austria travel itenary suggestions needed

Jill: I was thinking a car would be nice for the Wachau Valley, but trains works fine, and boats, bikes.

There are many choices: Only one of the many possibilities, moving from Vienna west, is Vienna, Danube Valley, Salzburg, Hallstatt and the Salzkammergut.

Kent, I hope you're wrong about needing a car in the danube valley. We're going from Vienna to Melk by train. Actually we're going from Vienna to Mauthausen to Melk. Then when we leave Melk we're heading to Salzburg. All by train. It was actaully faster (less train time) to go Vienna-Mauthausen-Melk-Salzburg backtracking slightly than going Vienna-Melk-Mauthausen-Salzburg. Anyway, we're planning on doing some bike riding from Melk, but we won't have a car.

take the train all the way.

It's time to look at a detailed map, folks.

Going from Munich to Vienna (especially by train) you will first go to Salzburg. Then to Linz - Mauthausen KZ is just about 20 mi. east of that capital. There is no train to Mauthausen. You'd have to get off at Enns. Mauthausen is north of the Danube (the train line runs along the Danube, but south of the river). Melk is a heck of a way east in the Wachau. The monastery is worth a stop, but hardly the only attraction. Then on to Vienna.

Even RS concedes that there is a lot more to Austria than these popular destinations. For my money I would rent a car and work up the entire country from west to east, seeing many of the attractions in Tirol, Salzburg, and the other states. Coming from Munich you could travel to Reutte, Tirol or Füssen and really get an in-depth vacation to boot. Trains are great for some, but Austria's topography forces you to focus on certain routes, leaving large sections of the country unexplored.

We were just in Austria three weeks ago. I would
spend some time in Tirol. We enjoyed being head
quartered in the small town of Matrei. You also
need a couple days in Salzburg. The one place we
visited that I would skip was Innsbruck. It was
not bad, but not worth the time.

Martin, according to Rick and the Bahn website you can get to Mauthausen by train. It doesn't go all the way to the concentration camp. From the train station you can either walk the 3km or go by taxi which is what we plan to do.

thanks everyon for the input. We are hiring a car and starting from innsburg all the way to vienna. suggest places we should stay on route and for how many days. We have a 8 day holiday

We set up home base in Salzkammergut (by Grundlsee) and drove around. Driving in Austria is a pleasure. We spent a day each visiting Salzburg, Linz and 2 days driving around in Salzkammergut. Went on a 2-day trip to Innsbruck (night) and returned via Neuschwanstein castle (Germany). Spent the last day at Vienna. Picture-perfect scenery, great weather, great roads made car rental the right decision (1600 kms in 8 days!) Though I had an int'l driving permit, my home country driving license was accepted. A tip: as soon as you reach a city, park in a central location and walk as the touristic parts of cities are quite small.

The length of time you stay depends on what you want to see in each city. Do a google search for "Vienna sights" and read about what there is to see in that city. Do the same for any other city. Let your interests determine which cities you visit. Experienced travelers never visit a city without knowing why they go.
Renting a car can be a handicap because parking is costly and hard to find. And petrol is expensive too. Most travelers use public transportation in the cities. Moving from one city to another is cheaper by train.
Driving can be difficult because road signs are hard to read and getting lost is exasperating.
I like travel by rail because you can always for help from other travelers. In the larger cities you will find many who speak English.