Hallstatt, Austria

The whole time I was in Salzburg, the sky was overcast. It wasn’t until the day I was leaving the sun finally came out.

So, instead of heading straight back to Munich as I had originally planned, I stowed my luggage at the Salzburg train station and went on a day trip to the village of Hallstatt.

There are two ways to reach Hallstatt from Salzburg via public transportation: by bus or by train. The BigBoyTravel.com has detailed instructions for each options. The bus ticket can be booked online (day pass available). The bus option, despite requiring two changes, is supposed to be faster, cheaper and offers better view than the train option, plus it drops you off right in the village (Station name: Hallstatt Lahn).

However, since I was traveling last minute during an off season, I decided to rely on trains, with one change at Attnang-Puchheim.

It is worth mentioning that the Hallstatt train station sits across the lake from the village. So a short ferry ride is necessary.

At the time of this writing, the ferry costs €3 cash one-way and can be purchased from the attendant. The departure time corresponds to the train’s arrival time. Do doublecheck and make note of the return schedule after disembarkation.

The village is small and does not take long to walk through.

Most people came to Hallstatt for this instagram-famous view, taken from an unmarked spot at the residential part of the village.

To get there: Turn right from the ferry dock, walk past an arch and up the hill, with the lake to your right, within 3 minutes you will see the lake from above and a sign that says “Quiet Please“ with a big exclamation mark!

It’s right across a narrow road in front of somebody’s house/garage. Please be quiet and don’t block local traffic!

After snapping a few photos I decided to leave the tourist crowd behind and go for a hike.

As soon as I passed the Salt World, the trail became quiet and peaceful.

I followed the turn-by-turn directions from Outdooractive.com to the point where I see the first marker towards Glacier Garden (Gletscherngarten).

Shortly after passing Schleierfall on the right

The trail turned woody and elevated.

Stay right at this intersection

And simply follow the red and white Austrian trail marker

to reach the Lauterbach Fall

There were multiple streams, the Lauterbach Fall is the one on the right

In 1865 Emperor Franz Joseph writes about an excursion to Hallstatt in a letter to his mother: “The day before yesterday just Sissi and I had a lovely outing in magnificent weather…. After we had eaten we went to the Waldbachstrub. The valley was superbly illuminated and of the freshest green; all that spoilt it were a number of halfwits, as always, and a new civilisation which is highly inappropriate in this beautiful region.”

A frontal view of the waterfall can be observed just a few steps down the valley

As well as a good view of the running stream from the Strub Bridge

Back to the village, I forewent the opportunity to try Das Bier

Or pick up fresh crepe by the lake.

Instead I strolled along the shore, bathed under the warm afternoon sun,

taking in this view.

Later on, as the tourist crowd thinned at the Market square

It was time for me to take the boat

Then the train back to Salzburg

And thereon to Muncih.

Coming up next: Munich, Germany

Advertisement

21 thoughts on “Hallstatt, Austria”

  2. Pingback: Salzburg Jazz Festival & Goodbye Salzburg – Travel-Gourmand.com

  5. Your photos left me speechless: I knew that Hallstatt was beautiful, but I didn’t think it’d be this ridiculously stunning! From the iconic viewpoint of town to the lush falls near Strub-Brucke, Hallstatt is a must-see in Austria. I never got to make it there, but I’m dying to go someday! Thanks for sharing your brief time there. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Wow, again such stunning scenery you seem to find yourself surrounded by quite often 🙂 Beautiful vistas, and this spring I imagine will be a busy travel time for yourself ~ wish you safe and healthy travels!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Randall! I just received news that I am enrolled in Portuguese language class starting next week, which also means that I won’t be doing much travel this spring. Oh well, 150 class hours to A2 level, woohoo 🙂

      Like

      Reply
  14. Pingback: Munich, Germany – Travel-Gourmand.com
  15. Pingback: That’s a Wrap – Munich, Germany – Travel-Gourmand.com

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s