Our first visit to Austria

You leave the impression that you aren't using a guidebook - many of your basic questions would be addressed by the Rick Steves Vienna, Salzburg & Tirol guidebook. Transportation is always an area of focus in his books.

There is no question that you should use public transport, both between and within the cities.

You need to investigate thoroughly the best public transport connections. I guess you underestimate the time needed to go from one place to the next. Except for going to Berchtesgaden from Salzburg, all other transfers are about 3 to 4 hours, i.e., you loose half a day.

Salzburg and Berchtesgaden are about an hour, maybe less, from one another. You could base in one for 4 nights and visit the other from that base. We’ve gone to dinner and a stroll afterwards a few times in Salzburg from our base by Berchtesgaden.

We initially contacted a tour company agent who helped come up with this itinerary, but communication was not great, so we chose to move on. Now Rick's Vienna guidebook is our guide, but we are looking for, and appreciate, all the help and guidance we can get to make this a memorable experience.

First of all, it is a non-issue that you do not speak German. Everywhere you are going, you will do fine with English.

As already suggested, I think it makes sense to combine some of nights. But my first question is why Grundlsee and why only for one night? It is quite out of the way and you would have a similar lake experience in Berchtesgaden - or visit Wolfgangsee from Salzburg. I would skip Grundlsee and merge the nights in Salzburg and Berchtesgaden together as well as add a night to Vienna. I think you underestimate the hassle of checking in and out of hotels and the time that you lose.

So something like this:

Day 1 - arrive, night in Vienna
Day 2 - day in Vienna, night in Vienna
Day 3 - day in Vienna, night in Vienna
Day 4 - travel to Salzburg, night in Salzburg
Day 5 - day in region, night in Salzburg (note that Berchtesgaden and Wolfgangsee are easy to reach from Salzburg)
Day 6 - day in region, night in Salzburg
Day 7 - day in region, night in Salzburg
Day 8 - travel to Innsbruck, night in Innsbruck
Day 9 - Innsbruck, night in Innsbruck
Day 10 - leave for wherever

Your itinerary and this itinerary would be done by train/public transportation. When traveling around Austria, you should use the website of the national rail carrier, OeBB (https://www.oebb.at/en/). You can use OeBB for all forms of public transportation as well. For travel within Vienna, you absolutely should only use public transportation, Please use the Wiener Linien website for tickets and information (https://www.wienerlinien.at/web/wl-en). For directions, I suggest using Google Maps.

As for a list of things to see in Vienna, I suggest that you refer to a guidebook or the website of the Vienna Tourism Office as I do not know your interests.

Since your tour company was a bust, get Rick's Austria book and look at his suggestions. There will be overlap.

Also watch his TV episodes for ideas. Hopefully as seasoned travelers you know the value of tons and tons of research, both online and through guidebooks.

You don't need German in Austria but if you know some it is appreciated. Not much more than Please and Thank You is enough.

Emily, great response. I am planning my third trip to Vienna during Christmas 2026. Finally convinced my wife to join me. So, I'm just going to search for all of your posts as I plan our trip.

BTW, your thoughts on The Third Man museum, tours and sites. Do Viennese find this interesting or is it just us tourists? I'm intrigued by it because of Austria's unique post-WW2 history.

Interesting that you bring up the Third Man as my older son is home from university for the summer and he has friends visiting who are huge fans (they are British).

The Burg Kino has showings of the Third Man nearly every day. It is a cool, older theater on the Ring and I recommend viewing the movie to get you in the mood. My son and his friends will be taking the Third Man tour today, so I'll report back on their impressions as I have never done it myself. They also plan to go to the Third Man Museum. Of course, you can easily see many of the filming locations for free around the city, which I recommend.

As far as the Austrians and their interest in this movie, I think it baffles them a bit, kind of like the Sound of Music baffles them.

When we traveled by train between Vienna and Salzburg we used the Westbahn train which worked very well.,
https://westbahn.at/en/

The Austrian Oebb site is another option as mentioned before https://www.oebb.at/en/ for the rest of your travel in Austria.

This sounds like a lovely trip!

Yes, I have hijacked this thread.

kind of like the Sound of Music baffles them

Here is my take...the musical won 5 Tony awards and the movie won 5 Oscars. In the late 1960's and in to the 1970's films like SOM and The Wizard of Oz would play once each year on broadcast TV. Every kid in the US watched them with their family. Additionally, Julie Andrews was a top box office star in the early 60's with Mary Poppins and SOM. So, you now have millions of "girls of the 60's & 70's" with the time and money to visit Salzburg and relive their childhood memories.

I will be in Salzburg in October. I will focus on the historical sights and the beer.

Since this is your first visit in the country, don't drive. Besides, a car is a burden.
I strongly agree that you should reduce the number of accommodation bases. Then, you don't waste time packing and unpacking.

I was surprised at how much I loved Vienna-if you are there on Sunday, the Augustiner Church(part of the palace complex) has a morning service with sublime music. I also enjoyed the Kundhistoriches Museum and especially eating in their beautiful cafe, and the music museum. My husband did the standing room thing at the Opera and loved it but I didn't go because of my fear of heights.

And the best Third Man tour activity is riding the Ferris wheel at the Prater amusement park.

And the best Third Man tour activity is riding the Ferris wheel at the
Prater amusement park.

If only we could open the door...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21h0G_gU9Tw

This forum is amazing! Thank you all for the excellent comments! Does anyone have any private tour guides they would recommend? A big thank you to Emily and wmt1 for your comments here as well as the info you've shared in your posting history. I also look forward to seeing the follow up on The Third Man tour.

I rewatched the Third Man recently, it's probably not a time that the Viennese would especially care to remember. And it's quite a dark film (in every sense of the word). I'm sure many of them have never seen it and never will, especially now that it's such a "relic."

I'll just say in Austria you should enjoy mountains in the entire Country. Find a nice village/valley and soak it in. Get there how you can. Search websites. See webcam sites. Ask questions. Go a little out of your way.

mchpp--Do you have websites you recommend? We'd love to hike and experience the beauty of the area.