Austria’s famously gorgeous: a predominantly Alpine country filled with majestic peaks, gleaming glaciers, and rustic villages tucked amid steeply rising forests and subalpine meadows.
No question: Austria’s one of Europe’s great mountain destinations, a place to hike lofty trails or ski or snowboard to your heart’s content. You can play on snowfields and scout for ibex on the massive, cloud-splitting massif of the Grossglockner, the country’s 12,460-foot high point. In the Brenner Pass, meanwhile, a 4,500-foot saddle on the Italian line, you’ve got one of the great portals of the Alps: a strategic travel corridor since prehistoric times.
Thoroughfares such as the Brenner and the country’s general position along the frontier of Western and Central Europe suggest the starring role Austria’s played in the continent’s history. After all, today’s pastoral and winter-sports playground was once part of the nerve center of mighty dynasties such as the Holy Roman and Austro-Hungarian empires, and later part of the dismal heartland of Nazi Germany. Step back in time and ponder the country’s illustrious past at famous monuments such as Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace, Innsbruck’s Hofburg, and Salzburg’s hilltop Hohensalzburg Castle. If sublime classical music’s your thing, track the hallowed trace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, from his Salzburg birthplace to the site of his Viennese apartment and burial ground in St. Marx Cemetery.
To fuel all this sightseeing, definitely partake of that sturdy Austrian fare: strudels, dumplings, cakes, sausages, and—yes—plenty of Wiener Schnitzel and beer (and wine!).
Austria makes a specialty out of visions of breathtaking beauty: Alpine spires, Habsburg palaces, picture-perfect castles. Whether it's the pocket wilderness of a glacial valley, a glimpse of timeless pastoralism, or the bustle of a coffee-house or beer garden backdropped by historical architecture, a remarkable heritage ensures that beauty's far from the cardboard-cutout variety.
16 things not to miss.
- Hallstatt's lakeside villageWalk Hallstatt's lakeside village
- Ski the ArlbergSki the Arlberg
- Eisriesenwelt
- Eisriesenwelt Ice Cave
- Schönbrunn PalacePrepare to have your breath promptly taken away at Vienna’s glorious Hapsburg palace, built in the mid-1700s and girded by sprawling gardens.
- Vienna State OperaThis 19th-century beauty sits comfortably among the world’s great opera houses.
- St. Marx CemeteryThis Vienna burying ground’s best-known resident is one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, interred here in an unmarked grave in 1791.
- Spanish Riding SchoolCenturies of equestrian tradition are on display at this Vienna landmark, famed for its aristocratic Lipizzaner horses.
- HofburgThis glorious Habsburg palace in Innsbruck (which shares the name of a similarly spectacular Vienna monument) dates to the 15th century.
- Hohensalzburg CastleDominating a hilltop vantage above Salzburg, this medieval castle, begun in the 11th century, is one of Europe’s most famous.
- Mozarts GeburtshausThis striking yellow home along Salzburg’s Getreidegasse was Mozart’s birthplace, and today houses a museum devoted to the composer.
- Melk AbbeyMelk’s Benedictine abbey, a centerpiece of the Danube’s Wachau Valley, is a glorious example of 18th-century Baroque architecture.
- SalzkammergutAncient salt mines, showstopper Alpine scenery of lakes and steep-rising peaks—this World Heritage Site region is one of Austria’s top destinations.
- GrossglocknerEasily accessible, Austria’s highest peak, a 12,461-foot pyramid in the High Tauern, unspools mighty glaciers; ibex and chamois hop its crags.
- Danube-Auen National ParkNative wetlands and riparian forests of the Danube floodplain, mighty precious commodities in modern Europe, define this Vienna-area park.
- Tomb of Emperor Maximilian IAn astonishing squadron of bronze statues, among them King Arthur and Frederick III, flank this cenotaph in Innsbruck’s Hofkirche.
