My family of two adults and son of 14 are looking for somewhere to stay. We would need two bedrooms. A nice apartment with balcony or very nice hotel again with balcony with very good food is what we are looking for..We are not set on these places so any suggestions would be most welcome. We are prepared to pay extra .We don%26#39;t want to be in a big city such as Saltzburg which we will be flying into.
Thankyou
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Bad Ischl! Well, that has my vote, because I love the Lehár Festival which is held in July-August every year. It was great this year, with excellent productions of Giuditta and Fledermaus.
In Bad Ischl I like the Hotel Sonnhof which has holiday apartments too. It%26#39;s right in the middle of town (and next to the railway and bus station) but on a hill in its own park so feels secluded. Their site is www.sonnhof.at Bad Ischl has several museums (Lehár Villa, Kaiservilla, city museum) plus the music festival and some swish shops so basically it%26#39;s a little Salzburg in miniature. That may appeal or you might want something more rural and outdoorsy, though BI is well located for daytrips in the surrounding district - it%26#39;s easy to make excursions to Wolfgangsee, Hallstatt, Traunsee etc. from there.
St Wolfgang is pretty enough but from my POV I am satisfied to see it in a day trip, including a trip up the Schaferberg (direct buses to St W from Bad Ischl). I nearly stayed there at the Pension Seehof which also has holiday apartments(www.oberoesterreich.at/pension.seehof). In the end I went to Hallstatt instead but made a daytrip to St W and looked at the Seehof and thought it looked great, literally right on the lake in the centre of the village, next to the ferry landing.
There%26#39;s lots of outdoor things to do in St W which is really just a little hamlet, not a town like Bad Ischl. You can ride the ferry round the lake villages, take the Schafbergbahn up the mountain (or the cablecar up the Zwoelferhorn from St Gilgen at the other end of the lake). There%26#39;s lots of hiking thereabouts too. I imagine in bad weather, though, there%26#39;s not a lot to do (Bad Ischl is a good excursion for a wet day as there are the museums to see).
The thing that put me off St W a little is that there are so many package holidays that go there. Which is fine but as I know Austria quite well I like best to go to places where I will meet local people. There%26#39;s not much to do in St W of an evening, either.
Have you considered Hallstatt? I swapped my St W dates for Hallstatt because they had a music festival on there at the time, and I really loved it. I stayed at the Braugasthof Lobisser and thought it was lovely, an old brewery which was really atmospheric with large, comfortable rooms, many with balconies over the lake (even my single room had a superb lake view). It has its own restaurant with lakeside terrace which serves very nice food. The hostess, Verena Lobisser, was particularly friendly and helpful.
Their website is www.brauhaus-lobisser.com
I plan to do reviews of the Sonnhof and the Braugasthof including some pictures I took, so keep checking back (must get cracking on those!)
Hallstatt is an outdoorsy place too, probably about the same size as St W but I think it is much prettier and the scenery there is more dramatic. Again, there is a lake ferry to carry you about as well as assorted cablecars that take you up into the mountains for hiking. It also offers opportunities for diving, and for caving excursions in the two Dachstein caves, the ice cave and the mammoth cave, which are reached by cable car. It%26#39;s also possible to take a tour of the ancient salt mines in the upper valley above the town. So there%26#39;s quite a lot to do in the area for the energetic. Although it is quite touristy (as you%26#39;d expect) I thought the activities on offer were a bit more interesting than those in St W. I don%26#39;t hike much myself so can%26#39;t offer a view on the relative hiking opportunities between the two. Fortunately hiking is not mandatory ;^D
Hope that helps as a start - let me know if you have particular questions.
rol
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My son is learning to speak German at school, and would like to go to some village/town where he would have to use it.. and a hotel where there are not too many English speaking guests.
Not too far from Saltzburg as we would like to travel to the village/town by bus or train.
Many thanks .
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Bad Ischl might be a good place for your son to practise his German! It seems to cater primarily for the German-speaking tourists and there aren%26#39;t many English visitors there. For example, if you do a tour of the Kaiservilla (which is very interesting) the English commentary for those who need it is provided on a printed sheet and the guide conducts the tour in German.
St Wolfgang, on the other hand, is full of English tourists. Basically, anywhere that is offered by British holiday company package tours (St Wolfgang, St Gilgen, I guess Fuschl and Zell am See and the like) will tend to have English-speaking staff to cater to them. And, in my experience, proportionately fewer German-speaking holidaymakers.
I enjoyed a day trip to St Wolfgang but I am glad I changed my plans this past summer and spent my holiday in Bad Ischl and Hallstatt instead - St Wolfgang in August was so full of British people it felt quite odd!
Generally speaking, I%26#39;ve found that people in Austria appreciate it when we tourists make the effort to speak German. The language varies a little bit between areas but generally I found it easier to understand people in the Salzkammergut than in places like the Tirol, or in Styria (where they seem to speak German with a sort of Scottish accent!) However, if you are interested in Styria (Graz and surroundings) I noticed when I visited there that very few people spoke English, compared with areas around Innsbruck, Salzburg and Vienna.
Aside from the linguistic practice, I would definitely recommend Bad Ischl as a good base for a summer holiday - it is easily reached on the direct bus from Salzburg and staying there you can make excursions by bus and train to many lovely places close by, including St Wolfgang, Hallstatt, and the Traunsee, all of which have a variety of activities on offer.
The Salzkammergut tourist board will send you free brochures with information about the district so perhaps you son could practise his German on some of them, too! The link is
www.salzkammergut.at
rol
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Bad Ischl or St. Wolfgang - it is difficult to compare these 2 cities and it depends on what you would like to do during your stay.
Bad Ischl is cute, small town - the %26quot;Imperial town%26quot; - as it was the former summer residence of the Austrian Emperor. It is also the kind of major town in this rural area and you will find shops, restaurants, schools, a hospital, etc. there, so maybe the better way to meet locals.
Its location is nice, inbetween mountains and as a central base for many day trips and sportive activities.
http://www.badischl.com/alias/badischl/en
St. Wolfgang on the other hand is a really beautiful, small, traditional village located at the famous lake Wolfgangsee with stunning views of the surrounding mountains. Of course there are more tourists there, because it is more pittoresque than Bad Ischl - and it is also more remote. It offers some very good options of hotels to stay in - located directly at the lakeside. It is also a very good base for day trips and sportive activities.
www.wolfgangsee.at/sixcms/detail.php…
My hotel recommendation would be the %26quot;Landhaus zu Appesbach%26quot;, which is awesome and located right at the lakeside:
tiscover.at/at/…home.html
www.schlosshotels.co.at/index.php…
tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g296672-d315688…
If I had the choice I would choose St. Wolfgang as it feels more like a place where I would like to spend my holidays, as in my opinion it is more beautiful and relaxing with its location at the lake.
One good advise: Rent a car for your stay in the Salzkammergut as it will be much more convenient for exploring the area!
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As an alternative, if you fancy a lakeside holiday rather than being based in a town, I would recommend Hallstatt or one of the other villages on the Hallstattersee (Lahn or Obertraun).
It%26#39;s very beautiful in Hallstatt and though it is touristy in the height of summer, it doesn%26#39;t have the shoals of exclusively English tourists I found in St Wolfgang in August. I don%26#39;t know why, but when I went to St Wolfgang this past summer for a day trip, I found the place rather commercialized and for some reason it depressed me and I rushed back to Bad Ischl! The nice thing about Hallstatt is that most of the tourists clear out about 6pm and then if you%26#39;re staying there, you have the town to yourself :)
I stayed at the Braugasthof Lobisser and thought it was gorgeous - very quiet and peaceful, in a really atmospheric old brew house right on the edge of the lake (it does truly look like the pictures!) The prices were moderate too (and the breakfasts were delicious!) I hope to go back again next summer. Their website is www.brauhaus-lobisser.com
There is quite a lot to do around Hallstatt - caves and the old celtic settlement and salt mines to visit and several cablecars to for trips up the mountains that surround the lake. There%26#39;s also a ferry that goes around the lake which makes a pleasant trip. Though it%26#39;s very secluded, it%26#39;s easy to do excursions by train from there, too - it%26#39;s about half an hour by train from Bad Ischl.
For Bad Ischl, if you%26#39;re interested in that, I recommend Hotel Garni Sonnhof which is easy to reach as it is right next to the railway station but in a lovely private setting on a wooded hill, right in the centre of town. Their site is www.sonnhof.at
rol
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We stayed across from St Gilgen at the Gasthof Furberg. Gorgeous place....private, quiet. Lots of German spoken...best food of the trip. They rent bikes, paddle and fishing boats and there%26#39;s great hiking all around. We took the bus from St Gilgen to Salzburg for day trips...about a 40 min beautiful ride. I thought St Wolfgang was too crowded with tourists. Halstatt is cool, but it%26#39;s pretty off the beaten track and the ferries/trains don%26#39;t run late there. Great for a day trip. I didn%26#39;t much care for Bad Ischl...it seemed to much like a city. I would choose St Gilgen or a place close to that. We also liked the quiet town of Strobl.
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Another nice town at a lake is Gmunden at the lake Traunsee:
http://www.oberoesterreich.at/gmunden/
By the way - for information about train or bus schedules:
oebb.at/vip8/…index.jsp
And as another option...Salzburg is not really a big town - it is more a really beautiful and cozy town with plenty of sights to visit.
http://www2.salzburg.info/
If you do not want to stay right in town you could stay f.e. in a small village outside, like Anif, where you could stay at the hotel %26quot;Friesacher%26quot;, which is really nice:
http://www.hotelfriesacher.com/en/
So you could conveniently go in/out of the city:
bus Line 25 of the Salzburg city buses connects the Friesacher hotel every 20 minutes with the city of Salzburg and the main station. You can buy a ticket directly from the bus conductor or at a machine, the stop at Anif is called “Anif, Friesacher”.
And you could visit the Salzkammergut for a daytrip or a 1-2 night-stay.
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Hi, you%26#39;ve had some excellent advice in the posts above. I just wanted to say please don%26#39;t view Salzburg as a %26quot;big city%26quot; it is actually very small. The old town is gorgeous and very safe. Somewhere to stay in the southern suburbs would also be lovely.
Fuschl and St Gilgen are set in beautiful surroundings and there are regular buses into Salzburg from both places.
Liz.
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Another very nice hotel with excellent food in a beautiful location is the Schloss (Castle) Prielau in Zell am See:
www.schloss-prielau.at/en/englische_seite.php
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Thankyou all for wonderful suggestions. We are looking forward to our trip.
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