The most beautiful cities in Austria
Welcome to one of Europe’s most beautiful countries. Austria’s landscapes, regions and townscapes provide almost the full range of European variety in the centre of the continent. Austria is often associated, rightly, with winter sports, but there is so much more on offer. Its alpine areas are rugged and picturesque, but that’s far from being the whole story.
Travel information
Key tourist cities have high-quality travel information in English. This is especially true of Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Linz, but many other towns are focused on serving international traveller needs. Tourism and related activity, especially winter sports, are a focus.
Tourist information centres
City tourist information centres with supporting websites are generally of a high standard and information kiosks can be found in central rail stations of big cities. Almost everyone speaks English well.
Free guides are plentiful in English and translations are generally of reasonable standard. Maps are excellent and many basic maps are available free.
Tourist services are supported by detailed and user-friendly information websites, but the English versions of tourist office websites (or transport sites) are not always identical. In smaller cities the tourist information component is incorporated in the local civic site.
Tourist offices in the biggest cities are generally open seven days, M-F 9.00 or 10.00 to 17.00 or 18.00. On Sundays and holidays hours may be shorter.
A booking service will usually be provided, at least online. Sometimes there will also be information or ticket sales for entertainments and events. Official guided tours or tour guides can usually be arranged and booked.
Tourist websites
Austria’s national tourism website offers suggested two or three-day itineraries for Vienna, Graz, Salzburg and Innsbruck as well as themed activity links and a feature section on Austrian culture and arts. The hotel booking portal is a tool to explore standard hotel options. There is also a section on food and drink experiences. The outdoor activities link includes winter sports, bicycle travel, hiking and climbing. There is also a window on off-beat city tours.
Here are the official sites for key destinations:
State tourism organisations
Vienna functions as a city state, with its own tourist website. The other eight states’ sites have English versions:
Other visitor information
Travellers can often afford to ignore pure souvenir shops in their search for the background story. Cathedrals and large churches often provide information sheets or inexpensive booklet guides in English translation are available. Some churches offer daily tours, generally by volunteers.
Museum shops are among the best places to browse for literature. Reputable bookshops include the Thalia.at chain, which has more than 40 stores (nine in Vienna).
At sites such as castles or palaces, there is usually good information in English – perhaps a whole shop – along with the inevitable postcards and souvenirs.
Small Historic Towns in Austria is the English-language version of a promotional website produced on behalf of 16 regional towns. Links to English versions of town websites offer an accommodation booking portal, themed activities links, events list, details for guided tours, sites of interest and email inquiry links. It’s a closer look at Austrian culture outside the largest cities.
Maps
Austrian street addresses give the street name first, followed by the house or building number. The pattern of street numbers will generally be odd numbers on one side and even on the other, but there are some exceptions. Note that the southern Tyrol (Südtirol) region is part of Italy.
The general bookstore chain Thalia stocks strong map selections among their ranges of guidebooks and other travel literature.
Sheet maps: The Austrian publisher Freytag & Berndt offers a road map of Austria at 1:300,000. An inexpensive 1:200,000 road atlas is also available. Kompass offers a 1:300,000 map of Austria in English and French that includes city maps for Vienna, Graz, Salzburg and Innsbruck.
Freytag & Berndt publishes 1:25,000, 1:15,000 and 1: 12,500 Vienna street maps and 1:15,000 and 1:7,500 plans of main cities (Innsbruck is 1:8,000).
The company is also a leading seller of general and outdoor activity maps with an online store that operates partly in English.
A Vienna 1:21,500 map is available from the German publisher Falk, including street register a public transport routes. Buy a recent version as the routes can become outdated quickly.
Marco Polo Mairs (1:12,000) city plans are available
Hallwag Kümmerley+Frey is particularly strong in outdoor activity maps and published several 1:35,000 regional activity maps with a free smartphone download option.
Online maps: Motorists can go to the AA route planner for point-to-point journeys including map and directions with distances and approximate travel times. Times over longer distances assume Autobahn travel.
Google’s maps and satellite photos, including Google Earth, cover Austria intensively and can provide detailed directions, distances and guides to travel times for routes.
Google’s Street View function operates extensively in major cities, widely in regional cities and towns. But in some pedestrian zones it may be limited to the Photo Sphere function.
Bing Maps offers wide coverage in maps and aerial images but visuals from its Streetside coverage were disabled indefinitely in 2012. Its Bird's Eye feature however offers useful views of major and some regional cities.
The detailed maps of here.com are especially good for street numbers but do not offer street-level images.
Websites
There are sites covering Austrian life and culture in English, and sites in German with English versions, that offer useful cultural perspectives.
Translating websites from German: Sites in German sometimes translate reasonably well in browsers or using translation programs or functions. Google Chrome has the advantage of automatically seeking out suitable versions for users in English-speaking countries while allowing the option of automatically translating websites in German. Bring up the site by using a normal subject search, such as ‘Regensburg tourist office’ and click “Translate this page” to the right of the URL. An easy view of original text is available by clicking at top right or (on a PC) by hovering a mouse over text sections.
Google Translate allows travellers (or armchair travellers) to translate blocks of pasted text at will and is especially easy to use when bookmarked in the browser. Users can also highlight text in German-language websites and right-click to open the translator. Select Google Translate from the drop-down to open the translator window. A Google Translate add-on can be downloaded for Mozilla Firefox.
Microsoft Edge supports the free, downloadable Microsoft Translator tool, which powers the Bing Translator for multiple languages. The app automatically detects foreign languages and offers the translation.
DeepL Translator claims a high level of accuracy in 31 languages and offers a DeepL Translator Pro version.
Note that when searching German words or names with mutated (Umlaut) vowels (ä, ö, ü) it is usual to type 'e' directly after the base vowel (for St Pölten, type 'St Polten'). Where words or names use the character 'ß', type 'ss' (for Hauptstraße, type 'Hauptstrasse'). This will usually be the case where URLs include such names.
Official sites: Two German websites offer multiple links to explore individual interests. Goethe-Institut, Germany’s worldwide cultural organisation and German language teacher, devotes its site to all its work as well as articles on aspects of life, society, the arts and politics. The German Deutsche Welle site has much general information in English (and about 30 other languages) including travel articles, the arts and culture, and resources for learning German.
Expatriate guides: The practical business of living in Austria, including housing, employment, education and networking, is covered by two European online networks with associated online newsletters. The Spanish-based international site Just Landed, which covers many countries, has an Austria page. Basic articles are backed up by an online forum with tips from expats in response to queries, although there are some personal notices and the services section is largely business-based.
Expatica.com is a Netherlands-based enterprise covering 11 countries with an Austria information page. Useful guides and articles on practical matters with links are included, along with advertising material.
The expat information site The Local has an Austria page with news (much with a lifestyle flavour) and links including noticeboards, job ads and blogging, but free views are limited.
News
It is not hard to find news in English while on the road and some of it comes from German sources.
Newspapers: Newspapers or news magazines with an international profile – by and large UK or US mastheads – are not difficult to find in big cities at major transport hubs, especially rail stations, large bookshops. Other press outlets including Trafik kiosks may have some English publications. Expect a markup on prices.
Television: In big cities most hotels offer pay TV services and access to BBC World, Sky News, CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg makes it easy to stay in touch 24 hours. But this is not normal in budget accommodation such as pensions and youth hostels, although some of these may offer communal TV access.
Online: For news on Austria, try The Local Austria. The Euronews network offers an Austria page, although posts do not appear daily.
