Austria

Our first trip of 2020 was a trip together to Austria. We decided to focus on Salzburg with a stopover in Vienna. We flew into Vienna and then took a train to Salzburg for two nights, then back to Vienna for a night. Salzburg was amazing and was one of our favorite places we’ve been.

From the moment we got off the train we were blown away! The view of the mountains was beautiful.

Where we stayed

Vienna Night 1: our first night we stayed at a Holiday Inn in Vienna that was close-ish to the airport, as we were flying in late. It was a very nice Holiday Inn but was not as central as we normally prefer to be. Our final night in Vienna we stayed at the Hilton Vienna Park. I love Hilton and we got a nice upgraded view since I have elite status. The hotel was under renovation at the time but was a really nice central location.

Salzburg: We stayed at the Imlauer Pitter in Salzburg. It was a great location and we walked to most everything. The hotel itself was also very nice.

How to get around

Vienna: Since we spent less than 24 hours in Vienna we bought tickets for public transit individually as we needed them. There were machines at the places we needed them, or we used the OBB app. It was a bit confusing to buy individual so next time I think we would buy a 24 hour ticket. We also used the CAT train to get to the airport, which was a bit expensive at €12 each but was nice if you’re in a hurry like we were.

Salzburg: We bought the Salzburg card and picked it up from the train station on arrival. It had all public transit included and lots of tourist attractions so even for just a few things it was super worth it!

Things to do - Salzburg

Hohensalzburg Fortress

When we first arrived in Salzburg the man who checked us into our hotel gave us a map and recommended that we see the fortress. The funicular that takes you to the top was closed that day, but he said it was a “nice easy walk”. It was a suprisingly beautiful day for January so we decided it was fine to walk up. News flash - it was not an easy walk! It did turn out to be worth it though. The view was very nice and the fortress was cool to wander around. The Salzburg card also paid the entrance fee.

St. Peter’s Abbey

St. Peter’s Abbey was very pretty. It’s also crazy old so it was cool to walk around. We also ate dinner there at what is believed to be the oldest restaurant in the world! (More on that below.)

Untersberg Lift

We did not originally intend to do this because we expected the weather to be pretty crappy in January, and the whole point of going up to the mountain was to see the view. We were very excited to see a beautiful almost 60 degree sunny day and decided to check out the lift. It’s about a 30 minute bus ride from downtown Salzburg but the Salzburg card covered the whole thing. We got to the lift at about 10:10 in the morning and found that it only ran on 30 minute intervals so we had to wait for a while. The lift was pretty big though so lots of people could go up at once. The ride up was gorgeous and snowy.

Untersberg Mountain

The view from the top of the mountain was beautiful. There’s a little viewing area right out of the lift but you can also walk out of the lift and wander around for a while. Since we hadn’t planned on going to the mountain neither of us was dressed to hike so we didn’t go very far as it was very icy and slippery. There was a little pub shortly outside the lift though, so we got some Stiegl beers and sat on their terrace in the sun and admired the view for a few hours. It was one of my top 5 travel moments of my whole life! It was so beautiful and so nice in the sun. And the Stiegl didn’t hurt ;) The top was even better though! This was also where the Sound of Music was filmed.

Altstadt (Old Town)

The old town in Salzburg is super cute! We had fun wandering around and checking everything out. Definitely worth a nice stroll!

Things to do - Vienna

I’m just going to be real here that almost everything to do in Vienna we either were not cultured enough to care about (not really music or art people…sorry!) or the weather was not really nice enough to do. We saw some other stuff like cathedrals but at some point, once you’ve seen one European cathedral…you’ve kinda seen them all!

Schönbrunn Palace

This was the summer palace for a royal family in the past. We didn’t have a ton of time so we didn’t go inside, but the weather was pretty awful so wandering around the grounds didn’t last long either. I think this would be really cool to tour on a nicer day though!!

Prater Ferris Wheel

This wasn’t the most exciting thing but we wanted to see the view from the top. It’s a huge car with no seats, it goes around once so you can take photos and then you get off. We left the amusement park right after this so I can’t say much more about it. It was a bit cloudy but I think the view would have been better on a nicer day!

Where to Drink - Salzburg

Stiegl

Stiegl is probably one of my new favorite beers ever. If you live in Portland you’ve probably seen Stiegl at most dive bars - it’s that orange and white can of the radler. I tried it once and didn’t care for it, so I wasn’t that enthused about Stiegl but it’s the largest brewery in Austria and super old. I tried their grapefruit radler first on tap and it was SO MUCH BETTER than that version in a can. Then I tried their Goldbrau and I fell. in. love. It was amazing. It is also offered on tap basically everywhere in Salzburg!

Augustiner

This brewery is also super huge and old. As soon as we walked in we were super overwhelmed. There are shelves all around you of mugs, which you grab and then go get in line. You buy a ticket for the number of beers that you want, and then you take your mug up to the counter and give them the ticket and they give you a beer. As far as we can tell there was only one type of beer, but we don’t speak German and it was a bit stressful so honestly who knows. Once we got past the stress though it was a super fun place! There were lots of tables so we went and found one. We made some Austrian friends who spoke an okay amount of English and drank beer and people watched. They also have what seemed like little food stands but we had just come from dinner so didn’t check them out.

Imlauer Sky Bar

This bar happened to be part of our hotel but I would go back to it even if it wasn’t. It had a really beautiful view of the fortress and the mountains and of course Stiegl on tap. The terrace also had heaters and they came around with blankets when the sun went down! They have food too - we ate there for breakfast at the hotel and it was a wonderful spread, but we didn’t try the food for dinner.

Where to Drink - Vienna

Das Loft

This was a super cool rooftop bar that we made reservations at in advance. The view is awesome! It’s super high up and a little bit fancy, though we were both wearing jeans (just slightly dressed up jeans) and we got in fine. The drinks were expensive, obviously, but it was a very cool atmosphere and view.

Where to Eat - Salzburg

St. Peter Stiftskeller

This is reportedly the oldest restaurant in the world. There are letters talking about Charlemagne eating here! We made a reservation far in advance and the place was weirdly empty (our reservation was for right when they opened though). The food was phenomenal though! We had schnitzel, some kind of braised beef, and finished with apfelstrudel.

Stiegl

I already mentioned this in beer, but they had great food too! At their brewery they had a fancier restaurant and a restaurant with more traditional pub style Austrian food. We opted for the pub style one - Austin had another schnitzel and I had my favorite, käsespätzle (basically German macaroni and cheese).

Johanneskeller

This was where I fell in love with bread dumplings. That is all that I have to say.

Where to Eat - Vienna

Esterházykeller

This was recommended to us by a friend and was again weirdly empty when we went. It was a super cool old basement vibe though, and we once again had a pretty phenomenal schnitzel and apfelstrudel (hey, we like to eat the local cuisine!). They also made their own wine, which was fun!

1516 Brewing Company

We ended up at this place for a beer but were both hungry and decided to order a Käsekrainer sausage to share. It was amazing! Honestly I still think about how good this was. The potatoes and the sauerkraut were perfect with it too.

Bürgerliche Brauerei

On our last day in Vienna we were killing time and ended up here. Take a guess what we got - more käsespätzle and a schnitzel, of course! It was brand new and very clean inside too.