Hi !
We are planing a summer 2025 32-38 days trip In Vienna, Southern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. We Love mountains sights. We know there's plenty of them in Austria, but getting there would put us a bit out of our way.
Are Tatras (or any mountains range) are nice enough so we can skip regions in Austria like Salzkammergut ?
Thanks !
Mountains are a big draw for me so I’ve seen the Tatra mountains from both Zakopane, Poland and the Slovakian side of the Tatra range. While the Tatra mountains are beautiful—the Alps are magnificent and definitely more impressive. From Vienna, you could quickly reach Salzburg by train in 3 hours on Railjet and then continue for 30 minutes to Berchtesgaden National Park by bus #840 from Salzburg. Berchtesgaden NP is just over the border in Germany ( mountain ranges often serve as international borders).
If you go, be sure to see Konigsee, “King’s Lake,” in Berchtesgaden National Park.
Looking on satellite maps and having been there; Southern Poland and Hungary didn't seem to have any snow cap mountains, being mostly rolling hills and farmlands. Budapest does have some great views from the Castle on the hill above the river. I rode a bus across Poland, but I don't remember high mountains. Of course, I am from the Seattle area where we have the Cascade and Olympic Mountain Ranges, plus the Volcanos Mt Baker and Mt Rainier which are several miles high in altitude, which makes one of them similar in height to the Matterhorn. There is probably some beautiful scenery wherever you go.
I did see snow as late as June in the Tatra mountains above both Zakopane, Poland and Poprad. Slovakia while there a few years back.
The mountains are in the extreme southern of Poland and northern part of Slovakia. Most of the rest of both Poland and Hungary are flat as a pancake—Slovakia not so much.