Eight days through the heart of Austria, from Vienna's imperial palaces to Salzburg's baroque old town, via the Wachau Valley wine road, the iconic lakeside village of Hallstatt, and the clear lakes of the Salzkammergut.
Austria has a compact size that makes it ideal for a road trip: eight days is enough to drive from Vienna's imperial centre west to Salzburg's baroque old town, with the Danube wine road and the Salzkammergut lakes filling the middle days. This Austria road trip itinerary takes the scenic route, avoiding motorways where the views are better on the back road.
Vienna and Salzburg are about 300 km apart by road, but taking a direct motorway route misses the point entirely. The Wachau Valley and Hallstatt each add one full day to the journey; the Salzkammergut lake country fills a transition night before Salzburg.
Vignette: Austria charges tolls on motorways via a windscreen sticker. Buy a 10-day sticker (around €10) at border crossings, petrol stations or online at asfinag.at. The scenic B3 Danube road used on day three is toll-free.
When to go: May, June, September and October are the ideal months: good weather, open facilities, and manageable crowds in Hallstatt. July and August are high season; Hallstatt in particular can be overwhelmingly busy during the day. Book Hallstatt accommodation months ahead whatever time of year you visit.
Fly into Vienna International Airport and collect your hire car, then park it immediately for two days. Vienna's U-Bahn network is excellent and the old town is walkable.
The imperial Ringstrasse and its palaces define Vienna's centre: the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Natural History Museum face each other across the Maria-Theresien-Platz, while Schönbrunn Palace (with its sweeping formal gardens) is a 15-minute tram ride west. The Viennese coffee house circuit, Café Central, Café Hawelka and Café Landtmann, is cultural experience as much as caffeine stop.
For the second day, the Prater Ferris wheel gives a panoramic view of the city before a riverside walk. An evening at a Heuriger wine tavern in the vineyard suburbs of Grinzing or Heiligenstadt rounds out the Vienna experience before the drive begins.
Leave Vienna west on the B3 Danube road rather than the autobahn. The road hugs the south bank of the river through Lower Austria, passing the market town of Tulln before reaching Krems and the formal start of the Wachau Valley.
The Wachau is a UNESCO Cultural Landscape: an 18-kilometre stretch of the Danube between Krems and Melk, lined with terraced vineyards, apricot orchards and medieval villages. Make a first stop at Melk Abbey, the enormous Baroque Benedictine monastery perched on a rocky outcrop above the river, and allow 90 minutes to tour its church and gilded library.
Continue along the river to Dürnstein, the valley's prettiest village. A hilltop castle ruin looks out over the Danube bends below; the climb takes about 40 minutes and the views justify every step. Local Wachauer Riesling and Grüner Veltliner wines from the surrounding vineyards are some of Austria's finest; the village wine cellars are open for tasting in the late afternoon.
Eight days through the finest UNESCO towns of Bohemia and Moravia: Prague's Astronomical Clock, the bone church of Kutná Hora, Telč's Renaissance square, the fairy-tale castle bend of Český Krumlov and Pilsner Urquell in Plzeň.
Hallstatt is the most photographed village in Austria, one of the defining images of Central European travel. It perches at the base of the Dachstein massif, squeezed between the mountain and the Hallstätter See on a sliver of shoreline barely wide enough for a single road. The houses climb the rock wall in tiers, their reflections sharp in the lake on calm mornings.
Car access is restricted. Day visitors must park at the tunnel lot above town and walk down; staying overnight in the village gives you the remarkable experience of walking empty lanes at dawn, before the first tour groups arrive by ferry from Hallstatt Bahnhof at around 8am.
The Salzwelten salt mine above the village is the oldest still-operating salt mine in the world; guided tours include a short underground train and two long wooden slides used by the miners for centuries. The Hallstatt Museum traces the prehistoric Hallstatt culture, which gives its name to an entire phase of European Iron Age archaeology. Take the funicular to the Skywalk Hallstatt for a glass-platform viewpoint above the village, or hire a rowing boat in the morning for the best angle on the lakeside houses from the water.
The Salzkammergut lake district extends north and west of Hallstatt, a landscape of deep clear lakes ringed by wooded mountains. Wolfgangsee is one of the most accessible: St. Gilgen, at the western end, sits in the parish where Mozart's mother was born, and the village's pedestrianised lakefront is calm even in high summer.
This is a transition day between the drama of Hallstatt and the cultural programme of Salzburg. Hire a paddleboard or pedalo on the lake, swim from one of the jetties along the southern shore, or walk the forest path to the Falkenstein Chapel above the village. The lake ferry connects St. Gilgen with the resort of St. Wolfgang (with its famous white horse inn that gave an operetta its name) and the Schafberg rack railway for panoramic views of the wider Salzkammergut.
Salzburg is a 40-minute drive west from St. Gilgen. Park outside the old town and explore on foot; the Altstadt is pedestrianised and the key sights are within easy walking distance.
Mozart was born here in 1756; his birthplace on Getreidegasse is a museum, and the city wears its musical legacy in concert posters, Mozartkugel chocolate shops and the Mozarteum music university. Hohensalzburg Fortress, reached by funicular from Kapitelplatz, is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Central Europe, with wide views over the city and the surrounding Alps.
Cross the Salzach River to the Mirabell Palace and its formal gardens, the staircase and fountain where Maria danced with the children in The Sound of Music. The Hellbrunn Palace water gardens, 6 km south of the city, are worth an afternoon visit for their 1619 trick fountains, designed to ambush unsuspecting guests.
Getting there and back: Fly into Vienna (VIE) and out of Salzburg (SZG) or Munich (MUC, 1.5 hours from Salzburg by road). Most major hire car companies allow one-way rental between the two cities.
Vignette: Required for Austrian motorways. Buy at the border, petrol stations or online at asfinag.at before your trip starts.
Accommodation: Vienna and Salzburg have wide choices at all price points. Hallstatt has very limited rooms; book 3-6 months ahead for summer travel. Dürnstein and St. Gilgen have small guesthouses and holiday apartments.
Language: German throughout. English is widely spoken in all tourist areas and cities.
Currency: Euro. ATMs are widely available; card payment is accepted almost everywhere.
From Cambridge's Gothic spires to Ely's cathedral rising above the flat Fens, this journey through Cambridgeshire takes in Bronze Age causeways, a Norman cathedral with a theatrical three-arched West Front, and Stamford, England's finest stone town.
The full route — stops, maps, and driving times — is on Routebook by Kington.
Eight days from Vienna's imperial palaces to Salzburg's baroque old town, via the Wachau wine road, the iconic lakeside village of Hallstatt, and the clear lakes of the Salzkammergut.
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