My wife and I are planning to spend 4 days in Vienna, followed by 4 days in Salzburg. We want to take the train from Vienna to Salzburg. I've heard the Semmering railway is beautiful, but taking that trip from Vienna to Salzburg is 5 or 6 hours, as opposed to taking the quicker route at around 2 hours. My question is...is it worth it? We aren't pressed for time, so that isn't a huge issue. But we are planning to rent a car in Salzburg and travel around the area (Hallstatt, etc). So I'm just trying to understand if the views on train are wildly different than what we'd be seeing around Salzburg anyway. Still, adding a few extra hours for an UNESCO train ride seems like a good idea, from what I can tell.
Posted by
SE Pennsylvania
2713 posts
I've done the Vienna to Graz route via Semmering, and didn't think it was as interesting as expected. Not that any train route in Austria isn't scenic! 😁
Posted by
Vienna, Austria
5518 posts
I’ve done it many times. You will see equally and much more beautiful scenery around Salzburg so I don’t think it’s worth the extra effort and time. The UNESCO designation reflects the innovative civil engineering, not the views.
Posted by
2281 posts
Skip the Semmering railway route, save your time for Salzburg. Regarding the mountain scenery it is not breathtaking.
It was an enormous technical achievement 150 years ago, being the first mountain railway of the world, proving several scientists of that time being wrong who said that it is impossible for a locomotive to go up such an inclination.
There is a vast number of Semmeringbahn videos on YouTube. This one is a non-technical, more artistic one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALnuI-l8QjY
Posted by
OP
22 posts
Thank you all! This is extremely helpful!