Vienna
'Vienna remains Vienna, and that's the worst anyone could ever say about it', quipped the Austrian writer Alfred Polgar.
'Vienna remains Vienna, and that's the worst anyone could ever say about it', quipped the Austrian writer Alfred Polgar.
Mountain ranges converge in picture-perfect Tirol (also spelled Tyrol).
Salzburg is storybook Austria.
The Danube, which enters Lower Austria from the west near Ybbs and exits in the east near Bratislava, Slovakia’s capital, carves a picturesque path through the province’s hills and fields.
Vorarlberg is Austria’s red hot chilli pepper – tiny but feisty.
Austria’s second-largest city is probably Austria’s most relaxed, and after Vienna it is also Austria’s liveliest for after-hours pursuits.
A picture-perfect wonderland of glassy blue lakes and tall craggy peaks, Austria’s Lake District is a longtime favourite holiday destination attracting visitors in droves from Salzburg and beyond – including Habsburg emperors and their hangers-on.
One of the great things about Innsbruck is that almost every corner you turn affords spectacular views of the Nordkette Alps, the city’s natural skyscrapers.
It took a long time coming, but since Linz seized the reins as European Capital of Culture 2009, the world it seems is finally waking up to the charms of Austria’s third city.
Not an urban centre comparable with Graz or Vienna, Klagenfurt walks a very fine line between being Austria’s boondocks capital and a playground for a partying set.
What a view! Ah yes, the locals proudly agree, Bregenz does indeed have the loveliest of views: before you the Bodensee, Europe’s third-largest lake, spreads out like a liquid mirror; behind you the Pfänder climbs to the Alps; to the right you see...
Ask an Austrian to rattle off the top ski resorts in the country, and Kitzbühel will invariably make the grade.
Mayrhofen is ever so traditional in summer, with its alpine dairies, trails twisting high into the mountains and stein-swinging Volksmusik pouring out of every Gasthof.
With the jagged Dolomites on its doorstep, Lienz dishes up Italian charm around its cobbled centre, where chirpy locals kick back with gelato (ice cream) in the palm-studded square.
Grazing the Swiss border and running west of the Inntal, the Paznauntal (Paznaun Valley) is a dramatic landscape overshadowed by the pearly white peaks of the Silvretta range.
Franz Schubert called Steyr ‘inconceivably lovely’ and was inspired to pen the sprightly Die Forelle (Trout Quintet) here.
Subscribe now and receive a 20% discount on your next guidebook purchase
© 2013 Lonely Planet. All rights reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced without our written permission.