Hi
My wife and I are looking at taking a train round trip based on transportation cost from Vienna to Innsbruck and wondering if it's worth it for a total of 7 days. We would fly in and out of Vienna from Brussels. Not knowing the route the train would take, we would spend 2 day in Vienna and 2 days in Innsbruck but not sure what other cites/town we should include based on the trains route. Any suggestion or comments are welcomed.
Sure, it's do-able. Most people will stay in Salzburg for a couple of days when in the area. We've taken that trip by car a few times over the years.
Thanks David, appreciate your response. Any other towns in between you would suggest maybe getting off the train for a couple of hours?
Hi Bill,
DH and I just did a similar trip this past May but flew into Vienna and out of Zurich. We had already been to Vienna a couple of times, as well as Salzburg but Innsbruck was new to us. We spent three nights in Vienna, 2 nights in Salzburg and two in Innsbruck. We love all of these places and hope to visit Innsbruck again. The train trip from Vienna to Innsbruck is a lovely one that you should enjoy. I have to say, however, that with only 7 days, you could split your time between Vienna and Salzburg for a great trip (or stay in Vienna the entire time as there is so much to see/do with a couple of day trips also). You have many options!
Happy planning and enjoy your trip!
Lynette
Bill, The trains between Vienna and Innsbruck go via Salzburg, so you could include that, or do it instead of Innsbruck, depending on how much time you had.
Personally, I think there is more to see in Salzburg than Innsbruck.
Another option is Munich, not on the route, Salzburg, Munich and Innsbruck are in a triangle, you can get to any of them from any of them.
"based on transportation cost" - You can look up train times and buy tickets on the ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) website: https://www.oebb.at/en/
Vienna to Innsbruck, can be as cheap as €24.90 each way, if you buy 2-3 months in advance.
For more info about these trains, see here: https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Venice.htm#Venice-Vienna
Thank to all.
After reading more about Innsbruck, with it September it maybe best to visit just Vienna and Saltzburg. The last thing we wish to be doing, spending time on a train when we could be enjoying the sites, food etc. I'm sure there are a lot of small towns in between if we wanted to jump off the train for a couple of hours. Just need a place to store our luggage.
You can only jump off the train if you have the correct type of ticket. A SparSchiene savings ticket, the cheapest, will not allow you to interrupt your journey. A full fare ticket allows you to disembark the train along the way for a few hours, but this is expensive.
Honestly, there isn’t much in between Salzburg and Vienna that is better than what you will find in each of these cities. With 7 days, I suggest 4 in Vienna and 3 in Salzburg. From Vienna you can day trip to the Wachau. From Salzburg you can day trip to the Salzkammergut.
Please ONLY use OeBB or Westbahn for ticket purchases. Do NOT use RailEurope.
A full fare ticket allows you to disembark the train along the way for a few hours, but this is expensive.
An OeBB full fare ticket for a distance of more than 100 km has a validity of two days. You may interrupt your journey as often as you like as long as the two days are not exhausted.
Thank you for the updated info, especially the cost if we decided to purchase a ticket that would allow us to depart the train for a few hours between stops along the way.. The idea just staying in Vienna and Saltzburg sounds like the best options.
The other nice part, it's only 2 1/2 hours between both cities by train making our trip back to Vienna for our return flight to Brussels more manageable. Better flight selection and cost than from Saltzburg is the reason we will fly from Vienna on either Austrian or Brussels Airlines. We may even decide to fly into Amsterdam via KLM. Haven't decided yet on which one we will be booking. Refuse to use EasyJet, Ryan Air or any of the other discount carriers. Have had to many problems in the past with each and everyone.
Thank you again.
If you choose the right RailJet train you can go directly from Salzburg to Vienna International Airport.
Do you know that there is an easy train trip from Salzburg to Brussels? Just over 8 and a half hours, and reasonably inexpensive; 90 minutes to Munich, 21 minutes change time, 3:31 from Munich to Frankfurt Airport Fernbahnhof (under the airport), 21 minutes to change trains on the very same platform, and finally 2:52 on the train from Frankfurt Airport Fernbahnhof to Brussels.
You'd have a Railjet for the first train, and then two ICE bullet trains. The first ICE is via Nuremberg and Frankfurt main station (you stay on at both), the second goes via Cologne so in all three trains you'd have interesting things to see out the window...
There are much easier ways to travel from Salzburg to Brussels, i.e. with one change only.
RailJet from Salzburg to Frankfurt/M, then ICE to Brussels.
If you travel on a Wednesday or a Sunday you can catch the NightJet to Brussels either in Rosenheim or Wels (around 10pm).
Appreciate the suggestion in using the rail system to Brussels in place of air. It's something we have talked about and may look at but afraid it will cause to much time traveling compared to traveling via air.
Maybe we just stay in Vienna for 7 days and take day trips and save travel time when we depart to either Brussels or Amsterdam.
Thank you.
