How to Spend 5 Days in Austria

This 5-day route is built for first-time visitors who want a dense, easy taste of Austria without crossing the country: one baroque city and a cluster of mountain lakes, all within two hours of each other. The pace is moderate and relaxed, with short transfers every day or two. You need regional trains, the Postbus line 150 along the lakes, a Wolfgangsee ferry and a few cable cars or funiculars.

Days 1-2: Salzburg

Start in Salzburg, which is compact enough that you can walk from the train station to the old town in 20 minutes. Spend your first full day on Salzburg Fortress, riding the funicular up to Hohensalzburg and walking the ramparts for the view over the river Salzach and the domes below. Afternoons are for the narrow Getreidegasse lanes, the Residenzplatz fountain and coffee in one of the old wood-paneled cafés. Two nights keeps the pace easy and gives you an evening to drink at the Augustiner beer garden under chestnut trees.

Day 3: St. Gilgen and St. Wolfgang

Bus 150 leaves Salzburg … read more 👉

This 5-day route is built for first-time visitors who want a dense, easy taste of Austria without crossing the country: one baroque city and a cluster of mountain lakes, all within two hours of each other. The pace is moderate and relaxed, with short transfers every day or two. You need regional trains, the Postbus line 150 along the lakes, a Wolfgangsee ferry and a few cable cars or funiculars.

Days 1-2: Salzburg

Start in Salzburg, which is compact enough that you can walk from the train station to the old town in 20 minutes. Spend your first full day on Salzburg Fortress, riding the funicular up to Hohensalzburg and walking the ramparts for the view over the river Salzach and the domes below. Afternoons are for the narrow Getreidegasse lanes, the Residenzplatz fountain and coffee in one of the old wood-paneled cafés. Two nights keeps the pace easy and gives you an evening to drink at the Augustiner beer garden under chestnut trees.

Day 3: St. Gilgen and St. Wolfgang

Bus 150 leaves Salzburg for the lakes and reaches St. Gilgen in about 50 minutes. The village sits on the northwestern tip of the Wolfgangsee, where the Zwölferhorn cable car climbs above the water for wide views of the lake. From the jetty, take the ferry across to St. Wolfgang, the prettiest crossing of the trip, and stay the night. In the afternoon, ride the Schafberg rack railway (spring to autumn) to the summit, where on a clear day you can count more than a dozen lakes below you.

Days 4-5: Hallstatt and the Dachstein

Connect via Bad Ischl to Hallstatt, about 1.5 hours by bus and train. Arrive by the lake ferry from the station opposite, which is the best first view of the village. Stay one night so you get the empty lakefront at dusk and early morning, then on day 5 take the bus to Obertraun and the cable car up into Dachstein Salzkammergut. The Five Fingers platform hangs over a 400-meter drop, and the ice and mammoth caves nearby keep you busy until the afternoon train back toward Salzburg or Vienna.

If you have a spare hour on the bus from Salzburg, get off at Fuschl am See for a swim in the Fuschlsee, a small lake with water so clear you can see the stones on the bottom from the jetty.