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Discover Austria: Six off-the-beaten-track towns to visit

If you're keen to go beyond the well-trodden tourist path, these off the beaten track locations in Austria could be worth exploring.

Large inflatable beer balloon
A large inflatable beer balloon floats by the Wilder Kaiser mountain in the Tyrolean alps, near Saint Johann. (Photo by JOE KLAMAR / AFP)

Anyone living in Austria will be familiar with the must-see destinations – Vienna, Salzburg, Hallstatt and the Großglockner. 

But Austria is more than just the main cities and famous mountain towns.

In fact, there are plenty of other gems to discover across the country – you just have to know where to look.

Here are six towns off the beaten track in Austria and why you should add them to your travel list.

Zell am See

With luxury hotels and lifts leading to the ski slopes on Schmittenhöhe mountain, Zell am See can seem like a fancy lakeside ski resort town at first glance.

But with the Grossglockener, Kitzsteinhorn Glacier and Hohe Tauern National Park all within easy reach, Zell am See offers more than just high-end pampering and winter sports.

It can also serve as a convenient base for adventure and getting a taste of Austrian mountain culture.

Plus, Zell and See is just 90 minutes from Salzburg by car, making it very accessible for anyone visiting the home of Mozart and looking for a detour.

The Grand Hotel. Von BestZeller – Eigenes Werk, Copyrighted free use.

St. Wolfgang

To experience a charming, Austrian lakeside village surrounded by mountains, look no further than St. Wolfgang.

Nestled in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria, St. Wolfgang is located on the steep banks of Schafberg Mountain and overlooks Lake Wolfgangsee.

It’s a peaceful place with ferries chugging across the lake and wooden boat houses dotted along the shore.

Although St. Wolfgang can still get busy with tourists in the peak summer months, it’s not as high profile as places like Hallstadt, which makes visiting the town a more enjoyable experience.

St. Wolfgang is also less than an hour from Salzburg by car, making it an accessible day trip location for people who just wanted a brief respite from the city. 

Saint Wolfgang, one of Austria’s most charming villages. By Silverije – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

St. Johann 

St. Johann is an alpine market town in Tyrol, close to famous Kitzbühel. But location and skiing are the only things the two towns have in common.

While Kitzbühel is all glitz and glamour with high prices, St. Johann is more laidback – and more affordable.

READ MORE: How to save money while travelling around Austria

Think traditional pubs, cosy restaurants and independent shops with a weekly farmer’s market (in the summer) and a lively winter après ski scene in the winter.

This is why St. Johann is well-worth considering as a base for exploring the Tyrolean Alps. 

And with the Kitzbüheler Horn, the Wilder Kaiser mountains, Hintersteiner See and Schwarzsee all on the town’s doorstep, there is something to do – whatever the season.

Eisenstadt

You won’t find Eisenstadt on many Austrian travel itineraries. 

But as the capital of Burgenland and home to the grand Esterházy Palace, it can be an impressive place to visit to learn more about Austria’s history and culture.

For example, music by Classical composer Joseph Haydn can be heard at the beautiful Haydn Hall in Esterházy Palace, and Austrian wine can be sampled at the city’s wineries and bars.

So, if arts, culture and gastronomy are your thing, Eisenstadt offers a compact alternative to larger cities like Vienna, Salzburg and Graz.

The Schloss Esterhazy palace in Eisenstadt, Austria Photo: ROBERT JAEGER / APA / AFP

Neusiedl am See

Visiting Burgenland can feel like being in another country.

Not only does the eastern province enjoy a milder climate compared to the west of Austria, it’s also a prominent wine-growing region.

This gives it an almost mediterranean vibe – at least in the summer. 

One of the many fun activities you can get up to in Neusiedl. Photo: JOE KLAMAR / AFP

Neusiedl am See is a bustling town in Burgenland on Lake Neusiedl in the heart of Austria’s wine country.

It has a strong arts and culture scene, water sports on the lake, independent businesses and good transport connections with Vienna.

For a summer spot that is not too far off the beaten track, but far enough from the hustle and bustle of the capital, Neusiedl am See ticks all the right boxes.

Nockberge

Disclaimer: the Nockberge in Carinthia is not a town. 

In fact, it’s a region made up of mountains, small towns and villages, but it’s well-worth adding to the list of places to visit – especially if you want a true escape from the big cities and busier resorts. 

FOR MEMBERS: What are the rules for wild camping in Austria?

The Nockberge is tucked away in the south of the country and is less populated and developed than other mountain hot-spots in Austria, like Tyrol and Salzburg.

The Nockberge mountains in Austria. Von Johann Jaritz – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The region enjoys a mild climate and fresh mountain air with a range of activities to enjoy, like hiking and biking in the summer and skiing in the winter.

For those looking for a place to truly get away from it all without having to get on a plane, the Nockberge could be the answer.

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Eight unique Austrian museums you need to visit

Austria—especially Vienna—is world-renowned for its museums, each exploring thousands of years of art, history, culture, nature, or science.

Eight unique Austrian museums you need to visit

However, where do you go after you’ve done the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Albertina, and the other ‘big names’? 

Here are eight wonderfully unique museums across Austria that are well worth visiting and offer a unique perspective on Austria and Austrians. 

Crime Museum, Vienna

Buried deep in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt, in one of its oldest houses, visitors can submerge themselves in centuries of the capital’s seedy underworld at the Vienna Crime Museum

Amidst printed murder ballads, weapons that took the lives of innocents and other rather gruesome displays, the story of how law and order developed within the Austrian capital is told – with a bit of dry caustic wit and humour. 

One particularly morbid highlight is the skeleton of Theresia Kandl, a 19th-century murderess who was the first woman to be hanged at the city’s gallows. 

Funeral Museum, Vienna

Spend any time in Vienna, and you’ll realise that death is a part of life. 

That’s not to say that it’s hazardous – just that the Viennese have a particular relevance and fondness for the business of death, including funerals.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that Vienna has a museum dedicated to funerary culture at the city’s central cemetery.

A lively, interactive series of displays informs the visitor about how funerals and mourning have evolved over the centuries. There are also loads of interesting headstones, mourning gowns, and other trinkets on display. 

The museum is also known for its gift shop, full of delightfully morbid gifts—a Playmobil funeral hearse and skeleton mourners, for example! 

Dom Museum, Salzburg

Tucked within the cathedral museum in Salzburg is the ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’, first established by Prince Bishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau and greatly expanded by one of his successors, Max Gandolf von Kuenburg, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

A collection of artworks and ‘oddities’ was essential to reputation building for Early Modern rulers, and the Prince Bishops of Salzburg were some of the most powerful around. Therefore, the treasures on display needed to be second to none. 

The collection includes the relics of various saints (sometimes multiples of the same body parts), beautifully preserved coral, automata, and other weird and wonderful things. 

Knappenwelt Gurgtal, Tarrenz, Tyrol

A lot of Tyrol and Austria’s wealth originated from beneath the ground. Evidence of mining occurring over three thousand years ago has been uncovered in some areas.

Knappenwelt Gurgtal is an open-air museum that aims to show how silver, zinc, and other metals were mined in the Middle Ages. 

That’s not the museum’s star attraction, however. That would be the ‘Healer of Gurgtal‘, found nearby in 2008. 

This is the grave of a woman around forty years old who showed evidence of being a ‘wise woman’ who supplied remedies and cures. 

She may have aided the miners before her death during the Thirty Years’ War.

Schloss Eggenberg, Graz, Styria

This one almost feels like cheating. Schloss Eggenberg is more than one museum—it’s three, at least. 

The castle has been preserved as a fantastic example of how Austrian nobility embraced growing scientific knowledge in the sixteenth century, embedding it into their homes’ very art and fabric. 

Nothing is by accident; everything is planned and usually has an astronomical significance. 

The castle also houses the art gallery and coin collections of the Universalmuseum Joanneum, Styria’s central museum authority.  

The state’s archaeological museum is constructed beneath the beautiful gardens. You can find several unique ancient treasures there, such as the ‘Cult Wagon of Strettweg’. 

Burg Riegersburg, Riegersburg, Styria

Another castle, the imposing Burg Riegenburg, was once home to one of the most colourful characters in Austria’s history: Katharina Elisabeth von Galler, or ‘Bad Lisl’. 

At a time when women were not permitted the same rights as men, the seventeenth-century noblewoman refused to submit. She married three times and proved a terror to her husbands if they so much as lifted a finger to prevent her from ruling in her own right. 

Today, the castle’s museum is divided into three sections. 

The first tells the story of the castle and its rulers over the centuries, while the second deals with Burg Riegersburg’s role in witch trials during the lifetime of ‘Bad Lisl’. 

The third section is devoted to a display of weaponry and armour that would humble some state museums. 

Archaeological Park Carnuntum, Bruck an der Leitha, Lower Austria

Once upon a time, Austria was an integral part of the Roman Empire, known as the province of Pannonia – and the capital wasn’t Vienna, but the thriving city of Carnuntum

Once home to 50,000 inhabitants, the city was destroyed in the fourth century, only to be really excavated in the closing decades of the twentieth century.

Now, a vivid picture of life is displayed in locations across Bruck an der Leitha, including a dedicated museum and recreations of several buildings found there. 

An innovative aspect of the experience is the ‘Carnuntium’ App, which allows users to see the ruins as they would have appeared at the city’s height. 

Tyrolean Folk Art Museum, Innsbruck, Tyrol

Austrian folklore is a wild mix of magic, nature, and Christian belief, expressed through traditional handicrafts, songs, and dance. 

These traditions are showcased in the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum in central Innsbruck, a Tyrolean State Museum collection. 

Don’t go in thinking you’ll just be looking at cosy domestic artefacts; you’re far more likely to encounter ghosts, goblins, witches, and saints doing extraordinary deeds. 

Definitely one to spend hours enjoying – especially the rather creepy masks and costumes used in traditional festivals!

Is there a museum we should add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below. 

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