anyone been? any recommendations for towns to stay in, where to go, where to avoid etc?
I can't drive and want to stay somewhere with a train station, can take bus for excursions etc
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Don‘t visit the biggest tourist trap in Austria (Hallstatt). Literally anywhere else but there. Maybe stay in Salzburg and visit some lakes and smaller towns from there. Also use this - fahrplan.oebb.at - to get directions for bus and train.
vienna isnt the biggest tourist trap?
Vienna like any other city its size has lots of tourist sites and stuff to see, so of course there are tourists but much less so than cities like Rome, Paris, Berlin etc. Hallstatt is a tiny little village of around 800 people and sometimes gets over a million tourists per year (mostly chinese). The entire village is built around tourism now. They even had to limit the number of bus arrivals, because it was too much.
Go to Slovenia and do Lake Bled and Ljubljana instead. It'll be a more authentic experience with a lot less tourists.
I have already been to Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj (was very fun, still a lot of tourists)
my gf wants to go here for 2 days and I have no idea what to do
she only follows intineraries from pinterest and shit so it looks like we are going to Hallstatt...
what's so bad about it?
we are staying in Bad Ischl
It‘s completely overrun by tourists. You‘ll get a cheaper, more authentic and less stressfull experience literally at literally any other lake around you (and there are lots).
argh god I don't think I can convince her out of going to it. at least it will only be for half a day
Lake Bled roads are busy but the hiking trails are empty. Only bugmen who stay in the city would say it's a tourist trap.
>What do I do here?
Hike
Hallstatt is literally wall to wall Chinese tourists packed in a tiny place. Absolutely miserable.
+1.
Vienna is a cool city. The architecture is beautiful. The palace is unreal. We rented electric bikes and cruised the whole city in a day just checking out the neighborhoods. You'd be crazy not spend a day or two in Vienna if you're in the area. Drop a pin on Michaelerplatz in google maps and look around. It's an impressive city.
>Lake Bled roads are busy but the hiking trails are empty.
when I went, there were quite a lot of people hiking too - even some Americans, surprisingly. not everyone wants to swim in the lake
you can get a train to the other side of the lake then get on a boat to cross it
we will stay in Bad Ischl and for the first day go to Hallstatt and for the second probably to St Gilgen or St Wolfgang
>Hallstatt is literally wall to wall Chinese tourists packed in a tiny place. Absolutely miserable.
That sounds like it's worth experiencing actually.
If you thought Lake Bled was overrun by tourists, wait until you get to Hallstatt. You're going to hate it.
Don't listen to the people saying not to go, I had a magnificent time. It's not as touristy as you'd think because Hallstatt is uncomfortably disconnected from the major rail networks. You have to take smaller and smaller lines and then the last leg of the trip is only accessible by bus. This filters many normalgays. There were a couple Chinese but the capacity is hard limited by the number of buses so overcrowding is verifiably false.
I would not stay directly in Hallstatt. It's very expensive and not big enough to merit more than a day trip unless you plan on hiking deep into the mountains. I did it as a day trip from Salzburg. Get up early and take the earliest possible bus and you'll have a solid 6-8 hours, which is plenty.
See the cable car, see the salt mine, get some authentic salt, go to the kickass overlook and get a 360 view that makes you feel like a dragon soaring through the mountains. Get something to eat and take the meme photo. At that point you've pretty much seen all there is to see. Not a bad trip but like I said, short.
My main disappointment was that there wasn't anything particularly good or local to eat there. Every restaurant is just kinda 3 star "whatever".
I went to Hellstatt and not a single restaurant had space for me to eat there. Not a fricking single one. All were taken by bus loads of Chinese tour groups.
Do you plan to go hiking? Naturfreundesteig at Traunstein mountain makes for a light climb in a scenic environment (no special equipment needed).