Best Small Austrian or German Small Town for a Month?

I too wonder how operas and concerts coincide with the simple life. And also if the kind of person who seeks out operas and concerts is going to be content with a small town, or vice versa. I also wonder about basing oneself in one small town for a month. At first there will be other places to visit within a few hours, but soon you will find yourself spending more and more time and money going farther and farther. On four occasions I have based in one place for a week, but four weeks seems a little much. But let me try. My first thought would be Berchtesgaden for it's proximity to Salzburg and train lines to surrounding area. It's a beautiful area by itself, but every time you wanted to go somewhere, you'd have to go an hour to Freilassing or Salzburg. So, maybe Freilassing. It's no garden place, but it's on the mainline from Munich to Salzburg, only 8 min by S-Bahn or regional train to the hbf. From there you could easily get to Hallstatt and the rest of the Salzkammergut, to Hallein, or to Innsbruck. To the north is Passau or Burghausen. West is Chiemsee or Wendelstein, or farther to Munich. You could even take an RJ to Vienna for an Opera. As far as finding an apartment, every little town has it's own website. A lot are in English. If not, look for "Tourismus". There will be a listing of accommodations under "hotels", "Unterkünfte", or "Übernachten". Look for "Ferienwohnungen" (vacation apartments). Many listings will be in English or have links to the apartment's own website.

Ron, Do you have a particular region in mind on where this small town with these cultural events is located. Is there a specific area in Germany which you prefer: the east, south, or the north? A number of places come to mind, depending upon where you prefer to spend this month or so in Germany.

I don't personally know about operas & concerts in smaller towns (no doubt there are some), but for "small festivities," many smaller communities do their own Oktoberfest celebrations in late-Sep to Oct. Sample local brews, meet people. A few years back I spent a week during that time with friends who live in a tiny Schwabian village (an hour by rail east of Stuttgart) and had a blast! Many towns have great hiking trails and other outdoor activities. Fall in Germany/Austria is usually very mild. No doubt others can fill in some ideas.

Ron, what an intriguing project! I wonder, though, how hard it would be to find a furnished apartment for rent in a small town. Could it be easier in a university town because they probably have a history of renting out furnished places? I am really interested in following your search, because I have also considered doing what you're planning to do. I found that it is not too hard to find a place in, say, Berlin but a lot harder elsewhere. I think perhaps the surest way of finding a place is searching through "Urlaub auf dem Bauernhof" - farm stays or farm vacations and also in coastal resorts and other resorts. The farms are not always working farms and are often located in small communities, important if you don't have a car and need to walk to shops and restaurants. They rent apartments and not just rooms. I'm much more familiar with Germany than Austria and the possibilities seem endless; it would be really hard to pick a place. I've considered Bamberg (not far from Nuernberg and Bayreuth) and, I believe, a World Heritage town; Freiburg im Breisgau (not far from France/Colmar); also towns around the Bodensee (Lake Constance), Konstanz for instance; also, the baltic coast - check out Stralsund or the Island of Ruegen or the Island of Usedom. Their websites have tourism/accommodations sections. Also, in Bavaria, check out Prien am Chiemsee (between Munich and Salzburg). In Austria, I would check out the areas around lakes - Klagenfurth am Woerthersee and around Wolfgangsee. These are resort areas, too, I believe. Also, there are websites for Urlaub auf dem Bauernhof in Austria, too, where you can rent an apartment rather than a room. I think it would be so nice to pick up fresh Broetchen for breakfast every morning and collect stuff for dinner from the shops almost every day. The pace is so much slower and more fun....Good luck - Anna

The only relatively small town where you will find opera is Bayreuth, and this is a bit of a ritzy palce. I´m not sure exactly what you mean by "simple life". These are two of the most modern, prosperous countries on earth.

You might want to think about either staying in a suburb of a larger city like Frankfurt or a residential neighborhood. Lots of apts. to rent in most cities, as well as the vibrant cultural scene you seem to be looking for. For ease of traveling around, you almost can't beat Frankfurt. For the most interesting neighborhoods in the city, try Bornheim, Sachsenhausen, Hoechst, or Unterliederbach. Farmers markets, lots of cafes, interesting architecture, mostly turn of the century and lots of little stores. For suburbs or a neighboring town to Frankfurt with good train connections, I would look at Bad Homburg, Kronberg, Eppstein, or Königstein. These are all located in the Taunus Mountains, so you get a beautiful setting, lovely old archticture, and are in Frankfurt in 30 min. or less. Kronberg has a Staufen castle built in the 1200's and a painters colony. Königstein has some nice castle ruins, also from the 1200's. Bad Homburg has the summer palace from Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Saalburg and Hessen Park are very close. Eppstein has a nice castle ruin too, again, from the 1200's. If the weather is cruddy, you have a huge choice of museums to go to, and in the evening, theater, plays, concerts, or opera. Fests are everywhere, you can barely turn around without running into one, though after the beginning of Oct. they die down until the end of Nov. and all the Christmas markets begin.

My first thought when you mentioned operas and concerts was Salzburg. There's easy connections to other places. You can stay a bit on the outskirts, so you're out of the city, but it's an easy bus ride to get into town. Lee gave you some good suggestions for finding an apartment. It's easy to find them. You probably won't have a problem in the Fall, their prime seasons are in the summer and winter, but I'd go ahead and start looking once you nail down a town.