7 Days in West Austria: Castles, Caves, Waterfalls & Alpine Views

We wanted to do something outside of Switzerland, but not too far – Austria became the best option. Spending nearly a week in West Austria is the perfect way to combine mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and charming towns. From world-famous spots like Hallstatt and Salzburg to hidden gems like the Bürserschlucht gorge, this 7-day itinerary through Austria takes you through the best of Tyrol, Salzburg, and Vorarlberg. Along the way, you’ll hike through dramatic gorges, marvel at underground ice caves, and relax in alpine towns. On the way back to Switzerland, a stop in Lindau at Lake Constance adds the perfect ending to this trip.

Itinerary

Day 1 – Bürserschlucht Gorge & arrival to Innsbruck

The way from Zürich to Innsbruck takes around 3:30 h, so after picking up the rental car we drove in that direction. A very obvious stop for this route is the Bürserschlucht Gorge, which is located almost perfectly on the way. There’s a small parking lot in Bürs, nearby the hiking trail. From there, you ca do the route in around 2 h (around 5 km, 240 m in elevation gain). The route is easy to follow (obviously you’re going along the river). In some places there are some bridges built to facilitate the hike. The hike is really pretty – when we went in August it was very green and the water had a beautiful blue color. On the way back we also saw some giant boulders, which were really cool to walk through.

After the short hike, we drove towards Innsbruck as our base for the next couple of days. Innsbruck is a lively city during the day, which gets very quiet afterards. Walking around the streets is pretty scenic, but there’s not many must-do landmarks. I’ve never gotten the chance so far, but visiting the museums in Innsbruck can be a good bet on what to do around, especially if the weather is not great. Otherwise, Innsbruck is an excellent city to be your base to daily trips around Austria.

Day 2 – Krimmler Wasserfälle & Swarovski Kristallwelten

Krimml Waterfalls

Located 1:45 h away from Innsbruck, the Krimml Waterfalls (Krimmler Wasserfälle) are a must see. They are the tallest waterfalls in Europe with 380 m of fall, and are certainly one of the most touristic places in Austria. Even with the bad weather of the day, the hike to climb up the waterfall was extremely crowded. The whole hike is 4.15 km with an elevation ain of 431 m to reach the top-most waterfall. It’s also not free – the path is well-maintained with multiple viewing platforms-, and costs 15.50€. It also had the worst pizza I had in my adult life, so I recommend you bring your snacks with you.

Be aware that if you approach the waterfall, you’ll likely get wet. This is usually not an issue and might even be nice on a warm day. When I did the hike it was raining, but certainly the waterfall contributed to the wetness a bit more than the rain. No complaints however – I love the moody photos of the falls with the clouds.

Swarowski Museum

Towards the afternoon, the weather was not helping and it was still too early to do nothing. On our way to Innsbruck, we saw the indication to the Swarowski museum and thought – why not? So we ended up there. I must admit that my expectations were quite low (especially after seeing the green entrance to the dome – my apologies to those who like it, but I really don’t). Can a museum of jewelry/crystals be of any interest? Actually, it can. For 24€ per adult, you can enjoy a shiny exhibition of modern art. Full disclaimer: I do like this kind of artsy/selfie museums, and this is one of those. If you also like them, check out the WONDR museum in Amsterdam, it’s also cool.

The museum had two main parts (and obviously a store). The first one was the dome (Wunderkammern), which has sculptures, illumination systems, and immersive rooms by different artists. The second part is the garden, which features a black-and-white carousel, a huge circle filled with crystals, and some artificial clouds called the Crystal Cloud, which I found really cool. In this last exhibition, you can enter partially in a lake and see how the clouds were storming. Very engulfing with the actual weather of the day.

Day 3 – Hintertux Glacier

The weather had not improved, but it was the day to visit the Hintertux Glacier, so there we went. Tickets for the panoramic activities in the glacier are certainly not cheap, so I would not necessarily recommend doing it if the weather is not great, but if you’re like me, you have to do it when the plan says so, so there we went. To arrive to the glacier, you need to take the motorway “Inntalautobahn A12” to the Zillertal exit, or put “Parkplatz Hintertuxer Gletscher Talstation” in Google Maps. There, you can park the car (for free) and take the cable cars to the top. Behind the parking there is also a small picnic area with a waterfall, the Hintertux Waterfall, which is a pleasant walk.

Nature’s Ice Palace

Now the fun part starts. The mountain is quite high (3250 m!), so when I went there was snow and it was freezing cold. You’re climbing up this mountain to see an ice cave, so it makes sense that it’s not going to be particularly warm. The Nature’s Ice Palace is a really interesting place – an ice cave, with beautiful ice crystals and ice stalactites hanging from the top of the cave. We also saw the lake where you could take a boat if you reserved in advance. Overall, all tours except the most basic one need to be reserved in advance, so be aware of that. On the topmost station there’s also a panorama terrace, but as you can see in the photos there was not much panorama when I went.

Spannagel Cave

Another fun activity to do up the Hintertux Glacier is to go into the Spannagel Cave. The importance of this is cave is that it’s Europe’s highest altitude publicly accessible cave. You can also opt in for the regular tour, which allows you to see the first 500 m of the cave, or the advanced one (with reservation) if you enjoy speleology. The cave was a great addition to the tour, and the guide had great explanations. In case you think you may be claustophobic, you should know that the narrowest part of the cave was a corridor where you could not extend your arms.

In the afternoon, we drove towards Salzburg, our next base station. The trip takes around 2:30 h.

Day 4 – Eisriesenwelt & Gollinger Wasserfall

Eisriesenwelt

A very exciting short trip from Salzburg is Eisriesenwelt, located only 45 min away by car from the city. Eisriesenwelt is the world’s largest ice cave and absolutely worth the visit. The cave is located on a mountain, so to reach it you’ll need to take a cable car that is included in the ticket for the visit. After reaching the top, there is a short hike up towards the cave.

The cave is only accessible with a tour guide, and you receive an oil lamp to go along. The cave door is closed until it’s time for the tour, and upon entering, there was quite some wind. Inside the cave it was pretty cold, as one would expect from an ice cave. We started our tour going up the built-up stairs, marveling at the ice all around the cave. The cave is extremely large, and you could see some stairs on the other side, where people were coming back from the tour. Photography is not allowed inside, so unfortunately, I cannot share any picture, but the cave was really worth the trip.

Since you’re in this area, you can check out a medieval castle, Burg Hohenwerfen, that is close by Eisriesenwelt and can be reached by a funicular.

Gollinger Wasserfall

After having some quick lunch, we headed towards the Golling Waterfalls, which is located 30 min away from the ice cave. The waterfall has a fall of 75 m. You can also do a short hike of 1,5 h, crossing some bridges. It was pretty crowded when we visited, with many families relaxing around and the kids playing next to the water.

Day 5 – Salzburg

Finally it was the day to visit Salzburg, the birth city of Mozart. Salzburg is a rather compact but monumental city. We started the day visiting the Fortress Hohensalzburg, located on top of the hill. You can access it via a funicular, with the price included in the ticket, or hiking up. My visit inside the castle didn’t give me any otherwordly impression – it’s a pretty starndard castle. The best part of the visit were the views of the city. Really impressive! Salzburg certainly has a beautiful setup.

Back to the city, a viewpoint is the baroque Salzburg Cathedral, which has an entry fee of 5€. The cathedral was initially built in 774, after which it was expanded over the centuries. The building has been burned and rebuilt several times, most recently after WWII. After visiting, the cathedral fell under my nice-to-see but not a must category. Might be a cool place to see if you catch a concert.

If you walk in the city center, you’ll end up at Mozart’s birthplace and museum. I must admit I skipped that one, as the line was too long.

On the other side of the river, you can see the Mirabell Gardens. They were gorgeous and worth the visit in summer, when everything is green and blooming. I didn’t go inside of the palace, as it seemed more of an event hall than a touristy place. The whole site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the gardens are free to visit.

To come back to the old town, I crossed the bridge Marko-Feingold-Steg, from where the views of the city center were beautiful, and went to explore the cafés, as Austrian desserts are world-class.

Day 6 – Hallstatt

There was only one famous and very instagramable place left: Hallstatt, located 1:20 min away from Salzburg. You may recognise it by the church view close to the lake. The town itself is a small cute town, which has several nice areas with lake views and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Apart from the classic views, there’s two places you may be interested to visit. One are the Salt Mines, which constitute quite an interesting tour to the history of the city. The mines are the world’s oldest salt mines. When you get in the mines, you’re asked to put on a uniform, that will help you reduce the friction to slide down a slide at the end of the tour (if you don’t want to slide, there are stairs right next to the slide). They also record your speed so you can compete with your friends to see who descends faster. Since you’re on the top of the mountain, you can also visit the Skywalk, which offers great views of the lake.

The other is the Ossuary in the Hallstatt Charnel House. This is quite an interesting site: people buried there had their skulls decorated with different artistic styles, sometimes including their names, their birth/death dates, or just decorations such as wreaths. There’s around 600 decorated skulls in the ossary, some even dating from the 20th century. The latest skull was from a woman who wished to be buried there, and her skull was added to the ossary in 1995. The visit to the ossary costs 2€.

Day 7 – Heading back to Zürich through Lindau

The trip back from Hallstatt to Zürich takes around 6 h by car, so we wanted to get some kind of a break without getting into the traffic mess of Munich. Lindau was a great option for that. After driving the whole morning, we arrived to Lindau, in Germany, around lunch time. Lindau is a romantic city built on an island connected by two roads, so it’s accessible by car.

Lindau is quite a small city. You can go see the Lindau’s harbour entrance, where you can climb the lighthouse. There is the Mang Tower, built in the 13th century, which is currently one of the main attractions, allowing you to see great views of the city and the Lake Constance. Then, you can take a stroll around the nice houses, sit in a café, or enjoy a swim if the weather allows. Lindau is the place to go if you want to spend a nice afternoon, but not if you need to see something spectacular.

Personal highlights

• Nature’s Ice Palace. I didn’t have high expectations, as I’ve been to some touristy ice caves before, but this one was really interesting to see.
• Eisriesenwelt. As sad as it is not to be able to take photos inside, some things are nonetheless worth seeing.
• Ossary in Hallstatt. Some may find it a bit morbid, but if you consented to have your skull painted and displayed, why not?

Practical tips

• While these places are accessible by public transport, if you want to do several of them, a car will make your life easier.
• Bring warm clothes if doing any ice activity! It gets cold.
• If you want to do something, book it ahead. I still do this mistake, but many places nowadays are fully booked or need to be booked in advance.
• If you have a sweet tooth, go for the cakes and desserts, they’re amazing.