Things to Do in Austria

Quick facts: A royal summer escape packed with over 1,400 rooms, it rivals the scale of Versailles but holds a distinct Baroque charm. Its gardens feature a Gloriette structure providing panoramic views of Vienna's skyline.

Highlights: The Great Gallery inside dazzles with ceiling frescoes and crystal chandeliers used for imperial balls attended by Mozart. The palace's zoo, the oldest continuously operating in the world, invites guests into a living piece of history with exotic animals.

Quick facts: The cathedral's roof is a stunning mosaic of over 230,000 colorful tiles, creating an intricate geometric pattern visible from afar. Its south tower stands at 136 meters, dominating the city's skyline and offering panoramic views to those who climb its 343 steps.

Highlights: A secret to share: the catacombs beneath the structure hold the remains of some Viennese nobility, echoing centuries of history. Visitors can marvel at the multi-colored tiled roof, which features the double-headed eagle, a symbol of the Habsburg dynasty, in vibrant detail.

Quick facts: Perched about 500 meters above the town, the fortress dominates the skyline and gives you sweeping views across rooftops and the Alps. A short funicular or a steep 20-minute walk gets you up the hill, where thick stone walls and original cannons make the past feel instantly present.

Highlights: Hop on the funicular, installed in 1892, for a creaky, postcard-perfect ascent as the valley unfurls beneath you. Peek into the prince-archbishop's private chambers where a banquet table seats precisely twelve, and imagine wax-lit air filled with the scent of roasted meat and pipe smoke.

Quick facts: Fog curls off the lake at dawn, turning steep, painted rooftops and a lone church spire into mirror images that draw photographers every golden hour. A working salt mine beneath the slopes created surprising local wealth, and you can still board a miner's toboggan to whizz through old timbered tunnels.

Highlights: Step into the tiny ossuary and you'll come face-to-face with roughly 600 painted skulls, many labeled with names and death dates from the 1700s and 1800s, each one decorated with flowers or short epitaphs. Local families routinely reopened graves after about ten years to free space, so ancestors were preserved by hand-painted skulls rather than permanent markers, a practice that leaves up-close views strangely intimate and vividly detailed.

Quick facts: A flamboyant balcony glitters with 2,657 gilded copper tiles that catch sunlight and town-gazers' eyes. Local storytellers point out carved coats of arms and painted scenes that connect courtly life, pageantry, and imperial symbolism.

Highlights: Emperor Maximilian I used the ornate balcony as a royal box to watch tournaments and processions, the gilded tiles throwing warm, gold light onto crowds below. Up close, the metal shingles reveal tiny hammer marks and gilding that sparkle like scales, a dazzling effect produced by exactly 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles.

Quick facts: A network of carved stairways, tunnels and a glass elevator threads up the rocky hill, giving you the choice of a breathless climb or an effortless ride. Panoramic lookout points frame red-tiled roofs and river bends, so sunrise and sunset turn the view into a living painting.

Highlights: A quirky visual surprise awaits at the old clock tower, the oversized hand actually marks hours while the smaller hand shows minutes, a reversal that delights and puzzles new visitors. Step onto the wooden gallery and you can hear wind tang against stone, the creak of floorboards and the distant clatter of trams, that layered soundscape makes the summit feel like a lived-in lookout.

Quick facts: Perched on a rocky outcrop above the river, gilded towers and onion-shaped domes catch the light for miles around and make the silhouette unforgettable. Inside, an ornate Baroque ceremonial hall and an old library full of illuminated manuscripts offer a theatrical contrast to the rolling vineyards below.

Highlights: Sunlight pours through high windows onto frescoes by Johann Michael Rottmayr, the painted angels seeming to lean toward you while organ music reverberates through the nave. A long, amber-lit library holds roughly 100,000 volumes, the leather spines and faint smell of vellum creating an intimate hush where a single whispered page turn feels loud.

Quick facts: Explore more than 42 kilometers of natural passages, although only about one kilometer is accessible to visitors during guided tours. Inside the caverns, temperatures linger around freezing and the ice formations create crystalline corridors that catch light like stained glass.

Highlights: One chamber contains towering ice formations that reach up to 10 meters, their surfaces etched with delicate striations and glowing a ghostly blue when the guide directs the lights across them. During the guided walk, the sudden hush when the lights dim turns the drip of melting ice and the crunch of boots into a living soundtrack, so close you can feel the cold air move against your cheeks.

Quick facts: Cascades tumble a total of 380 meters over three dramatic tiers, ranking among the tallest waterfalls in Europe. Roaring water can be heard from kilometers away during seasonal snowmelt, and peak flows reach tens of cubic meters per second, scattering a persistent mist through the valley.

Highlights: Early-morning sun slices through the mist to paint constant rainbows across the drop, while the air tastes cool and mineral-rich and sharpens every breath. A zigzag footpath leads past three lookout platforms where spray can soak your jacket and the waterfall's echo lingers for up to three seconds, a rhythmic pulse local guides often point out.

Quick facts: Snaking up alpine slopes, the road climbs to heights above 2,500 meters with dramatic hairpins and glacier-studded panoramas that can feel cinematic. Wildlife encounters are common, drivers often glimpse marmots and golden eagles while crossing dozens of bridges and several tunnels that showcase daring engineering.

Highlights: On the highest pass a brass plaque marks 2,504 meters, where gusting wind carries the sharp scent of crushed stone and distant ice gleams on shimmering glaciers. Drivers have a quirky habit of chalking names onto an old wooden kilometer post near the upper tunnel, you can still read hand-scrawled signatures dating back to 1955.

Quick facts: Rising 1,287 meters above Salzburg, this mountain offers panoramic views of the Alps and the city below. A rack railway has been hauling passengers to the summit since 1887, making it one of Austria's oldest mountain railways.

Highlights: On clear days, you can spot 14 lakes shimmering across the Salzkammergut region from the summit. The 360-degree viewing platform lets you count over 100 distinct Alpine peaks stretching across three countries.