Best places to visit in Austria: top cities, regions and sights

Austria is compact and its highlights sit on one westbound rail line, so the main decision is how many bases you want rather than how far you travel. The table below pairs each place with the nights it needs, the months it works best and a rough daily cost band for a mid-range traveller (2026 estimate).

Costs assume a double room, one paid sight a day and rail travel; see the costs page for a full breakdown.

Start with Vienna. Three to four nights covers Schönbrunn, the Hofburg, the Kunsthistorisches Museum and at least one evening of music, with a coffee house between each. Buy Schönbrunn timed tickets online in summer; the gardens and the Gloriette walk are free. Vienna is also the base for the Wachau: a train to Melk or Krems, then a boat or bike along the Danube between the wine villages.

Move west to Salzburg for two or three nights. The baroque old town, the fortress and Mozart's birthplace fit into a full day and a half, leaving time for the lakes. Hallstatt and the Salzkammergut are reachable as a long day trip by train and ferry, but one or two nights there is calmer: the village is small and busy in the middle of the day, and quiet early and late.

Finish in Innsbruck or the lakes. Innsbruck puts cable cars from the city centre up to roughly 2,000 m, so you can walk a mountain trail in the morning and be back in town for dinner. If you have a week or more, add Graz for its old town and food scene, the Carinthian lakes for warm swimming water in July and August, or the Zillertal and Arlberg for skiing in winter and hiking in summer.

Keep one bed per base and take the train between them. The Vienna–Salzburg–Innsbruck line runs frequently and needs no car; buses and ferries cover the lake valleys, though Sunday timetables are thinner. A car only becomes useful for the Grossglockner road and some mountain valleys.

Austria is a Schengen country; check your own passport's entry rules and any visa you need before booking flights. Summer and the December market weeks are the busiest and priciest; May, June, September and October give good weather with fewer crowds. Many museums close one day a week, often Monday, and small lake ferries and mountain roads stop for the season outside summer.

Book long-distance rail seats early for cheaper fares, and note that ski resorts need accommodation months ahead for Christmas, New Year and the February school holidays. Travel insurance is worth arranging before any hiking or skiing, since mountain rescue and ski injuries are the main avoidable costs.