Best Places to Visit in Austria: Vienna, Salzburg & the Alps

The Habsburg capital, and the reason most people book Austria in the first place. Schönbrunn, the Hofburg and the Belvedere sit within a few tram stops of each other, and the coffee house habit is UNESCO-listed.

Mozart's birthplace, a baroque old town on the UNESCO list, and a hilltop fortress you reach by funicular. It is also where the Sound of Music was filmed, which still draws a steady stream of visitors.

The capital of Tyrol, hemmed in by mountains on both sides. A cable car from the centre puts you above 2,000 metres in around 20 minutes, which makes it the easiest base in Austria for pairing a city break with the Alps.

Styria's capital and Austria's second-largest city. The old town and Schloss Eggenberg are both UNESCO-listed, and the food is the best in the country outside Vienna thanks to Styrian pumpkin seed oil and the wine roads to the south.

A lake village under the Dachstein, with a salt mine that has been worked since prehistoric times. It gets very busy during daylight hours, so stay overnight or arrive early if you want it quiet.

Upper Austria's capital, on the Danube and often skipped. Worth a stop for the Ars Electronica Center, the Lentos art museum and the old tram up the Pöstlingberg.

The Habsburgs’ summer residence, with 40 state rooms, formal gardens climbing to the Gloriette and the world’s oldest zoo in its grounds.

Two baroque palaces facing each other across terraced gardens, home to Klimt’s The Kiss and the largest collection of Austrian art.

Vienna’s imperial palace complex: the Imperial Apartments, the Silver Collection and a museum dedicated to Empress Elisabeth.

The Gothic heart of Vienna, with a patterned tile roof, catacombs and a 343-step climb up the South Tower.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s colourful, curving architecture, with his work on show at the nearby Kunst Haus Wien.

One of Europe’s largest medieval castles, reached by funicular above Salzburg’s old town, with views over the Alps.

ÖBB runs the trains and they are fast and frequent. A Railjet gets you from Vienna to Salzburg in about 2h25 and carries on to Innsbruck. Cities have trams and U-Bahn or S-Bahn networks that make a car unnecessary. Hire one for the Salzkammergut lakes or the Alpine passes, and remember that motorways need a vignette, which costs €12.80 for ten days in 2026.

The best time to visit Austria depends on what you are after. May, June and September bring warm weather in Austria for hiking and city walking with thinner crowds. Ski season runs from December to March, and into April at the higher resorts. Late November and December are Christmas market season, which is busy and pricier.

Vienna and the big Tyrol ski resorts are the expensive parts of the country. Graz, Linz and the smaller lake towns cost noticeably less, and a set lunch menu at a Gasthaus is one of the better-value meals in Europe. February school holidays are the worst weeks to book Alpine accommodation on price.

There are enough things to do in Austria for several trips. The usual shapes are the imperial cities by rail, a ski week in Tyrol, a lakes loop through the Salzkammergut, or a wine and abbey run along the Wachau valley by boat and bike.

Schönbrunn, the Hofburg, the Belvedere and the Sisi Museum cover roughly 600 years of Habsburg rule. Most sell timed-entry tickets, and Schönbrunn in particular sells out its morning slots through the summer.

Austria has more ski terrain than any of its neighbours. Kitzbühel, St Anton, Ischgl, Sölden, Lech and Mayrhofen are the names most people know, and lift passes are often valid across several linked valleys. The season runs from December to April.

Vienna's State Opera sells standing tickets on the day for a few euros. Salzburg has Mozart's birthplace and his family apartment, plus the summer Festspiele. Smaller venues in both cities run chamber concerts year round.

Food in Austria means Wiener Schnitzel made with veal, Tafelspitz, Kaiserschmarrn and a lot of good bread. Viennese coffee house culture sits on the UNESCO intangible heritage list, and Grüner Veltliner from the Wachau is the wine to order.

In summer the ski infrastructure turns into hiking access. Cable cars stay open, huts serve lunch, and the Salzkammergut lakes are warm enough to swim in by July. Trails are signposted and graded, so Austrian hiking is easy to match to your fitness.

Christmas markets in Austria run from mid-November to Christmas, with the biggest in Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Graz. January and February bring the Viennese ball season, when the palaces and grand halls open for formal dances.

Munich is under two hours by train from Salzburg, which makes Bavaria the easiest add-on to an Austria trip. Neuschwanstein and Berchtesgaden both sit close to the border.

The Brenner Pass connects Innsbruck to South Tyrol in about two hours, and trains carry on to Verona and Venice. It is the quickest way to swap Alpine scenery for northern Italian cities.

Prague is four hours from Vienna on a direct train and Brno is under ninety minutes. A common route pairs Vienna with Prague and Budapest for a Central Europe loop.

Budapest is two and a half hours from Vienna by Railjet, with several departures a day. Thermal baths, Danube views and lower prices than Austria make it a popular extension.

Railjet services run from Vienna and Innsbruck through to Zurich. If you want more mountains and more scenic railways after Tyrol, this is the direction to keep going.