Austria Travel Guide: How to Plan a Trip to Austria

A first trip to Austria fits into 7 days: 3 days in Vienna, 2 in Salzburg and the Salzkammergut lakes, and 2 in Innsbruck or the Tyrolean Alps. Austria costs more than Germany or Czechia and less than Switzerland, with an inexpensive restaurant meal averaging €16 ($19, £14) and a Vienna coffee-house cappuccino €4.10 ($4.75, £3.50). May, June and September are the months for cities, lakes and hiking, and December to March is the ski season, which is the other reason people come.

Austria is a federal parliamentary republic of 9.2 million people in the middle of Europe, made up of 9 states, bordering 8 countries and using the euro. It has been militarily neutral since 1955, joined the EU in 1995, and packs the Alps, a former imperial capital and one of Europe’s most usable railways into an area smaller than Portugal.

This guide is written by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team for independent travellers, and it covers timing, trip length, transport, costs, lodging, food, festivals, etiquette and all 9 states. Founder Sofie Couwenbergh’s first-hand notes come from her trips to Vienna, where she learned the Viennese waltz, to the Vorarlberg and the Bregenzerwald, to the Zillertal and the Krimml waterfalls, and to Ischgl, where she walked the culinary St Jakobsweg between mountain huts.

Austria quick facts

The Austria quick facts below cover the capital, language, currency, government, size, population, time zone, plugs, EU and Schengen status, driving, tap water and the emergency number.

The table stops at the practical facts. Trivia such as the number of castles and the origin of the croissant sits in our 77 fun facts about Austria post.

Austria guides on Wonderful Wanderings

The Austria guides on Wonderful Wanderings go deeper than this hub on Vienna, Tyrol, the Vorarlberg, food, packing and safety. The 15 guides worth starting with are listed below, most useful first.

1. Where to stay in Austria: accommodation across the country, from budget hotels to family-run mountain inns.
2. Things to do in Austria in winter: the case for a winter trip whether or not you ski.
3. Places to visit in Austria in summer: lakes, passes and mountain towns for the warm months.
4. Things to do in Innsbruck: the Tyrolean capital ringed by mountains.
5. Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis: the family-friendly Tyrolean ski and summer resort.
6. Things to do in the Zillertal: the valley behind Mayrhofen, in both seasons.
7. Krimml waterfalls: the tallest waterfall in Austria and the walk up beside it.
8. A week in the Vorarlberg: including the designer bus stops at Krumbach in the Bregenzerwald.
9. Days in the Bregenzerwald: the valley that made modern Austrian architecture.
10. Bregenz, Feldkirch and Dornbirn: the 3 towns on Lake Constance and behind it.
11. Modernism in Vienna: the museums covering Freud, Klimt, Schiele and the Secession.
12. Learning the Viennese waltz: Sofie’s dancing lesson in the city of the ball season.
13. Austrian food: the dishes Sofie has eaten and written about.
14. The culinary St Jakobsweg in Ischgl: fine cooking in mountain huts along a walking route.
15. Almabtrieb: the autumn festival where decorated cattle are walked down from the high pastures.

Three more posts cover packing, safety and reading. Our what to wear in Austria in summer and packing for Austria in winter guides go item by item, Austria travel safety covers the mountains as well as the cities, and 5 books about Austria is the reading list. Older posts sit in the archive; browse all Austria posts for the full list.

Sofie’s article on how to spend a week in Austria in winter helped me plan my own trip there. – Reader Anubha

Best time to visit Austria

May, June and September are the months to visit Austria for cities, lakes and hiking, when days reach 18-25°C (64-77°F), the mountain huts and cable cars are open and the July and August peak has not arrived or has passed. December to March is the other answer, because Austria’s main ski season runs then and the Christmas markets fill Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck from mid-November. The 4 seasons are described below.

• Spring (March to May): cold and unsettled in March and April, with night frost and snow at altitude, then reliably pleasant in May.
• Summer (June to August): warm days averaging around 25°C (77°F) and occasionally reaching 35°C (95°F), cool nights, afternoon thunderstorms in the mountains, and the highest prices and crowds in July and August.
• Autumn (September and October): warm, clear days into early October, the Almabtrieb cattle processions, then mist and night frost.
• Winter (November to March): cold, with January the coldest month and temperatures often below 0°C (32°F), colder still at altitude; ski season runs from December to March, and the Hintertux glacier runs year-round.

May, June and September also give the lowest airfares and the thinnest crowds outside winter, while the balls, festivals and markets in the table below each pull their own peak.

How many days in Austria and a sample route

Plan 7 days for a first trip to Austria: 3 in Vienna, 2 in Salzburg and the Salzkammergut, and 2 in Innsbruck or Tyrol. Austria is 575 km (357.3 mi) from Lake Constance to the Hungarian border and the railway links every city on that line, so a west-to-east or east-to-west run works better than a hub-and-spoke plan. The 7-day sample route is listed below.

1. Days 1 to 3, Vienna: Schönbrunn, the Hofburg, St Stephen’s Cathedral, the Ringstrasse and an afternoon in a coffee house, with our modernism in Vienna guide for the Klimt, Schiele and Freud museums.
2. Day 4, Salzburg: about 2 hours 20 minutes from Vienna by railjet, for the fortress, the old town, Mozart’s birthplace and the Sound of Music locations.
3. Day 5, the Salzkammergut: Hallstatt and the Wolfgangsee within an hour of Salzburg, plus the Eisriesenwelt near Werfen, the largest ice cave in the world.
4. Days 6 and 7, Innsbruck and Tyrol: about 2 hours from Salzburg by train, for the things to do in Innsbruck, the Nordkette cable car and a day in the Zillertal or at the Krimml waterfalls.

With 10 to 14 days, add the west or the wine country. The Vorarlberg and the Bregenzerwald fill a week on their own, and Graz with the Styrian wine roads or the Wachau valley along the Danube each fill 3 days.

Top things to see and do in Austria

The things to see in Austria run from an imperial summer palace to the largest ice cave on the planet. The 10 that most first trips are built around are listed below.

1. Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna: the Habsburg summer residence and its gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the single busiest sight in the country.
2. Vienna’s historic centre: the Hofburg, St Stephen’s Cathedral, the Ringstrasse and the coffee houses, all UNESCO-listed and all walkable in a day.
3. Salzburg’s old town: another UNESCO site, with the Hohensalzburg fortress above it, Mozart’s birthplace below and the Sound of Music sites around it.
4. Hallstatt: the lakeside village in the UNESCO-listed Hallstatt-Dachstein Salzkammergut landscape, and so heavily visited that an early morning or a night’s stay is the only way to see it properly.
5. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road: a toll road of switchbacks up to 2,504 m (8,215 ft), open roughly May to October, facing Austria’s highest mountain.
6. Eisriesenwelt near Werfen: the largest ice cave in the world, 42 km (26.1 mi) long, reached by cable car and a climb, and open in summer only.
7. The Krimml waterfalls: the tallest waterfall in Austria at 380 m (1,246.7 ft) in 3 stages, with a path beside the whole drop.
8. The Wachau valley: a UNESCO-listed stretch of the Danube between Melk and Krems, with terraced Grüner Veltliner vineyards, the Melk abbey and a cycle path along the river.
9. Graz old town: a UNESCO site of red roofs, the Schlossberg clock tower and the armoury, in Austria’s second city.
10. The ski areas: St Anton, Kitzbühel, Mayrhofen, Ischgl and the family-oriented Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis, with the Hintertux glacier open all year.

How to get to Austria

You get to Austria by plane to Vienna, by direct train from most of Central Europe, by long-distance coach from all 8 neighbours, or by Danube boat from Bratislava and Budapest. The routes in and the entry rules are described below.

Flights to Austria

Flights to Austria land at 6 international airports, and Vienna International is by far the largest, with direct routes to Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz, Linz and Klagenfurt handle smaller and largely seasonal traffic, and Innsbruck and Salzburg fill with charter flights during the ski season. For a Vienna trip, flying into Bratislava in Slovakia and taking a bus or train about 65 km (40.4 mi) west is often cheaper. Check Trip.com for flight options and prices once your dates are fixed, and set an alert if your dates are flexible.

Trains and coaches to Austria

Trains to Austria run direct from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and ÖBB is one of Europe’s better railways to arrive on. Vienna Hauptbahnhof is the main international station, and ÖBB’s Nightjet sleeper network reaches Vienna from Hamburg, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and Zurich, which makes an overnight train a genuine alternative to a flight. Passengers stay on board at every internal Schengen border. Check train routes and prices within Europe before you fix dates.

Coaches reach Austria from all 8 neighbouring countries, and Vienna International Busterminal (VIB) is the main hub, open year-round. Omio is usually the cheapest name on the route, and ÖBB Intercity buses fill in the domestic gaps.

Boats to Austria

Austria is landlocked, but you can still arrive by water on the Danube. Twin City Liner runs between Bratislava and Vienna in about 75 minutes, and DDSG Blue Danube runs Budapest to Vienna; both are seasonal and neither operates in winter. Check ferry and boat routes and prices if you want to build one into a Central European trip.

Entry requirements for Austria

Check the current entry rules for your passport before you book, because they change. Austria is in the European Union and the Schengen Area, so EU, EEA and Swiss citizens enter with a national ID card, and visa-exempt visitors such as US, Canadian, UK and Australian passport holders get up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen Area, with a passport valid for at least 3 months after the day you leave. Since the Entry/Exit System (EES) became fully operational at Schengen external borders in April 2026, non-EU arrivals give fingerprints and a facial scan instead of getting a passport stamp, which can add time at the airport. ETIAS, the travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors, is not in force yet; check the EU’s official ETIAS site for the launch date. No vaccinations are required.

Getting around Austria

You get around Austria by train, because ÖBB reaches every city and most valleys and the railjet makes Vienna to Salzburg a 2 hour 20 minute trip. Austria’s 4 transport options are listed below.

1. Trains: ÖBB runs railjet on the main west-east line and regional services up the valleys; Sparschiene advance fares cost a fraction of the walk-up price, and the network is dense enough that many ski resorts have their own station.
2. Post buses and regional buses: the yellow Postbus network covers the villages the railway does not reach, and mountain resorts run free or included ski buses in season.
3. City transport: Vienna’s U-Bahn, tram and bus network is one of the most usable in Europe, and Salzburg, Graz, Linz and Innsbruck all run trolleybuses or trams on a single ticket.
4. Rental car: a car earns its place for the Alpine passes, the lakes and the small villages, and it is unnecessary in Vienna; compare prices on DiscoverCars, which compares hundreds of companies on one search.

Two driving rules cost money if you miss them. Every car on an Austrian motorway needs a vignette, which for 2026 costs €9.60 ($11, £8) for 1 day, €12.80 ($15, £11) for 10 days, €32 ($37, £27) for 2 months or €106.80 ($124, £92) for the year, and the digital version can be set to start immediately when you buy it online. Winter tyres are compulsory in wintry conditions from 1 November to 15 April, so check that a hire car has them before you drive into the mountains, and note that several Alpine roads, including the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, charge their own toll on top of the vignette.

What Austria costs

Austria costs more than Germany or Czechia and less than Switzerland, with coffee-house prices the line most visitors notice first. The Austria prices below are country-wide averages from Numbeo, updated 4 September 2026, converted at the European Central Bank reference rates of 4 September 2026, so treat them as a planning baseline rather than a quote.

Those rows add up to a usable day rate. Two restaurant meals, two coffees, a beer and a couple of transport tickets come to roughly €51 ($59, £44) per person before accommodation, which is the biggest and most variable cost: a Tyrolean room in February and the same room in May are not the same product. Ski trips sit in their own bracket, because a lift pass, equipment hire and a resort bed together outweigh everything in the table. Compare live room rates on Booking.com for Austria rather than budgeting from an average.

Money in Austria: cards, cash and tipping

Austria takes cards in hotels, restaurants and shops and still runs on cash in the small places, so carry notes as well. Austria’s cash cases are the ones that catch visitors out: mountain huts, village cafés, bakeries, market stalls and some taxis. The 4 money habits worth adopting are listed below.

1. Carry €50 to €100 ($58 to $116, £43 to £86) in cash, especially before a day in the mountains, because a hut at 2,000 m (6,561.7 ft) may have no card terminal and no signal.
2. Use a bank ATM rather than an independent machine in a tourist street, since Austrian bank machines rarely charge an on-site withdrawal fee.
3. Decline “dynamic currency conversion” when a machine offers to bill you in your home currency, because its rate can be several per cent worse than your bank’s.
4. Tell the server the total you want to pay rather than leaving coins on the table, because Austrian tips are handed over when you settle, and rounding up or adding about 5 to 10% is normal.

Change money at a bank rather than at an airport, hotel or shop. Our tipping in Austria section covers restaurants, taxis, hotels and guides.

Where to stay in Austria

Stay inside the Ring or just outside it in Vienna, in the old town or across the river in Salzburg, and in a village with a lift rather than a town centre if you are skiing. Austria’s accommodation runs from budget city hotels to family-run Gasthöfe and Pensionen, where half board is normal and often better value than eating out. Book ski resorts and Hallstatt months ahead, and expect a small tourist tax per person per night. Our where to stay in Austria guide sets out the options by type and region.

Booking sites do the filtering. We book hotels, guesthouses and mountain inns through Booking.com for Austria, which lists a wide selection and lets you filter down to the ones that meet your criteria.

What to eat and drink in Austria

Austrian food is more than schnitzel and dumplings, because the country also has a serious restaurant scene. Some of that cooking has made its way up to the mountain huts, and eating at local places and buying from markets keeps the cost down. The 10 things to eat and drink are listed below.

1. Wiener Schnitzel: a thin veal cutlet in breadcrumbs, fried in butter or oil, and by law veal rather than pork unless the menu says Schnitzel Wiener Art.
2. Tafelspitz: boiled beef in broth with apple and horseradish sauces, the Habsburg court dish and still a Vienna staple.
3. Kaiserschmarrn: a shredded, caramelised pancake served with plum compote, eaten as a dessert in the city and as a whole lunch in a mountain hut.
4. Kaspressknödel: pan-fried cheese dumplings, served in a clear soup or with salad, and the Tyrolean answer to a cold day.
5. Tiroler Gröstl: potatoes, onions and bacon fried together with paprika and topped with a fried egg, originally made from leftovers.
6. Schlutzkrapfen: Tyrolean half-moon pasta filled with spinach and curd cheese, buttered and sprinkled with chives.
7. Erdäpfelsalat: Austrian potato salad dressed with vinegar, mustard, chives and onion rather than mayonnaise, though it sometimes uses meat stock, which vegetarians should check.
8. Apfelstrudel and Sachertorte: the apple strudel in thin pastry, and the chocolate cake with apricot jam under a chocolate glaze that Vienna argues about.
9. Viennese coffee: a Melange sits closest to a cappuccino, and a coffee house expects you to sit for an hour with a newspaper rather than take it away.
10. Wine and schnaps: Grüner Veltliner from Lower Austria and the Wachau, reds from Burgenland, and fruit schnaps served small and strong after a mountain meal.

Sofie has eaten and written about several of these. Read her Austrian food posts for the dishes she rates and where she ate them.

Festivals and public holidays in Austria

Austria’s calendar peaks twice, in the Vienna ball season from January to Lent and in the summer festival months of July and August. Austria has 13 public holidays, all of them observed nationwide, and shops close on every one.

The table shows what people plan trips around. Our Almabtrieb post covers the cattle processions, and if you cannot get into a ball you can still learn the Viennese waltz, as Sofie did.

Austria’s 13 public holidays are 1 January, 6 January (Epiphany), Easter Monday, 1 May (Labour Day), Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Corpus Christi, 15 August (Assumption), 26 October (National Day), 1 November (All Saints’ Day), 8 December (Immaculate Conception), 25 December and 26 December (St Stephen’s Day). Shops may open on 8 December, which is the exception, and Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday fall on Sundays rather than counting as extra days off.

Culture and etiquette in Austria

Austrians are formal with strangers and warm once introduced, and titles matter more here than in most of Europe. Austrian etiquette rewards a greeting on entering and the formal “Sie” until you are invited to drop it. The 5 things worth knowing are listed below.

1. Use “Sie” and a surname with Herr or Frau until you are asked to use “du”, because an uninvited first name reads as presumptuous.
2. Greet with “Grüß Gott” outside Vienna and “Guten Tag” or “Servus” in the city, and say it on entering a shop or a waiting room rather than only at the counter.
3. Say “Mahlzeit” or “Guten Appetit” before anyone starts eating, and wait for it.
4. Book a table for dinner even midweek, because Austrian restaurants are smaller than they look and walk-ins are turned away.
5. Keep to the right on escalators and stay quiet on trains, since Austrian public space is noticeably more orderly than in neighbouring countries.

One habit is specific to the mountains. Greet other walkers on a trail, because “Grüß Gott” or “Servus” to everyone you pass is standard and its absence is noticed.

The 9 states of Austria

Austria has 9 states, or Bundesländer, each with its own government and capital. A first trip covers 2 or 3. All 9 are listed below, most visited first.

1. Vienna: the capital and the smallest state by area, holding almost a quarter of the country’s population, with Schönbrunn, the Hofburg, the coffee houses, more than 400 balls a year and the modernism museums covering Freud, Klimt and Schiele; Vienna came second in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2026 Global Liveability Index, behind Copenhagen, after topping it for several years.
2. Salzburgerland: named after its capital Salzburg, with the UNESCO-listed old town, Mozart’s birthplace, the Sound of Music locations, the Salzburg Festival founded in 1920 and the Eisriesenwelt, the largest ice cave in the world.
3. Tyrol: the Alpine heart, with Innsbruck hemmed in by mountains, the ski resorts of Kitzbühel, Mayrhofen, St Anton and Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis, the Zillertal and the Krimml waterfalls; Austria’s highest mountain, the Grossglockner at 3,798 m (12,461 ft), stands on the East Tyrol border with Carinthia.
4. Lower Austria: the largest state by area, wrapped around Vienna, with the UNESCO-listed Wachau valley of vineyards, castles and abbeys, and Sankt Pölten as its capital.
5. Upper Austria: the outdoor state, with the Salzkammergut lakes and Hallstatt, hiking and cross-country skiing, and Linz as its capital, home of the Linzer Torte, whose recipe was written down in 1653 and is the oldest known cake recipe in the world.
6. Styria: the “green heart of Austria”, with mountains, alpine pastures, vineyards and spa towns, and Graz, the second city, whose historic centre is UNESCO-listed.
7. Carinthia: the southern lake state, with more than 200 bathing lakes including the Millstätter See and the Faaker See, the Hohe Tauern National Park, the hilltop fortress of Hochosterwitz, village folk festivals in summer and Klagenfurt as its capital.
8. Vorarlberg: the second-smallest state after Vienna and the most architecturally ambitious, with the Bregenzerwald and its designer bus stops at Krumbach, the Grosses Walsertal UNESCO biosphere reserve, Lake Constance and Bregenz as its capital; our Bregenz, Feldkirch and Dornbirn and Bregenzerwald guides cover it.
9. Burgenland: the flat east on the Hungarian border, with Austria’s largest lake, the Neusiedler See, its lowest point at Apetlon 114 m (374 ft) above sea level, some of its finest red wine, serious birdwatching and the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt.

Two seasonal guides sort the country by what is open. Our places to visit in Austria in summer and things to do in Austria in winter posts cover each half of the year.

Is Austria safe?

Austria is one of the safest countries in the world for travellers, including solo women: it ranked 6th of 163 countries in the 2026 Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, and violent crime against visitors is rare. Austria’s real risks are petty theft in the cities and the mountains themselves, and the 4 to watch for are listed below, most common first.

1. Pickpockets and bag snatching in crowded squares, at main stations and on the U-Bahn: keep bags zipped and in front of you, and treat the Christmas markets as peak season for thieves as well as visitors.
2. Mountain weather: conditions change within an hour above the tree line, so check the forecast, tell someone your route and turn back rather than push on.
3. Avalanches: the risk is low on marked, patrolled pistes and real off them, so follow the resort’s daily bulletin and do not ski closed terrain.
4. Alpine driving: passes are narrow, steep and closed by snow for months, and a hire car needs winter tyres between 1 November and 15 April.

Mountain safety deserves more space than a hub can give it. Our Austria travel safety guide goes further on both the cities and the peaks, and the numbers to know are 112 for police, fire or ambulance and 140 for mountain rescue.

What to pack for Austria

Pack layers and cold-weather gear for altitude whatever the month, because a warm valley and a 2,000 m (6,561.7 ft) ridge are different climates on the same day. The 4 seasonal lists follow.

• Summer (June to August): light cotton clothing, walking boots or sturdy shoes, sunglasses, sun cream, swimming gear for the lakes, a light raincoat for afternoon thunderstorms and a reusable water bottle; our what to wear in Austria in summer guide goes item by item.
• Winter (December to February): a warm windproof and waterproof coat, a merino base layer, merino socks, merino leggings under ski or ordinary trousers, a fleece mid-layer, waterproof snow boots, a hat, gloves and a buff; our packing for Austria in winter guide has the full list.
• Autumn (September to November): layers, a rainproof jacket, comfortable shoes, thin merino socks, sun cream and sunglasses, because September can still pass 30°C (86°F) and October nights drop below freezing.
• Spring (March to May): the winter kit for March and April, when night frost and snow are still likely, then the autumn kit for May.

Two extras finish the list. A universal adapter covers the type C and F sockets, and sunglasses matter more at altitude, because snow and thin air both raise the glare.

Staying connected in Austria

You stay connected in Austria with your EU SIM, which works at home rates under the EU’s roam-like-at-home rules, or with an eSIM or a portable hotspot if you come from outside the EU. The 3 options are listed below.

1. An EU SIM: no roaming charges for calls, texts or data in Austria; UK plans vary by operator since Brexit, so check yours before you travel.
2. An eSIM bought before you fly: data from the moment you land, and worth having because mobile coverage thins in the deeper Alpine valleys.
3. A portable hotspot: Sofie carries a portable hotspot and buys day passes outside the EU and as a backup when her phone plan runs low on data. If you would rather not carry a second device, an Airalo eSIM installs on the phone you already have and does the same job.

Free Wi-Fi is normal in Austrian hotels and cafés and available on ÖBB trains, so a hotspot is a mountain and backup tool rather than a daily one.

Travel insurance for Austria

Travel insurance for Austria covers what a health card does not: cancelled flights, lost luggage, a stolen phone and repatriation after an accident. Winter sports need their own line in the policy, because a helicopter evacuation from a piste is expensive and standard cover often excludes off-piste skiing entirely. EU citizens should carry their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), UK visitors their Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC), and everyone else needs a policy with medical cover. The insurer Wonderful Wanderings uses is SafetyWing, whose SafetyWing Nomad Insurance plans can be bought before you leave or while you are already travelling, and which reimbursed Sofie’s costs in full when she caught COVID abroad.

A short history of Austria

Austria’s history runs from a Roman garrison on the Danube through 6 centuries of Habsburg rule to a neutral republic that joined the EU in 1995. The 5 periods that explain what you see are listed below.

1. Rome and the early duchy (1st century BC to 1273): Rome built Vindobona where Vienna now stands, Otto I defeated the Magyars in 955, and Austria became a duchy in 1156.
2. The Habsburgs (1273 to 1806): Rudolf of Habsburg was elected King of the Romans in 1273 and the family ruled for the next 6 centuries, acquiring an empire by marriage as much as by war; the Thirty Years’ War and the War of the Spanish Succession shaped its borders, and the Baroque palaces and churches you visit date from the height of it.
3. Empire and Austria-Hungary (1806 to 1918): Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, defeat by Prussia in 1866 ended Austrian leadership of the German states, and the 1867 compromise reorganised the empire as the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary under one ruler.
4. War and occupation (1914 to 1955): the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 triggered the First World War, the empire broke up in 1918, Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, and the country was occupied by the 4 Allied powers, including Soviet forces, until 1955.
5. The Second Republic (1955 onwards): the Austrian State Treaty of 15 May 1955 restored full sovereignty, Austria declared permanent neutrality and joined the United Nations the same year, joined the EU in 1995 and the Schengen Area in 1997, and remains outside NATO.

Austria travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Austria?

Plan 7 days in Austria: 3 in Vienna, 2 in Salzburg and the Salzkammergut, and 2 in Innsbruck or Tyrol. Ten to fourteen days lets you add the Vorarlberg, Graz and the Styrian wine roads, or the Wachau valley.

Is Austria expensive?

Austria costs more than Germany or Czechia and less than Switzerland: a meal at an inexpensive restaurant averages €16 ($19, £14), a cappuccino €4.10 ($4.75, £3.50) and a single transport ticket €3 ($3.50, £2.60). Ski trips sit in their own bracket once lift passes and equipment hire are added.

What is the best month to visit Austria?

May, June and September are the months to visit Austria for cities, lakes and hiking, with lower airfares and thinner crowds than July and August. Pick December to March instead if you are coming to ski or for the Christmas markets.

Is Austria safe for tourists?

Yes, Austria is one of the safest countries in the world: it ranked 6th of 163 countries in the 2026 Global Peace Index. The realistic risks are pickpockets in city crowds and the mountains themselves, from changing weather to avalanches off-piste, rather than violent crime.

Do you need a car in Austria?

No, you do not need a car for a first trip to Austria, because ÖBB trains link Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Graz and post buses cover the villages. Rent one for the Alpine passes and the lakes, and buy a motorway vignette before you use a motorway.

What is the Austrian vignette and do you need one?

Yes, every car on an Austrian motorway needs a vignette, which for 2026 costs €9.60 ($11, £8) for 1 day, €12.80 ($15, £11) for 10 days, €32 ($37, £27) for 2 months or €106.80 ($124, £92) for the year. The digital version can start the moment you buy it online, and some Alpine roads charge a separate toll on top.

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 first-hand notes in this post come from her trips to Vienna, where she learned the Viennese waltz, to the Vorarlberg and the Bregenzerwald, to the Zillertal and the Krimml waterfalls, and to Ischgl, where she walked the culinary St Jakobsweg between mountain huts. The team covers Austria for independent travellers, including the hotels and mountain inns, food, ski resorts, car rental, packing gear and travel insurance worth booking, and updates this page when prices, dates and rules change.