Travel: Hallstatt, Austria

Length of stay: 1 day (a stop between Salzburg & Vienna)

Favorite activity: rowing around the lake

 

Hallstatt, this beautiful storybook town tucked into the mountains hardly seemed real. It was like something you’d see in a movie, but like nothing I’d ever actually experienced in real life. As the train arrived and we boarded the ferry I felt like we were being brought to this secret hidden community, which made it feel so special. That is aside from the fact that it clearly wasn’t secret, every tourist in the world knew about it, and they promptly began their instagram photoshoots and soon as we stepped off the boat.

Aside from the tourist trap that is the main strip of town, the area is amazing. Per usual, we decided to skip the tours that the ferry loads of people joined in on and opted to actively explore on our own. We took in the cute mountainside houses from a rowboat on the lake and hiked up the mountain for the most amazing views rather than paying a ton of money and waiting in line for the salt mine cable cars to take us up. Although, as we were about to miss our ferry, we did end up taking those back down the mountain…whoops!

Much like the rest of Austria, I’d love to come back to Hallstatt in the winter as I can imagine it’s just as enchanting in a completely different way.

 

Things we did:

• Took a rowboat out on Hallstätter See and viewed the storybook village from the water
• Walked through the cute small town restaurants and shops
• Hiked up 1500 ft for gorgeous views of the lake and mountains
• Took the salt mine cable cars back down the mountain

 

Tips and tricks:

• There are lockers you can rent for the day to store your stuff if you have anything on you that you don’t want to carry around all day- this worked out well for us since we stopped here on a travel day between cities and had all of our bags.
• To get to Hallstatt you have to take a train and ferry (and bus in our case) so be sure to leave enough time to get to your ferry so you don’t also miss your train- we cut it close on this one.
• You don’t need much more than a few hours to see the whole town, as beautiful as it is.
• If you’re capable of hiking, skip the cable cars and walk up the mountain for the great views. You’ll get some exercise in, save money, and get to experience a much more scenic route.

 

 

For more posts about my favorite cities check out the following: Barcelona, Cinque Terre, Porto, and Nice.