be skipping the romantic drive and might just visit Wieskirche along the way to Fussen.

On the next day though, I am not sure about making the detour to Lech. Not entirely convinced that the natural beauty in Lech will be the same as what we will end up enjoying in the rest of our trip as well (in hallstatt, seefeld and neighboring towns). If we do skip Lech, we could give a couple of days to Vienna and my wife and I are tempted to do so.

Posted by
12040 posts

Lech's pretty stunning... don't discount it.

Posted by
527 posts

Lech is very beautiful and, as Tom has said, is quite stunning indeed. Vienna needs at least 3 full days to even scratch the surface.