Austria: Vienna, Salzburg & the Tyrol: attractions & sights guide
A stop-by-stop guide to the best things to see along the Austria: Vienna, Salzburg & the Tyrol route — 7 destinations, their must-see sights and how to drive between them.
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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.
Top attractions in Vienna
Schönbrunn Palace
The former imperial summer residence of the Habsburgs, with over 1,400 rooms and vast Baroque gardens open to the public.
St. Stephen's Cathedral
Vienna's Gothic mother church, instantly recognizable by its patterned tile roof and towering south spire in the heart of the old city.
Hofburg Palace
The former principal imperial palace, now home to the Austrian president, the Spanish Riding School, and several major museums.
Belvedere Palace
A Baroque palace complex housing Gustav Klimt's painting The Kiss, set among terraced gardens overlooking the city.
Prater and the Wiener Riesenrad
A historic public park with an amusement area centered on the 1897 Ferris wheel, made famous by the film The Third Man.
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.
Top attractions in Dürnstein
Dürnstein Castle ruins
The hilltop ruin where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned in 1192–1193, reached by a steep footpath from the old town; the reward is a sweeping view over the Danube bend and the vineyard terraces.
Dürnstein Abbey and its blue tower
The former Augustinian canons' abbey with its Baroque church and blue-and-white tower, the Wachau's best-known landmark; its terrace hangs right above the Danube.
Melk Abbey
The vast Baroque Benedictine abbey crowning a rock above the Danube at the western gateway of the Wachau, known for its ornate church and historic library; an easy stop on the way towards Salzburg.
Wachau vineyards and Heurigen
Stone-walled terraces of Grüner Veltliner and Riesling climb the valley slopes; in autumn, after the harvest, family wineries open their Heurigen taverns for young wine and simple local food.
Krems an der Donau
The historic town at the eastern end of the Wachau, a few kilometres downriver from Dürnstein, with the Steiner Tor gate, a lively old town and the Kunstmeile museums quarter; the natural first stop coming from Vienna.
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.
Top attractions in Salzburg
Hohensalzburg Fortress
One of the largest fully preserved medieval castles in Europe, perched on the Festungsberg hill and reachable by funicular.
Mozart's Birthplace
The yellow townhouse on Getreidegasse where Mozart was born in 1756, now a museum of his childhood instruments and letters.
Mirabell Palace and Gardens
A 17th-century palace with formal Baroque gardens, fountains, and statuary that appeared in scenes from The Sound of Music.
Salzburg Cathedral
A twin-towered Baroque cathedral where Mozart was baptized, rebuilt in its current form after a 17th-century fire.
Hellbrunn Palace and Trick Fountains
A 17th-century pleasure palace just south of the city known for hidden water jokes built into its garden fountains and grottoes.
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.
Top attractions in Hallstatt
Hallstatt Skywalk
A cliffside viewing platform above the village reached by funicular, offering a panoramic view over the lake and rooftops below.
Hallstatt Salt Mine
One of the world's oldest salt mines, with tours through ancient tunnels and a long wooden slide used by miners for centuries.
Hallstatt Parish Church and Bone House
A Gothic church overlooking the lake, next to a small chapel holding hundreds of hand-painted skulls due to the village's limited burial space.
Hallstätter See
A deep Alpine lake surrounded by steep mountains, popular for boat rides that give the classic postcard view of the village.
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.
Top attractions in Grossglockner High Alpine Road
Hochtor Pass (2,504 m)
The highest point of the through-route, where a short tunnel pierces the main Alpine ridge and marks the watershed between the Salzburg and Carinthia sides of the drive.
Edelweißspitze (2,571 m)
The highest point on the road reachable by car, up a short cobbled spur, with a 360-degree panorama over dozens of Hohe Tauern peaks and glaciers from a viewing tower.
Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe & Pasterze Glacier
A terrace viewpoint at the end of a spur road, facing the Grossglockner summit and the Pasterze, Austria's largest glacier, with a visitor centre and trails down toward the ice.
Fuscher Törl & Fuscher Lacke
A saddle viewpoint and a small alpine lake near the road's high section, with parking, a memorial chapel and an exhibition on the building of the historic road.
Heiligenblut Pilgrimage Church
The slender Gothic church of St. Vincent at the southern gateway village, its spire framed by the Grossglockner behind it — one of the most photographed scenes in the Austrian Alps.
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Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo is the best-known mountain resort of the Italian Dolomites, a town on the Boite river in the province of Belluno, Veneto, ringed by the Tofane, Cristallo, Sorapiss and Cinque Torri peaks. It belongs to Ladinia, the area of the Ladin language and culture; it was ruled by Venice from 1420 and then mostly by the Habsburgs from 1508 until 1918. Cortina hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics and, together with Milan, the 2026 Winter Olympics, and the Dolomites around it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009. Expedia's autumn 2026 data ranked it among Europe's fastest-rising destinations, with searches up 115%.
Top attractions in Cortina d'Ampezzo
Corso Italia & Basilica of Saints Philip and James
The car-free main street is lined with shops, cafés and mountain views, and is anchored by the parish basilica built between 1769 and 1775 on the site of two earlier churches, with its tall bell tower rising above the town.
Tofane & the Freccia nel Cielo cable car
The Tofane massif rises west of town, and the Freccia nel Cielo ("Arrow in the Sky") lift system climbs from Cortina almost to the top of Tofana di Mezzo, leaving a short walk to the summit. The Olimpia delle Tofane slope hosted the 1956 men's downhill. Lifts run seasonally, so check the timetable.
Cinque Torri & the Great War open-air museum
The "Five Towers" are a cluster of rock pinnacles southwest of Cortina. The area was a front line between Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops in the First World War, and restored trenches and shelters now form an open-air museum, part of the wider Great War routes towards Lagazuoi.
Tre Cime di Lavaredo & Lake Misurina
Northeast of Cortina, Lake Misurina (1,754 m) hosted the 1956 Olympic speed skating on natural ice. From there a toll road climbs to Rifugio Auronzo below the three battlement-like peaks, whose Cima Grande reaches 2,999 m; the classic loop walk circles them via the Lavaredo and Locatelli huts.
Passo Giau
This 2,236 m pass links Cortina with Colle Santa Lucia and Selva di Cadore, crossing open alpine pasture at the foot of Nuvolau and Averau. The top looks out to the the Marmolada and the Tofane, making it one of the most scenic drives around Cortina.
Musei delle Regole d'Ampezzo
Run by the Regole, the valley's historic community land trust, the three museums are the Rinaldo Zardini Palaeontology Museum of local Dolomite fossils, an ethnographic museum in a restored Venetian sawmill, and the Mario Rimoldi Modern Art Museum, with over 800 works by 20th-century Italian artists.
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.
Top attractions in Innsbruck
Golden Roof
A late-Gothic oriel window covered in gilded copper tiles, built for Emperor Maximilian I and now the city's best-known landmark.
Nordkette Cable Car
A funicular and cable car system that climbs from the city center to over 2,300 meters, with sweeping views over Innsbruck and the Alps.
Bergisel Ski Jump
An Olympic ski-jump venue redesigned by architect Zaha Hadid, with a viewing tower and café overlooking the city and mountains.
Imperial Palace
A former Habsburg residence with richly decorated state rooms, including the Baroque Giants' Hall lined with imperial portraits.
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