Austria tours

Austria is definitely a four season destination and, even though half of its landscapes are made up of mountains, we have natural adventures there for ten months of the year. So, when working out the best time to go to Austria you may want to think seasonally, and whether you want to hit those high trails or the luscious lower lakes. We have a wide array of holidays in Austria, not just hiking and cycling, but also cross-country skiing and ones for wine lovers. For more information, see our more detailed blog on the Best time to go to Austria.

Austria has a northern European climate and one that’s very much influenced by the mountains, with more than half the country covered with peaks. In spring, as the snows start to melt, cycling tours start to open with maximum temperatures ranging between 10C in March and 20C in May. We only have one hiking tour available as early as March in Austria, and that’s along the Wachau Valley winery trail, which is wonderfully quiet at that time of year too. The country’s other walking trails start opening up in April though, with plenty more in May, when you can reach higher peaks such as the High Trails of the Salzkammergut or the High Trails of Kitzbühel. But be prepared for rain of course. As the ski season can continue into April around Kitzbühel, you may still have white wanderlust views in the distance. 

It’s the glorious sound of music all over Austria in summer of course, with one of our most popular being in the Salzkammergut Lake District, just under 50km from Salzburg, where temperatures average 19C. It’s also when the swimming season kicks off and, with a plethora of mountain lakes, wild swimming is not new to Austrians. You can also head higher into the Austrian Alps in summer when trekking trails are clear. Such as on the Dachstein Alpine Circuit, also open from the end of June. Throughout Austria, temperatures range from 15C to 25C in summer months. 

By autumn, you can take almost 10C off those temperatures, but it’s still a wonderful adventure time. In places like the Wachau Wine Region, for example, which you can walk or cycle through, it’s a time of splendid autumn colours of golden yellow and chestnut brown, making this UNESCO Cultural Landscape even more tasty than usual in autumn. Same goes for the Salzkammergut where the the region’s beech, birch, maple, oak and conifers also provide a panoply of green, gold, yellow, orange and fiery red in autumn, even though you risk more rainfall, of up to 47mm per month. It’s the season for Glühmos, or warm apple cider, so you can adjust to the season with a comforting sip or two. For details of our winter holidays in Austria, see below.

Yes there are! This winter treat of a cross-country skiing holiday delves into Italy’s Dolomites but then continues along a borderland trail into Austrian Tyrol, with three days and nights spent in each country. In addition, due to popular demand, we’ve created two adventures in the Salzkammergut Lake District near Salzburg, which is very popular with our summer hikers. Now you can wrap yourself in its white blanket of wanderlust on either a snowshoeing or cross-country skiing holiday, with no shortage of strudel and spa towns en route.

Austria has a superb rail network, run predominantly by the national rail provider, ÖBB. Their tickets are released generally six months in advance. All of our tour pages have details on how to get there, and we have filtered the ones that are reachable by rail. Nightjet is the sleeper brand of Austrian Railways (ÖBB), although they aren’t limited to Austria. In fact, their sleeper trains take you through the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Nightjet has a great array of cabins bookable for one, two or three people, so no sharing with strangers, and each bed has a sheet and duvet. They all come with a sink as standard, and you pay extra for your own shower and toilet. For more information, see our blogs on How to book cheap train tickets.

Families hike and cycle together as a family a lot in Austria, and connecting with nature is in their DNA. We have some bespoke family adventures, such as the Salzkammergut family adventure or Cycling the Lechradweg in both Austria and Germany. In addition, it’s worth checking out our easy/moderate level walking or easy/moderate cycling holidays, to see if they appeal to all family members. If you have older teens, for example, who have walking experience, you may want to explore more moderate level hiking or cycling holidays. Our adventure specialists are here to cater for your needs, and we can often adapt a day’s itinerary if you think it’s going to be too hard or too easy.

Most definitely and we welcome solo travellers on a great number of our tours. One of our most recent ones is walking the Benedict Pilgrimage Trail which is both a spiritual and viticultural journey through Upper Austria’s Kremstal Valley. For keen solo cyclists, the Habsburg Trail is an historic and epic journey not only through Austria but also through Slovenia and Italy. Our solo Wachau Valley cycle stays in one country, however, and also based in one four-star hotel in Melk. One of our other perfect solo sojourns, if you want to push yourself a bit, is Hiking the high trails of the Salzkammergut. You can find all of our solo trips in Austria here, but please remember that a supplement will be charged as the cost of rooms and also luggage or private transfers (when applicable) is not shared.

Yes, the wasser is wunderbar. It’s literally a source of pride for Austrians because they have been piping water from the mountains to the cities since the late 19th century. You can even walk along one of the earliest examples of engineering, at the First Vienna Pipeline Trail. You will also often find water fountains in the main towns or cities and, in Vienna alone, there are over 1,600 of them. Look out for the word Trinkwasser and, if a traditional old fountain says Kein Trinkwasser, then it’s not drinkable. 
If you are hiking in mountain areas, and want to drink from streams, where there can be a risk of harmful runoff, we do however recommend investing in a filtered water bottle to ensure water is free of any toxins. But in general, the water sources in Austria are managed very carefully.

Austria has excellent healthcare with no major health risks and it is also rabies-free. No vaccinations are required, but the WHO recommends routine vaccines such as tetanus, measles, mumps and rubella before travelling. Ticks can be a problem when hiking, so you do need to take precautions. The tick season runs from March to November and they are more prolific after mild winters. So always take precautions, wear long sleeves and trousers, and tuck your trousers into hiking socks when possible. Lyme disease and Tick-Borne Encephalitis (TBE) are both tick-borne, so always check yourself fully after hiking and carry a tick remover with you too, so that you can catch them quickly. 

Always make sure that you have suitable health insurance to suit your adventure travel and also note that Austria has an excellent Apotheke (pharmacy) system, which is almost like going to a doctor’s surgery. However, it’s worth noting that all shops are closed on Sundays in Austria, so make sure you have everything you need if you’re arriving on that day. As with all international travels, do check up to date information at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for UK travellers or similar foreign office advice in your home country.

Of course, this depends on the region that you are visiting but as with most of our adventures, you may be exploring remote terrain where weather conditions may be unpredictable. For that reason, we have some detailed blogs on packing, which may be of help: What to pack for a cycling trip and What to pack for a hiking trip. As well as that, don’t forget to pack your sense of adventure, plenty of sunscreen and a phrase book.

Overtourism is an issue in many parts of the world, and although we are all for people having adventures, we’re aware that some places just need to put the brakes on. Which is why we aim to take you off the beaten path, and also encourage travel outside of the peak seasons. You don’t really associate Austria with overtourism, as it’s landlocked and doesn’t have a cruise ship issue. And it’s not really top of the list for hen and stag parties etc. However, the popular cities of Vienna and Hallstatt, can get very busy in peak season, when the number of tourists far outnumbers residents. Hallstatt, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in particular, has suffered from a movie tourism frenzy, as it was said to have inspired the makers of Frozen. Ironically, local people wanted the number of tourists to be frozen too. You couldn’t write it. 

But this doesn’t affect our tours really, except perhaps cycling from Passau to Vienna on the Danube Cycle Path, or cycling from Prague to Vienna, but these are bookable from March or April until October, so you can choose a quieter season if you want to avoid crowds on your last day. And many of our Salzkammergut tours stop in Hallstatt, so it can feel like a shock going from mountains to mass tourism in peak season. Come in spring and the Frozen fans won’t have shown themselves yet. Come in autumn, and the masses will have melted.

Although its traditional food and drink menus of Knödel, Schnitzel and a lot of beer aren’t exactly favourites with gluten-free travellers, things are changing in Austria. And you won’t be looked at strangely if you ask for gluten free menu choices (Glutenfrei). The same goes for dairy free (ohne Milchprodukte), but it’s always worth telling us in advance, so that we can advise your accommodations, especially if they are rural ones.

Most adventurers in Austria’s rural areas just want a good three course meal at the end of the day, and some great picnic food for their backpack. Austrians love their bread and cakes, which means that bakeries are top notch and great value, especially for generous sandwiches. And you’ll always get good value out of an Austrian market, so it’s worth timing your visit to coincide with at least one of these. A meal at an inexpensive restaurant outside the main cities costs between €10-€25 per meal, while mid-range establishments can charge €25-30 per person. You can add about €10 onto that if you’re heading to Vienna. A beer in a bar ranges from €3-€5 and a glass of wine averages around €5 and a litre of house wine is from €8-20.

It’s the euro, or €, the same currency that’s used across most countries in the European Union. 

Service charge isn’t usually added to the bill (Rechnung) but leaving an extra tip of between 5-15% is normal in restaurants, or rounding it up generously. It’s traditional to do that when you pay the bill, rather than leaving notes or coins on the table. 

It’s generally excellent although it can still be problematic in some rural areas. The government has a clear broadband strategy, however, to have nationwide availability of gigabit-speed internet, and a substantial 5G mobile infrastructure by 2030. At present, its download speeds are impressive, averaging 105.32Mbps, just beating their neighbouring Germany, which is at 109.79 Mb/s. There must be something in all that water of theirs. For more information on speeds and providers, see here. And, the most useful wifi phrase you can have on your travels in Austria is “Wie ist das WLAN-Passwort, bitte?” or what is the wifi password please? For pronunciation, check out this short video.