Are you a foreigner in Austria,
looking forward to discovering the country’s wonders? Then I would like to
recommend you with all my heart Hallstatt!
It is a mountain-lake
destination, perfect for a day trip or a maximum 2-3 days stay, either as a
couple, family or just friends. I loved this place, so let me tell you why.
We planned the trip quite in a
short notice, about two weeks ahead. The possibilities offered by Austria were
many, so picking this one has been a matter of internet information and
recommendations from friends who have been impressed it. Hallstatt is actually
a village situated by the lake with the same name and next to mountains of
heights of about 2000 meters. Apart from this spectacular location, the village
is famous for being part of the UNESCO patrimony and the salt mine that you
find here is the oldest one in the world. In this area, Salzkammergut, there is
a series of small mountain villages, each of them offering different
attractions, like glaciers or trekking trails. This website gives you more information about a few of the notable
locations. However, Hallstatt is the most famous and, from my point of view,
the one that is worth visiting the most.
We went there from Vienna by
train, which cost 52 Euro/person/both ways, each time having to change two
trains. It took us about 4 hours to arrive to Hallstatt and we have been lucky
to enjoy a sunny and wind-less week-end. From the train station in Hallstatt,
one has to take a boat to arrive in the village, but it takes only 5 minutes,
costs only 2-3 Euros and is a very good opportunity to have another perspective
of the scenery. As soon as we arrived, we have been impressed by an enchanting
atmosphere with colorful houses built basically on the steep mountain, cafes
and restaurants by the lake, elegant swans, clear water and autumn-like forest.
However, despite its long history, I have to admit that nowadays it seems to be
mostly a touristic village so this is not the place to go to if you are looking
for an authentic place where only the locals go. But it has its own
authenticity and unforgettable landscape. By the way, it was quite funny to
find out that the Chinese people built an identical replica of this village in
their country. This helped in building its fame, reason for which you will encounter
numerous Asian tourists.
Concerning the accommodation, you
should know that it is very difficult to find something and the best thing
would be to look for it at least two weeks in advance. We did not have this
time so we searched just in the week before going and we have been extremely
lucky to find something. If you are curious about the prices, I think an
average would be 50 Euro/pers./night, but there are also cheaper ones provided
you look for them early. If you are in a deadlock, my advice is not to take as
an alternative accommodation in another village if you don't go by car. They are not too far one from
another, but the distance is still too large to be walked and the buses are
crazy – there is a schedule but, as we experienced ourselves, it is not
respected and even the bus drivers might give you wrong information.
So, what can you do in Hallstatt?
I will tell you my own experience, but the website can give you more options.
- Visit the Salt Mine. The price is around 22 Euro/ pers., if you are a student. It is worth the money because you get to go with the cable car, you have a nice view from up there, including a panorama point, you also get to walk a bit, the cave is very interacting and also funny (the highlight for me was the means by which you went down – something similar to a roller-coaster).
- Have a walk in the village and take lots of pictures
- Go trekking. There are also marked trails which you do not have to pay for. My favorite was the stairs-one. You see some stairs going up and then you think “Let’s see where they lead” and at some point you expect them to stop. But they go and go and go… Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to discover the path until the end, but it was quite exciting.
- Take the bus to the villages around (they have as well some sights that might interest you)
- Have a coffee or a meal by the lake
Don’t expect any nightlife,
not even evening-life to a certain extent, especially if you are going there during the week-end.
If you are familiar with Austrian customs, you should also know that very few
things are open on Saturday or Sunday evenings. At 9 p.m., you can already
count by the fingers of your hands the number of the restaurants or cafes still
open.
Of course, adventures did not
miss from the trip! It started just from the beginning! Who could have guessed
that one of the subway lines was under repair?? So, I had to wait extra time
for a tram to get me there which, as you might suppose, takes anyway more time than
the subway. Everything seemed fine when I met my friend in the second subway,
but we soon realized that we our papers were actually not the tickets. Luckily,
after a careful reading of the confirmation e-mail, we found out that we can
print the tickets in the train station, at one of the QBB machines. We rushed
there and, to our relief, we eventually settled everything. In 15 minutes the
train arrived and we comfortably sat in our chairs, eating a free croissant and
drinking coffee, excited and diverted like small children on a trip to
Disneyland.
There are many more places left
to discover in Austria and this is just the beginning. But, in the end,
Hallstatt was a good choice that could be described as relaxing, inspiring and
simply beautiful.
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