Austria Travel Safety: Emergency Numbers and Real Risks

Austria is a safe country to travel in, and the risks that actually injure visitors there are alpine rather than criminal: weather, altitude, avalanches and winter roads. The number that matters most is 140, the Austrian mountain rescue line, and the thing most travellers get wrong is assuming a European Health Insurance Card will pay for a helicopter. This page covers the emergency numbers, what to do in each situation, what your EHIC does and does not cover, and the specific risks of hiking, skiing and driving in Austria.

Austrian emergency numbers

Dial 112 from any phone anywhere in Austria if you do not know which service you need, because it is the pan-European emergency number and the operator will route you. If you do know, the direct numbers get you there faster.

The numbers you might actually need are listed below.

1. 112: European emergency number. Works from any phone, including one with no credit and no SIM, and is answered in English.
2. 144: ambulance. The number for any medical emergency in a town or on a road.
3. 133: police.
4. 122: fire brigade.
5. 140: mountain rescue (Bergrettung). The alpine emergency number for the whole of Austria, except in Vorarlberg, where you dial 144 instead.
6. 141: doctor on call (Ärztenotdienst). For an out-of-hours medical problem that is not an emergency, such as a fever on a Sunday.
7. 128: gas emergency.
8. 0800 133 133: emergency SMS and fax line for deaf and hard-of-hearing callers.

Save 112 and 140 before you travel, not while you are standing on a mountain. Mobile coverage in the Austrian Alps is good on the valley floors and patchy on the ridges.

What to do in a medical emergency in Austria

Call 144 for an ambulance, or 140 if you are in the mountains, and say where you are before you say what happened. Austrian emergency operators speak English, and the first thing they need is a location: a village name, a trail number, a lift name or a map coordinate.

For something that is not an emergency, ring 141 for the doctor on call, or walk into a pharmacy. Austrian pharmacies (Apotheke) run a rota so that one in each area is open at night and on Sundays, and the closed ones post the address of the duty pharmacy on the door.

Hospital emergency departments are called Notaufnahme or Erste Hilfe. You can walk into one, and you will be asked for your insurance card and your passport.

What a European Health Insurance Card covers in Austria

A European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary treatment in Austria on the same terms as an Austrian resident, which usually means free or at the same small co-payment a local pays. It is free to apply for and it is the single most useful document an EU, EEA, Swiss or UK traveller can carry into Austria.

It is not travel insurance, and the gap is specific. Your EHIC will not cover:

• Mountain rescue. This is the big one. A helicopter rescue in the Austrian Alps is charged to the person rescued and runs into thousands of euros. The EU’s own guidance states plainly that the card does not help with rescue.
• Repatriation. Getting you home after a serious accident or illness is not covered either.
• Private healthcare. The card only covers the state system, so a private clinic will bill you.
• Anything not medical. Cancelled trips, lost luggage, stolen cameras and broken skis are all outside it.

So carry both. The EHIC handles the hospital bill, travel insurance handles getting you off the mountain and home. If you are covered by the UK system, the card you want is now the Global Health Insurance Card, which works in Austria in the same way.

SafetyWing is the policy I use, and its plans are flexible enough to start after you have already left home, which is useful if you booked a ski trip late. Check the mountain-sports wording on any policy before you buy: many standard policies exclude off-piste skiing, ski touring and via ferrata unless you add cover.

Austrian Alpine Club membership is the other route. Membership of the Österreichischer Alpenverein includes rescue cover, which is why a lot of regular hikers and ski tourers join. It is worth pricing against a standalone policy if you are spending real time in the mountains.

Hiking safety in the Austrian Alps

The danger on an Austrian hike is almost always the weather, the daylight or the grade, not the terrain. Austrian trails are well marked and well maintained, which lulls people into starting late, going up in trainers and carrying no layer.

Austrian trail markings tell you the grade, and they are worth learning before you set off.

1. Yellow or white-red-white: easy. Mostly wide, mostly walkable in trail shoes.
2. White-blue-white: difficult. Exposed sections, possibly with cables and steps; boots and a head for heights.
3. White-black-white: very difficult. Alpine terrain, secured passages, real exposure.

Four rules apply on any of them.

• Start early and set a turnaround time. Afternoon thunderstorms are normal in the Alps in July and August, and being on a ridge in one is the classic way a good day goes wrong.
• Check that the hut and the lift are running. Mountain huts run a season and most close in autumn, and a cable car you planned to descend on shuts earlier in the day than you expect. A closed lift turns a two-hour walk into a five-hour one.
• Carry a layer, water and something to eat, even on a short walk. The temperature falls about 6°C (11°F) for every 1,000 m (3,281 ft) you climb, and the wind up there is colder than in the valley.
• Tell someone the route. Mountain rescue can only look where you told somebody you were going.

The alpine distress signal is six signals a minute for one minute, then a minute’s silence, then repeat. A signal can be a shout, a whistle or a torch. The reply is three signals a minute, so if you hear three, somebody has seen you.

Winter safety: avalanches and ski resorts

Avalanche risk is the one genuinely serious hazard in Austria, and it is forecast daily through the winter by the state avalanche warning services. Read the bulletin before you go anywhere off a marked, open piste.

The Euregio bulletin at avalanche.report covers Tyrol and Vorarlberg alongside South Tyrol and Trentino in English, and Salzburg publishes its own at lawine.salzburg.at. Both run daily reports through the season and suspend them in summer. The danger scale runs from 1 (low) to 5 (very high), and levels 3 and above kill people every year.

Three things keep a skiing holiday uneventful.

• Stay on open, marked pistes unless you have avalanche training and equipment. A transceiver, probe and shovel are useless without the practice to use them, and ski-resort piste patrol does not secure terrain outside the marked runs.
• Check your insurance covers off-piste before you go off-piste. Most standard travel policies do not, and a rescue you pay for yourself is the expensive kind.
• Take the closing times seriously. Lifts stop earlier than the light does, and a resort is a very large, very cold place after the last chair.

Helmets are not legally required for adults in Austria; several federal states require them for children on the piste. Almost everyone wears one.

Driving safety in Austria

Austria has a situational winter equipment requirement from 1 November to 15 April: in wintry conditions, a car up to 3.5 tonnes may only be driven with winter tyres fitted, or with snow chains on the driving wheels where the road is continuously covered in snow or ice. It is situational, not a blanket rule, but in practice any Alpine trip in that window needs winter tyres, and a hire car booked in Austria in winter will have them.

Two further things catch out first-time visitors.

• You need a vignette to use the motorways. It is a toll sticker or a digital equivalent, bought at petrol stations near the border and online, and driving without one is fined at the roadside. Some Alpine tunnels and passes charge a separate toll on top.
• Mountain passes close. The high roads, including the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, shut for the winter and reopen in late spring, so a route that a map shows as open may not be.

If you are renting, book winter tyres explicitly for a trip between November and April. DiscoverCars compares rental companies and lets you read what each one includes before you book.

Crime and everyday safety

Violent crime against tourists is rare in Austria, and the realistic risk is pickpocketing in crowded places in Vienna and Salzburg. Station concourses, the U-Bahn, Christmas markets and the queue outside a major sight are where it happens.

Keep your phone and wallet out of an outside pocket, and treat a stranger’s sudden distraction as the distraction it usually is. Report a theft to the police on 133 and ask for a written report, which your insurer will want.

Tap water is drinkable everywhere in Austria, and in Vienna it comes straight from Alpine springs by pipeline, so there is no reason to buy bottled water.

Health risks worth knowing about

Tick-borne encephalitis is the one Austria-specific health risk. Austria’s national vaccination plan recommends the TBE vaccination for the whole country and the whole year, and it applies to visitors who will be walking in forests, meadows or scrub, which is most people who come to hike.

The vaccine takes three doses to build full protection, so it is not something to arrange the week before you fly. If you are planning a hiking holiday months out, ask your doctor about it early; if you are not, check yourself for ticks after walking through long grass and remove any you find promptly.

Beyond that, Austria needs no special vaccinations and the standard advice applies: bring enough of any prescription medicine for the whole trip, in its original packaging, with a copy of the prescription.

Is Austria safe to travel in?

Yes. Austria is one of the safer countries in Europe for visitors, it is in the Schengen area and uses the euro, its emergency services are fast and English-speaking, and its main cities are safe to walk in at night by the standards of any European capital.

The things that hurt people there are the mountains and the winter roads, and both are manageable with the same three decisions: check the forecast, carry insurance that covers mountain rescue, and turn back earlier than you want to.

Austria travel safety FAQ

What is the emergency number in Austria? 112 works from any phone for any emergency. For a specific service: 144 for an ambulance, 133 for police, 122 for fire and 140 for mountain rescue, except in Vorarlberg where mountain rescue is also 144.

Does my EHIC cover mountain rescue in Austria? No. The European Health Insurance Card covers state medical treatment only; mountain rescue, repatriation and private healthcare are all outside it, so you need travel insurance as well.

Is it safe to hike alone in Austria? Yes, on marked, graded trails in good weather, as long as you tell somebody your route and your expected return time. The risk on an Austrian trail comes from weather, daylight and grade rather than from other people.

Do I need winter tyres to drive in Austria? Between 1 November and 15 April, yes, in wintry conditions, for any car up to 3.5 tonnes. Book them explicitly with a hire car for a winter trip.

Is tap water safe to drink in Austria? Yes, everywhere. Vienna’s supply comes from Alpine springs by pipeline.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The four tips below are the Austria-specific things that are easy to get wrong.

1. Save 140, and remember Vorarlberg is the exception. Mountain rescue is 140 everywhere in Austria except Vorarlberg, where you dial 144. That is the western corner around Bregenz and Lech, so it catches people arriving from Switzerland or Germany.
2. Carry the EHIC and a policy, not one or the other. The EU’s own guidance says the card does not help with rescue or repatriation, and an Alpine helicopter is billed to the person it lifts.
3. Check the lift’s last descent before you plan a walk down from the top. Cable cars stop well before dark, and the Pfänder, Karren and most other Austrian mountain railways also close for several weeks of maintenance in the autumn.
4. Ask about the TBE vaccination months ahead, not days. The Austrian vaccination plan recommends it for the whole country year-round, and full protection takes three doses.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team has travelled Austria from Vienna to Vorarlberg, hiking in the Zillertal, the Paznaun and the Bodensee-Vorarlberg region. The team covers Austria for independent travellers, including the travel insurance, car rental and mountain-season planning that a safe trip actually needs, and updates this page when emergency numbers, winter driving rules and health advice change.