Austria

Getting there & around

Getting to Austria by train or bus is easy from within Europe. From London, this can reduce your footprint by about 90% or more compared to plane travel. Once inside the country, avoid using cars when it’s not necessary. In Vienna, a nifty bicycle rental scheme in summer will help you get home from late-night clubbing on an ecofriendly footing, Tulln has a free city bicycle scheme and Waidhofen an der Ybbs in the awkward-to-travel Mostviertel solves the problem by offering free use of mountain bikes for up to a week.

Using public transport is another obvious alternative – and easy because it’s so good in Austria. Trains run through some beautiful and isolated spots, and any gaps in local networks can be plugged by taking along a bicycle or hiring locally. Although using buses becomes a problem on Sundays, you can get around this by planning a weekday trip.

One of the best sources of information about carbon offsetting in Austria is the German-language website www.myclimate.at. There you can read around the issue locally, such as one proposal to set up donation boxes in Austrian travel agencies so travellers can make a direct donation to a carbon offsetting scheme. Whether this proposal can be implemented, however, remains to be seen. The website also allows you to calculate your carbon emissions from a flight and buy a myclimate ticket online (London to Vienna is €6) to offset your footprint.

The main hubs for train services are Zell am See (for services to Salzburg and points north via St Johann im Pongau) and Lienz (for trains east and west into Tyrol and Carinthia).

The authorities are determined to limit the flow of traffic through the park, so most of the roads through it have toll sections and some are closed in winter. The main north–south road routes are Felber Tauern Rd, open year-round, and the Grossglockner Road. The 5.5km-long Felber Tauern Tunnel is at the East Tyrol–Salzburg border: the toll is €10 for cars and €8 for motorcycles. Buses on the Lienz–Kitzbühel route operate along this road.

Getting around by bus is made more attractive by special passes; such deals change periodically, so make inquiries upon arrival. Buying zonal day or week passes for provincial transport should work out significantly cheaper than buying single tickets.