Italy or Austria for 1st Europe Trip

In mid to late August, I’d definitely opt for Austria for the simple fact that it is cooler and traveling should be more comfortable.

Thank you, @Philip!

Rome needs four nights if you include Vatican City. If you skip Vatican City, you need three nights in Rome.
Florence needs four nights if you include a day trip to Siena.
Salzburg needs two nights
Vienna needs five nights if you include a day trip to Bratislava.
You lose a day when traveling from one place to the next.
If you go to Austria, fly multi-city in and out of Munich and Vienna. Salzburg is a good day trip from Munich by direct train (2h). If you go to Munich you may also want to visit the Bavarian Alps.

Thanks Mary. Seeing the night requirements laid out like that, is exactly why I have shifted to doing just one of the two countries.

Both are wonderful places to visit. Italy is my favorite foreign country, it has great history (Roman, Medieval and Renaissance), Art and dining. Austria is far smaller than Italy and it would likely be cooler in the Summer.

If you do Italy, suggest Venice, Florence and Rome to concentrate on. with perhaps a couple of days in Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii.

If you pick Austria then don't miss Salzburg and Vienna, but consider Melk and Innsbruck.

No reason to fly into Frankfurt if you plan to see Austria, fly into Vienna or at best Munich.

You can use rail to travel in both countries. If you want to rent a car, you must have an International Driving Permit that can be acquired at AAA in the USA. However, tolls are expensive, especially in Italy and gas is 7-8 dollars per gallon.

Use TripAdvisor.com under things to do for what to see in those places.

When I first read your title, I was going to highly recommend Italy first but then I saw August and my answer has shifted completely to Austria. Italy is amazing because of the sites, food and cheaper transportation. However, in August it will be miserably hot and crowded. There is plenty to see and do in Austria to keep you busy for 12-13 nights. Between Innsbruck, Salzburt, Austria and Hallstatt, you could easily fill up 12 nights. You could maybe even venture just slightly out of Austria into Munich or maybe Bratislava. Sounds like a great trip to spend time in Austria and I hope you have a great time!!

Thanks all - I do live in Texas so I am sure anything will feel cool at that time of year compared to Dallas, lol.

Be aware that Austria, except for places at altitude, can be miserably hot in August. Yes, your odds are better than they would be somewhere like Florence or Rome, but it can be dreadful. It was for me in July of this year, and it doesn't look like August was any better:

Vienna weather July 2024

Vienna weather August 2024

Use the pull-down box at the right, just above the graph, to check statistics for other years. Weather can vary a lot. Use the Search box at the upper right to find data for other cities.

I'm not telling you not to go to Austria next summer, just pointing out the weather risk. It sounds as if you'll have future opportunities to travel. Will you have flexibility about the time of year? If so, I'd seriously consider heading somewhere farther north or to a typically cooler area next August. I've had good luck (moderate temperatures) for mid-summer trips to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, northern Poland, Scotland, northern England, Normandy/Brittany in France and along the north coast of Spain between Galicia and the Basque Country. Iceland, Ireland and probably also Netherlands/Belgium/northern Germany/Denmark should also be good options. Although really freaky weather can crop up nearly anywhere on rare occasions, in the places I've suggested it's likely to be only for a day or two, if at all, whereas farther south you can be faced with dreadfully hot weather nearly every day, week after week. That can be draining.

Jordan,
August? Hands down, Austria, too often underrated. I love Vienna. It would be a lot more relaxing than Italy in August. Visit Italy, if you can, in the spring or fall.

I agree with Phillip. My first trip to Italy was in July and while I don’t remember it being hot ( living then in Phoenix ), Austria will be cooler at least in the mountains

Italy, of course. By mid-August, temps are going down, not that it matters.

Italy is a must-see life destination. Austria is "interesting." This one, for me, is a no-brainer. 50% the time you have in Rome. 25% of the time in Florence. 25% a detour that interests you like Pompei or Sorento.

Austria? After London, Rome, Florence, Paris, Athens, Budapest

We’ve been to Austria 10 times and are going back this December for our third Advent Market trip! Love love Austria. We’ve been to Salzburg five times, love it. The area is well worth a week alone. Wolfgangsee, Hallstatt, Werfen Fortress, Berchtesgaden, Konigssee, etc. Then Zell am See, the Zillertal, the Oetztal, Innsbruck area, Grossglockner and Heiligenblut and so on.

Once again, I disagree with the idea of destinations "needing" some X number of days to enjoy. With that said, selecting Austria as your base allows visiting Vienna, Salzburg and Munich, with perhaps day trips to Bratislava, Brno, Linz, Traunkirchen or Berchtesgaden. I'd think August would be a great time to visit all these places.

One other common comment that I take issue with is that travel days are "lost." When one travels in the morning on a high-speed train on, say, a two-hour trip, one still has the late morning, afternoon and evening available to explore the arrival city. Plus the scenery on board is scenery one doesn't see at one's home.

Finally, as much as I love Italy, August isn't the time of year I'd want to be there. I'm in Genoa at this moment, and the temperatures are ideal. A bit rainy, though.

jphbucks has it right on how much time. "I never saw any place in the world because I never had the time to do it right according to ..... " Two days in Rome is better than not having been to Rome. You will remember those two days all of your life. And based on the minimum times I read here, then there is not good RS tour. Cause none come close to the "minimum time".

My life experience score most anyplace in Italy = 9. Sure, they know how to capatilize on tourism but the tourist gets a lot of enjoyment, and wonder in return.
Vienna = 6 not very exciting museum town in every sense of the word. But the buildigs are beautifully restored and shinny,
Salzburg = 5 very pretty but takes a lot from tourist wihout returning much depth.
Bratislava = 5 refer to Salzburg x 2

If you want a classical European holiday then London, Paris, Rome. For your trip, knowing nothing about you and just throwing out the best generic frist European visit I woud say London and Paris.

If you want a cultural cutting edge holiday go to Eastern Europe (a lot cheaper too). Budapest and Montenegro is doable in your time frame. Good weather in August for it too.

Untuched nature, Eastern Europe. Budapest and Albania

Perfect mix of history, culture, fun, food, music, young, old ..... well I am biased ..... go to the capital of Magyarország.

Rome will be 65F to 86F on average on 21 August. i am from South Texas, no biggie. So that works too.

Thanks everyone for the input. Mr. E - being from Texas and growing up in the south I don't think the temps for Italy will bother me a bit, compared to what we're used to.

It sounds like many are recommending Italy for this trip. I am thinking that as well now, and will do Southern Germany/Austria for trip #2 the following year (2026). I plan my trips quite far out as I am usually using points and miles earned. So, for Italy, there are a ton of options for redemptions this next trip and can allow us to splurge on other areas.

I wonder whether Mr. E based his comment about the likely temperatures in Rome on monthly averages for August and over what years those averages were taken. Wikipedia's entry for Rome uses data from 1991 through 2020. In my experience temperatures have tended to get a lot more extreme in recent years, so I checked the actual, historical, day-by-day temperatures on timeanddate.com. This is what I found Rome's high temperatures to have been on August 21 for the last five years:

2024: 95F
2023: 100F
2022: 91F
2021: 91F
2020: 95F

Lows were in the 70-79F range.

I grew up in the southeastern US and have lived in muggy Washington DC for 30 years. There is quite a difference between being at home where virtually everything is airconditioned and being a tourist pounding the sidewalks, visiting sometimes-not-airconditioned museums and eating in sometimes-not-airconditioned restaurants and cafes. I tolerate heat comparatively well, but Europe is a lot more fun when the outdoor temperature is more pleasant.

Austria. Yes it can get hot and quite humid in August, but you can, and should, spend some of your time up in elevation in an Alpine area.

Also, you can comfortably do both in the time period you describe. There is high speed rail linking interesting area of both countries. The fast train from Innsbruck to Verona for instance is 3.5 hours. You could fly into Munich or Vienna, visit Salzburg, a Dolomite Alps mountain town, Verona, and fly out of Venice quite comfortably. Maybe 8-10 hours total train time. Not a deep dive anywhere but less of a whirlwind than some itineraries. And delightful places to stop.

Jordan, even if the heatwave anomaly persists I would do Italy for a first trip to Europe before Austria. I go to Austria on ocassion, its just up the tracks ftom me, and it's beautiful but it just not going to have the same first trip to Europe impact that Italy will. Do Milan to Naples by train. Enjoy it.

Or come here about the 17th and stay till the 21st and I will introduce you to one of the most vibrant and beautiful national holidays in Europe with markets, shows, food, and maybe the best fireworks display over tge Danube you could ever imagine. Then hop a discount flight for under $100 and be in Rome in 90 minutes.

A quick random observation regarding heat, and it can be hot in both places, and arguably more humid around Vienna: in Austria, you have a much better chance of getting in the water in the cities. There's a long time tradition of public swimming, and so pools, well groomed lake swimming areas, etc, all over the place. If I needed to audible out of some tourist activity because of heat, I would rather be in Austria because I know that there is a clean, friendly public pool close by.