July 2020 to Austria, Need information

The best thing would be to focus on Vienna. It depends on the amount of days you actually have to spend whether other destinations are feasible.
A day tour from Vienna to Hallstatt makes no sense, as the travel time would be about 4 hours either way.

I would suggest 2-3 days in Salzburg after your 7 days in Vienna. From Salzburg it is easy to visit Hallstatt.

I just spent 4 days in Vienna with a 1 day side trip to Salzburg.

In Vienna I covered and would recommend:

1) St Stephan's church and catacombs tour.
2) Vienna State opera tour and came back in the evening and did the standing room only opera ticket
3) I purchased the Sissy ticket which provided access to the Schonbrunn palace, Hofburg Palace with access to the apartments and silver collection

I was there for the Christmas markets so spent a lot of time wandering around. Loved how easy the public transportation system was and how pedestrian friendly the city is.

Thank you all for the quick response,
As this is a budget travel, can you please suggest accommodation option in Salsburg,(Airbnb is also OK with us)
As we are pure vegetarian we need to cook basic food such as rice, dal, tea, coffee, noodles etc.
Also Vienna to Salsburg and further Hallstatt we get local transport (Bus, train) ?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2020.

Regards
Bhavesh

I took the train from Vienna to Salzburg. Was about 2.5 hours. You can either book ahead or just pay as you get on the train. There is either OBB or Westbhan as train options. I looked at both and ended up picking the lower cost option.

Is it possible where you live to borrow tour books from a library or buy them with something like Amazon?

Or perhaps download to a Kindle or other e-reader?

There are hundreds of pages written, and you can watch videos on this website and other places. To go into so much detail when we are limited to one thousand characters would be impossible.

So many of your questions would be answered with a good tourbook, and questions you don't yet know you have.

We'll do what we can in the limited space we have.

Congratulations on your daughter's success.

For Salzburg to Hallstatt see:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/austria/salzburg-to-hallstatt-f32a4ee8-03d6-451c-ba64-302fed27dbb5

Thank you Sharon and wmt1

Regards
Bhavesh

Bhavesh,

First of all, welcome to the forum!

As Nigel mentioned, you'll be able to get lots of information from a good guidebook. If you're able to buy them in India, I'd highly recommend the Rick Steves guidebooks. Note that these are also available as E-books in Kindle and other formats. Kindle can be downloaded from Amazon, although I don't know what's available on the Amazon website in your area.

The guidebooks have suggestions for accommodations, although I don't believe those include Air BnB. The books also have lots of information on transportation. In most cases, travel by train is the easiest choice, as it's relatively inexpensive and there are frequent departures. If you haven't travelled by train in Europe before, note that many cities have more than one station so you'll have to know which station you'll be using in each case. Some routes will require a change of trains. Once you've finalized your Itinerary, it will be easier to provide more specific suggestions.

You may find this helpful for vegetarian travel - https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/sleeping-eating/tips-for-vegetarians-in-europe .

As there's lots of time before your trip, you may enjoy watching these.....

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfT7P9Vdq7o
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmgOy9fGHjE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcMS8rsIneY

For the trip from Salzburg to Hallstatt, this video link was shown in a different thread on this forum - https://youtu.be/I5bGZZU2QF4 .

Good luck with your planning!

Thanks Ken for the information.
Will go through youtube links provided by you.

Yes here in India we can purchase kindle, will definately think on this.

Regards
Bhavesh

As we are pure vegetarian we need to cook basic food such as rice, dal, tea, coffee, noodles etc.

As we are both vegans, and were in Salzburg and Vienna this past July, perhaps we can be of some assistance. We always get a place with a kitchen, most often through AirB&B, occasionally a hotel with a modest kitchen. We prefer to do our own cooking, both for dietary and budgetary reasons. We shop at a combination of outdoor markets, mainstream supermarkets, and health/natural foods stores. We pack a modest package of spices, well wrapped so as to prevent the suitcase from smelling like a spice box.

Are you familiar with the Happy Cow website? It is the vegan/vegetarian traveler's good friend. Mostly it's restaurant information, but there are also store options, which is where we usually look for health/natural foods stores. https://www.happycow.net/

If you have any questions that we might be able to answer, please feel free to ask.

Donna

Thank you Donna for the information.
We will definately go through website https://www.happycow.net/.

Thanks and Regards
Bhavesh

We just stayed in a lovely AirBNB that would be perfect for you in Salzburg. It has a full kitchen, washer and dryer in the building, a double bed and then a twin sized bed for your daughter. There are two grocery stores around the corner to the right and then if you go down the hill you will be in town with access to coffee shops and restaurants. We are a family of 3 and it was perfect for us.

https://www.airbnb.com/trips/v1/f6c18dce-afab-4f00-a85c-023120570e62

Getting to Salzburg from Vienna is super easy: you choose either an OBB train or a Westbahn train. They are two train services that are at the same train station. We liked Westbahn because it just seemed easier.

Look up train times from Vienna to Salzburg on the Westbahn website.
Go to the Vien Westbahn train station.
Simply get on to your desired train.
Pay for your tickets with a debit or credit card when you are on board and the ticket person comes around.

Thank you jsrdancer for all the information.

You're welcome! Just make sure you know the difference between OBB and Westbahn:

OBB tickets must be purchased on the app or online or at the train station ahead of time. There is a hefty fine for riding an OBB train with no ticket.

Westbahn - you pay once you are onboard.

You can also buy Westbhan ahead if you wish. You can pay extra to reserve a specific seat. Unless you are travelling at high times, I am not sure that it is worth it.

Ok jsrdancer and Sharon,
Thank you for providing useful information.
For westbhan, what i understood is i can buy tickets in the train ? Pls correct me if i am wrong. And advance ticket for Westbhan canbe booked at ticket counter.

Both OBB and Westbhan is for intercity connectivity ?, i mean from Vienna to Salzburg ?
Regrads
Bhavesh

Westbahn - buy the tickets on their website, in Tabaks (tobacco shops) or on the train. There are no Westbahn ticket counters.

OEBB - buy the tickets on the website or at the ticket counter at the train station. You cannot buy OEBB tickets on the train. If you enter the train without a ticket, you will be fined.

Thank you Emily, understood.