Athens
Madeleine
The one to call for group travel — reunions, milestones, friends going together. She’s backpacked Europe and plans an active itinerary as easily as a relaxed one.
The country where you can hear an opera on Tuesday and be on a mountain trail by Thursday morning.
Austria is small enough that the cities and the Alps aren’t separate trips. Vienna to Salzburg is under three hours by train; Salzburg to the mountains is under one. That proximity is the whole argument for going — most countries make you choose between a cultural trip and an outdoor one, and this one doesn’t.
Leslie has walked a good deal of it firsthand — Munich, Salzburg, Zell am See — and has opinions about which order to do things in. Which matters more here than most places, because the seasons change the country completely.
Where to go
Three places worth building a trip around
Austria has nine regional capitals. These are the three we send people to most.
Vienna
Imperial, and still lived-in
Palaces and world-class museums, but the part people remember is smaller — an afternoon in a coffee house, an evening at a wine tavern on the edge of the city. Consistently ranked among the most livable cities anywhere, and you feel it.
Salzburg
Mozart, mountains, and beer
A UNESCO old town with a fortress above it and the Alps just beyond. Mozart’s birthplace and the Sound of Music setting — and home to some of the oldest working breweries in the country.
Kitzbühel
The Alps, done properly
Legendary skiing on the Hahnenkamm in winter, hiking and lake swimming in summer. The Schwarzsee is one of the warmest bathing lakes in the Alps, which surprises people.
Endless ways to experience it
What kind of Austria are you after?
Music
Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Strauss all worked here. Vienna and Salzburg still program like it — and we can get you the seats.
Skiing
Not a sport here so much as a way of life. World-class runs, and cross-country through valleys if downhill isn’t your thing.
Hiking
Well-marked trails with mountain huts along the way — which means lunch is part of the walk, not something you carry.
Wine
Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Blaufränkisch. Best drunk at a Heuriger, the wine taverns where the grower pours it themselves.
Wellness
Thermal baths and alpine spas, often built into hotels rather than bolted on. A good second half to a week of walking.
Food
Schnitzel and strudel are still there, but a generation of chefs has rebuilt the rest. Worth arriving hungry and curious.
Who you’ll work with
Pick the office nearest you.
All four of our advisors plan Austria. Which one you work with is usually just a question of which office you’d rather walk into.
Dunwoody
Leslie
She’s walked Salzburg and Zell am See herself, and has been planning European travel since 1990. Ask her about the history nobody told you to look for.
Dunwoody
Steve
Left a career as a chiropractor for a year-long trip around the world, and came back to help other people take theirs.
Tuscaloosa
Stella
A year living in France taught her to travel slowly. She builds trips around local life — markets, long meals, the streets past the checklist.
Go deeper
More on Austria
Region guides, hotels, and current offers — kept up to date through our relationships with colleagues around the world.
Ready when you are.
Tell us roughly what you have in mind and we’ll take it from there.
