How many days do you need in Austria?
Seven days. That is the length of the itinerary we built for Austria, across Vienna, Salzburg and Hallstatt.
Here is what each day holds. Every stop below carries its time, and every gap says how to get to the next stop, with the walk or drive time wherever both stops are mapped.
Austria · 7 days Vienna → Salzburg → Hallstatt
Best time: May to June or September for warm days without August crowds.
Vienna: St. Stephen’s CathedralDay 1
🏛️9:00 AMSt. Stephen’s Cathedral
The Gothic heart of the city with its zigzag-tiled roof. Climb the south tower’s 343 steps for the classic rooftop view.
🚶 ~17 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.6 mi
🖼️1:30 PMKunsthistorisches Museum
The Habsburg art hoard, Bruegel’s largest collection anywhere, Vermeer, Raphael, under a dome with a marble café at its center.
🚶 ~15 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.5 mi
🌆6:00 PMInnere Stadt
The medieval-to-imperial core inside the Ringstrasse: cathedral lanes, the Hofburg, and covered passages that reward aimless walking, especially after dark when the crowds thin.
Vienna: Schönbrunn PalaceDay 2
🏛️9:00 AMSchönbrunn Palace
The Habsburgs’ 1,441-room summer palace. The gardens and the Gloriette hilltop view are free and open from dawn. Go early, tour the state rooms after.
🚗 ~16 min · 4.4 mi
🥾1:30 PMPrater
A vast former imperial hunting ground turned public park, with the 1897 Riesenrad ferris wheel of The Third Man fame turning slowly above the chestnut avenues.
🚶 ~42 min · 🚗 ~5 min · 1.6 mi
🎟️6:00 PMEvening concert or opera
An evening at the Vienna State Opera or the Musikverein’s golden hall, the city that premiered Mozart and Beethoven still performs nearly every night. Standing-room tickets, released at 10 AM on performance day, are the famous budget way in.
Vienna: HofburgDay 3
🏛️9:00 AMHofburg
The winter palace that ran the empire for six centuries, imperial apartments, the Spanish Riding School, and the national library’s baroque State Hall in one sprawling complex.
🚶 ~5 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.2 mi
🖼️1:30 PMAlbertina
A million prints and drawings, from Dürer’s Hare to Monet and Picasso, in a palace on the old city walls with a fine terrace view.
🚶 ~12 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.5 mi
🌆6:00 PMNaschmarkt and Freihausviertel
Vienna’s mile-long open-air market since the 16th century: produce and spice stalls by day, a lively strip of stands and bars into the evening.
Arrive in SalzburgDay 4
🚄8:30 AMTrain to Salzburg
Vienna Hbf to Salzburg Hbf in about 2h20, ÖBB Railjet and private Westbahn compete on the route, so book whichever is cheaper that morning. Sit left for the first Alpine views.
🚄 ~2h20 · 156 mi
🏛️2:00 PMHohensalzburg Fortress
Central Europe’s largest fully preserved medieval castle, looming over the city since 1077. Ride the funicular up, walk down through the Nonnberg lanes.
🚶 ~10 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.4 mi
🌆6:00 PMAltstadt
The left-bank old town: Getreidegasse’s wrought-iron guild signs, hidden arcade courtyards, and squares that host the Salzburg Festival every summer.
Salzburg: Mirabell Palace and GardensDay 5
🏛️9:00 AMMirabell Palace and Gardens
Formal gardens laid out for a prince-archbishop’s mistress, with the fortress framed perfectly down the main axis, the Do-Re-Mi steps for Sound of Music pilgrims.
🚶 ~10 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.4 mi
🖼️1:30 PMMozart’s Birthplace
The yellow house on Getreidegasse where Mozart was born in 1756. His child-size violin and clavichord, and the family apartment as it was.
🚶 ~11 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.4 mi
🎟️6:00 PMFortress or palace concert evening
Chamber concerts of Mozart in the fortress halls or Mirabell’s marble room run nearly nightly, the music belongs to these rooms, and hearing it there beats any recording.
Arrive in HallstattDay 6
⛴️8:30 AMTrain and ferry to Hallstatt
Salzburg to Hallstatt in about 2h30: train via Attnang-Puchheim to the lakeside Hallstatt station, then the ferry across to the village, arriving by boat is the best first look you can buy. A bus route via Bad Ischl takes similar time.
⛴️ ~2h30 · 33 mi
🏛️2:00 PMMarktplatz and the classic viewpoint
The north-edge viewpoint above Gosaumühlstrasse frames the church spire, village, and lake in the shot everyone knows. First light beats the tour buses to it; late afternoon, once the day-trippers drain out, is nearly as good.
🚶 ~4 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.1 mi
🌆6:00 PMHallstatt Markt
The village core: a triangular market square of pastel facades, lanes stacked against the mountainside, and swans on the lake. Sixteenth-century houses, one road, no hurry.
Hallstatt: Hallstatt OssuaryDay 7
🏛️9:00 AMHallstatt Ossuary
The Bone House beside St. Michael’s Chapel holds over 600 painted skulls, the old graveyard was too small, so remains were exhumed and decorated with flowers and names, a practice unique to this valley.
🚶 ~3 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.1 mi
🖼️1:30 PMHallstatt Museum
The World Heritage museum by the market square, 7,000 years of finds from the mine and burial grounds that named the Hallstatt culture, including Bronze Age tools preserved perfectly in salt.
🚶 ~1 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 226 ft
🎟️6:00 PMLake boat cruise
A slow circuit of the Hallstättersee puts the village, the ossuary church, and the Dachstein wall into one panorama, the view the village was built to be seen from.
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