Travel from Salzburg to Heiligenblut

It doesn't look like Heiligenblut has train service, but there are buses. I suggest you look at the Austrian Rail website (www.oebb.at)&#59; it also shows buses. Looks like Salzburg to Heiligenblut is almost 5 hours, the first part by train, then by buses. Use "Salzburg" for the start. For the destination, use Heiligenblut. It will probably offer you "station" but the schedule will be to Hotel Post, one of the bus stops in town. It's going to be about as difficult getting out of Heiligenblut, probably a string of buses to Villach. From Villach there is a special direct, overnight bus to Venice (Venise).

Penny, I don't know how much help this is but I googled "Austrian train schedule" and found a website that gave me the information that the current time table is valid until next June 11 (remember, European calendar is day/month/year and they use the 24 hour clock) as listed on the bottom of the page. I'm going to paste the web address - see below. This is a bus not a train (if you look at the map you'll see why.) The info is in English. http://fahrplan.oebb.at/bin/query.exe/en?ld=web05&seqnr=3&ident=db.013944166.1290306717&OK#focus I arbitrarily picked the date of May 27 next year. To get to Venice from there, you'd probably have to travel to a larger city and pick up a train (I'm thinking perhaps Zell am See but perhaps there's a better way, I haven't checked it out). From the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof the bus takes a little over 4 1/2 hours and stops in front of the Hotel zur Post in Heiligenblut. It looks like there is more than one bus a day. Below is the web site through which I entered the Route Planner. http://www.oebb.at/en/ Looks like a really picturesque place!

I was afraid it wouldn't be easy to get there unless I rent a car, but the bus is an option. My dad stayed in Heiligenblut on leave when he fought in Italy in WWII and since part of this trip is to visit places where he was I'll get there whether it be by bus or breaking down and renting a car. Thank you very much for your responses.

Don't worry about the buses; post buses aren't really that bad. They're not like city buses, more like Greyhounds. Last year I went from Salzburg to Hallstatt. The normal route is by rail to Attnang-Puchheim, then by rail via Bad Ischl to the Hallstatt Bahnhof, which is across the lake from Hallstatt. You take a boat from the Hallstatt Bahnhof to the middle of Hallstatt. Only problem, I wanted to go first to Mondsee (SOM wedding church), which is only accessible by bus. I took one bus to Mondsee, then two buses from Mondsee to Bad Ischl (changed I believe at St. Gilgen). I could have taken the train from Bad Ischl, but the boat comes into the center of town, and the bus station is south of town, in Lahn, where my accommodations were. There was a bus with one change from Bad Ischl to Lahn, so I ended up taking five buses from Salzburg to Hallstatt-Lahn. No problem.

Thanks for the advice, very helpful and encouraging. Bus it is which will allow the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the country.