First time to visit Austria. We are flying into Munich and planned to take the train right to Salzburg and spend four nights there before we head to Prague for a conference...We are flying home from Prague. We love nature, mountains small quaint places. Wondering if it wouldn’t be too much to go from Munich to Innsbruck for two nights, then Salzburg for two before we head to Prague. Would love some feedback...thanks
Posted by
Vienna, Austria
5382 posts
Fellow Tar Heel here, living in Austria.
My two cents - focus on Salzburg. It's exactly what you are looking to see. You'll be very tired upon arrival. Two nights really means one full day.
Get to Salzburg as you planned and base yourself there. Spend one day exploring Salzburg. Rent a car for the other two days and get down to Wolfgangsee, St. Gilgen, Gosausee, Hallstatt, etc. Enough to keep you busy for weeks.
Posted by
Sacramento, CA
671 posts
A few years ago we spent 2 nights in Innsbruck, and on our full day we hiked. It was one of the favorite days of the trip. With a short walk from the old part of town, you arrive at the funicular station. You can hike at a couple different stops; I believe we did the one in the middle of the mountain, not the top. The hiking was great, and the "huts" for food and drink are as amazing as the views.
Posted by
613 posts
I don't want to call this a problem because on our many Austrian trips, we always aim to stay in small quaint places, but you have to consider how quickly you can explore small quaint places. I will suggest some small quaint places as a base for a few days of sight seeing in the near vicinity. 1) St Johann in Tirol. Visit Lofer, Zell, Kitzbuhel, Kufstein, Kaisergebirge. 2) Bad Ischl: visit Salzburg and the Salzkammergut. You will find lots of recommends for St Wolfgang in this region on lots of forum posts. We stopped in St Wolfgang on our first of 22 trips to Austria and have never been back. Never wanted to go back. I made a rare note in my Green Guide on the St Wolfgang page--"blah".
Posted by
Maryland
865 posts
Four nights is three touring days (a bit obvious I realize, but when traveling I have to remind myself that each change of location ends up costing half a day). I like the idea of concentrating in the Salzburg area for this trip. You can get a bus from Salzburg to Berchtesgaden just a bit further south of a nature loving day trip, or visit Adolf Hitler's Eagles Lair there.
https://www.berchtesgaden.de/en/home
I love Innsbruck too, but you would only get one touring day there before you would have to move on.
Posted by
NYC area
2903 posts
While I love the Innsbruck area, I’d suggest you stay all 4 nights in St. Gilgen. You can easily visit Salzburg from here. You can also board a lake ship on the Wolfgangsee and cruise to Strobl and St. Wolfgang as a day out. St. Gilgen is small, on the lakefront (Wolfgangsee) and you will see mountains from here. There’s even a cable car trip here. There’s a cog train trip in St. Wolfgang.
Paul
Posted by
shingle springs, CA, USA
782 posts
I have a different take on St Wolfgang,it has one of our favorite Hotels in Austria with great views of the lake from our balcony and mountains and we always use it as a base for the Salzkammergut Region.It also is close to Hallstatt and Dachstein.
Mike
Posted by
OP
North Carolina
4 posts
I wanted to thank you all for your input. I’m just getting back to planning this portion of our trip..we had a grandchild born early and have been busy with that. I do think we could do both..but am thinking of just staying in one for the four nights...and have a more relaxed start to our trip.
Again..thank you all so much