Austria: Vienna, Salzburg & the Tyrol: a 7-day road trip
Vienna to Innsbruck via Dürnstein, Salzburg, Hallstatt, Grossglockner High Alpine Road — about 655 km of driving across Austria, suggested over 7 days.
See the attractions & sights guide for this route →
Stops on this route
Vienna
Vienna is Austria's capital and its cultural heart, a city built around Habsburg palaces, grand boulevards, and a musical legacy that includes Mozart, Beethoven, and Strauss. Its historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage site, blends Baroque architecture with coffeehouse culture, opera houses, and world-class museums along the Ringstrasse.
Dürnstein
Dürnstein is a tiny walled wine town on the Danube and the postcard heart of the Wachau, the river valley between Melk and Krems that UNESCO listed in 2000 as a World Heritage cultural landscape. Its skyline is instantly recognisable: the blue-and-white Baroque tower of the former Augustinian abbey on the riverbank, and above it the ruined castle where the English king Richard the Lionheart was held captive in 1192–1193 on his way home from the Crusades.
Salzburg
Salzburg is the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the setting for much of The Sound of Music, a compact Baroque city wedged between the Salzach River and the forested Mönchsberg hill. Its old town, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is dominated by the hilltop Hohensalzburg Fortress and a skyline of church domes and spires.
Hallstatt
Hallstatt is a small lakeside village in the Salzkammergut region, famous for its pastel houses stacked against a steep mountainside above the dark waters of Hallstätter See. It gave its name to the Hallstatt culture of the early Iron Age, and its ancient salt mine, still in operation, is one of the oldest in the world.
Grossglockner High Alpine Road
The Grossglockner High Alpine Road (Großglockner Hochalpenstraße) is Austria's most famous panoramic mountain road, a 48-kilometre toll route opened in 1935 that climbs through 36 numbered hairpin bends to the Hochtor tunnel at 2,504 metres. Threading the heart of Hohe Tauern National Park, it links Bruck in the Salzburg valley with Heiligenblut in Carinthia and delivers close-up views of the Grossglockner, at 3,798 metres Austria's highest peak, and the Pasterze, its largest glacier.
Innsbruck
Innsbruck is the capital of Tyrol, a university city set directly against the Nordkette range of the Austrian Alps, with mountain peaks visible from nearly every street in the old town. It hosted the Winter Olympics twice, in 1964 and 1976, and its ski-jump and Alpine sports facilities remain active landmarks.
Road charges and rules along the way
Austria
- Vignette required: €9.90 (≈€9.9) — https://www.asfinag.at
Mandatory equipment: Headlights (daytime running lights or dipped beam), Safety vest (reflective, high-visibility), Warning triangle, First aid kit, Winter tires, Snow chains
Driving in Austria: full guide →
Plan this route with EuroDrive Scout — tolls, vignettes, ZTL alerts, fuel and parking →