Vienna

Spanish riding school well worth a visit. Book ahead! Loca restaurant in Vienna a lovely treat 6 course taster menu £50 each but good value. Evening meals in the market in Vienna very good. Wide choice of food. We found very interesting jewish food outlet!

We were very happy to be able to combine four holidays into one glorious twelve day Austria experience. Every aspect of the holiday went to plan. The city breaks at the beginning and the end of the trip were a brilliant way to visit palaces and museums while during the middle section we hiked through the most incredible scenery. Throughout the holiday we had fabulous food and there was always a warm welcome at our accommodation. I recommend Inntravel holidays to everyone.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: Mrs Young combined our city stays in Salzburg & Vienna with Austria's Lake District short walking break and a few nights for more walking at the Hotel Matschner in Ramsau

We loved our first walking holiday with Inntravel plus the add-ons we had in Salzburg and Vienna. Each hotel had something special to offer: the swimming pool at Landhotel Agathawirt, the smart rooms and excellent location of the Heritage Hallstatt and the outstanding hospitality at the Hotel Gosauerhof. 

There are plenty of options on most days of the holiday so you can choose how much or how little you want to do. Our favourite days included the easy walk along Hallstättersee and the amazing day we had in the Dachstein mountains, visiting the ice caves and walking in the snow, in brilliant sunshine. 

Excellent food, exquisite scenery and a welcome everywhere we walked. Austria is beautiful: thank you to Inntravel for opening our eyes to its delights. 

One area we think it would be helpful to provide more information about is boarding the OEBB intercity bus. The bus itself was fabulous and we left our booked seats to go upstairs where the view was superb. However, we had a tense time once we got out of the train at Udine, tiring to work out where to catch the bus. The station staff were unusually unhelpful and it was as if they had never heard of the bus. There was no helpful signage and there were other bus depots over the road from the station. However, it did just show up at the station (on time) and we just got on it and it just went, so all ended well. But it would have been good to have a specific instruction like, 'stand in front of the station on the left hand end looking out from inside the station and just wait, it will come!' Or something similar. But this was a minor issue compared to the very good bookings we had and they way it all worked out. Thank you so much for this!

Meissen was wonderful as were the Zwinger and the Augartenmuseum in terms of the story of the development of porcelain in Europe, and I believe there is also a porcelain manufacturing works with tours in Berlin.

The Hotel Weisenhof is the best place we have ever stayed and no one should go for less than a week!

We really valued being able to create our own individual holiday from the several strands that Inntravel provide in the area we wanted to visit. We started with a city add on in Munich, followed by a train journey to do 5 out of 7 nights of the Lake Achensee walking holiday and then a longer train journey to Vienna for another city add on. 

We have enjoyed quite a number of Inntravel's city breaks over a number of years and the standard and location of the hotels has always been very good. However, there was something about the Hotel Torbrau in Munich which made it my personal favourite. The reception staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful and went the second step to be so. We enjoyed eating in the restaurant in the evenings. The food was good, especially the salads. Munich has a comfortable feel as a city although you have to take care not to be mown down by cyclists! We had a lovely walk, on a wettish day, around the Englischer Garten, referred to in the city walking notes. Sitting in a pavement cafe in Marienplatz on a Saturday afternoon was a relaxing experience. It was populated mainly by locals who could be identified by having turned to their winter clothes following a sudden downturn in temperature by about 15 degrees! We then climbed 300+ steps up the tower of the church in the square (not the Frauenkirche) to have a really spectacular view of the city.

Our experience of Lake Achensee and Hotel Wiesenhof echoes that which we read in peoples' reviews before going. It was absolutely beautiful and the hotel was far beyond any criticism. We actually arrived on a cold wet Sunday afternoon, with the first snow of winter on the mountains (in early September!), and my first reaction was to wonder why on earth we were there as we wandered around fairly deserted streets in our warmest clothes. By the time we left, that feeling was a distant memory! The weather was certainly mixed but the varying light, cloud formations and a perfect rainbow seen from a boat were all amazing. The walking was good. One particular tip is to beware of walk 5 in wet weather conditions. We had to turn back as we came across a flooded stream which wouldn't have presented a challenge to men with long legs but it defeated me, particularly as it was an out and back walk and the thought of risking it twice was several, wet, steps too far! However as we sat eating our picnic at that point, with no habitation or people in sight, just complete quiet (and the snow) it felt like a special time so that completing the walk didn't really matter.  

We particularly enjoyed walk 2, and another magical moment was eating apple strudel at the Weissenbachalm farmhouse, looking at the cows.

I would reiterate the tip given by a lady previously, about taking lunch boxes for the picnics supplied by the hotel. We did and they were very useful.

One tip which no one had mentioned before is about the local buses which are very handy but also extremely overcrowded as they are not frequent enough and are very well used by local people for shopping trips. The bus comes into the village and stops next to the cable car station which is the nearest bus stop as the walking notes say. It then goes on a 10 minute drive round the village, picking up locals at various stops before arriving back at the cable car station where it picks up again, by which time it is standing room only. The timetable gives both times for the cable car stop. It is therefore well worth going 10 minutes early and getting on the first time. The tour round the village is quite interesting too.

Our overall experience of bus, boat and train travel on this holiday was that the concept of queuing doesn't seem quite as accepted as here!

We also thoroughly enjoyed Hotel Kaiserhof in Vienna. The city walking notes are very informative and give a good overview of what the city offers. Like Munich, it feels a safe city to walk about in. We enjoyed the cafe in the hotel and had a light evening meal there too when we didn't want the effort of going out. We had 2 very enjoyable evening meals at Cafe Museum (mentioned in the notes). We enjoyed the literary associations it has. There was also a very good cross section of mainly local diners so it was good for people watching. It is very handy for the hotel, being just the other side of Karlsplatz. One tip which the notes don't mention is that there is a very large subway running underneath Karlsplatz (linked to the station) with various exits. Using it avoids much crossings of roads.

We also ate at Restaurant Entler (mentioned in the notes) but didn't have a particularly good experience there. The most generous interpretation is that there was a language barrier. This seemed unusual compared to everywhere else we went in all the 3 locations. The effect is that we ended up eating, and paying, more than we wanted to.

If you like galleries, the little Albertina, mentioned in the walking tour, is really interesting. It is much less busy than some of the others and has a potted history of art which follows through all the rooms. I learnt a lot, especially about the Expressionists.

By complete contrast, the Schönbrunn Zoo is huge fun. It has a range of big animals and giant pandas. It promotes conservation and the animals have large living spaces. It is also a pleasant garden type environment to walk around. 

All in all, this was a hugely varied holiday which did feel "slow" in the sense of Inntravel's philosophy, despite it being also very active and full of things to see, experience and learn. We tried to capture moments, some of which I have described. This felt much more important than seeing everthing. We may well return to all three places. We might even get better weather next time but that really didn't matter very much.