I'm wondering what people recommend for beautiful lake towns around Salzburg? We are struggling with our itinerary right now. We were thinking Prague, Salzburg, then some smaller towns, and then Vienna. We have two and a half weeks. Are there any beautiful train rides perhaps?
Posted by
Boise, ID, USA
2322 posts
We only went by it on the bus, didn't stay there, but many people recommend the Wolfgangsee east of Salzburg. You might do a search on this forum for more information. (It looked beautiful from what we could see.)
Posted by
Near Boston
20 posts
Perhaps too obvious, but Hallstatt is wonderful, and it's accessible by train with a small ferry ride at the end.
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/salzburg-and-surroundings
The last time we were there, it was pretty busy during the day with buses of tourists, but the mountains and lake are still amazing. At night it was still quiet and wonderful.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32382 posts
I would also suggest spending a couple of nights in Hallstatt. While there you could visit the famous Salt Mine and have a fine meal at Rudolfsturm which is a castle on the mountain above town (it's on the way to the Salt Mine).
It's an easy rail trip from Salzburg (one change at Attnang-Puchheim), and then a short boat trip across the lake which provides a beautiful view of the town. There are some nice hotels along the lake front. At times the town can be quite busy with day trippers, but the evenings are usually quieter.
Posted by
Idaho, USA
7908 posts
We stayed a few nights in St. Wolfgang after our last trip to Salzburg, and it was very relaxing & beautiful. We took the bus from Salzburg to St. Gilgen, and the boat over to St. Wolfgang. Such a wonderful, relaxing location on the lake at Hotel Cortisen am See on the edge of the village which only has adults at their hotel - neither of us wanted to leave! The town experiences the day-trippers from Salzburg, but we were out hiking each day and were back for the quiet town in the evening.
Posted by
NYC area
3003 posts
I’ll suggest a favorite, Zell am Zee.
Posted by
1221 posts
More a city than a town but we spent a couple of nights in Bregenz on the Bodensee as kind of a semi random pick (‘it’s the right spot on the map for the planned Alps loop and looks like a good place to get over jet lag’) and ended up liking it more than expected- the lake is lovely and you can do boat tours of it as well as taking the obligatory cable car up into the smart of the Alps, and there are some neat small museums in town. There’s a train line that looked like it ran a good length of the north shore of the Bodensee that would give additional good views.