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Team SeeThis.Place
Complete travel guide to Austria. Handpicked places including waterfalls, mountain roads, thermal springs, UNESCO sites, scenic drives and hidden gems. All with GPS coordinates.
The steering wheel vibrates in your hands. The tarmac unfolds into yet another hairpin — number 36 of 36. Then it all opens up: the Pasterze glacier, smooth and blue-white, and behind it Grossglockner at 3,798 metres. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road in Austria climbs from 800 to 2,504 metres across 48 kilometres.
GPS: 47.0744, 12.8425
The houses cling to the cliff face like swallow chicks in a nest. Below you: Hallstätter See, smooth as glass. Above you: the Dachstein massif with peaks at 3,000 metres. Hallstatt in Upper Austria has 750 residents and 7,000-year-old salt mines — the world's oldest. The town gave its name to an entire archaeological period.
GPS: 47.5622, 13.6493
The thunder hits you before the sight does. 380 metres of drop in three colossal stages — the Krimml Waterfalls in Salzburgerland are Austria's highest and Europe's fifth highest. Spray hangs in the air like mist. The paths along the falls are wet with water particles, and rainbows dance in the spray.
GPS: 47.2077, 12.1708
Steam rises from the green water, and the rock face towers above you. Felsentherme Bad Gastein in Salzburgerland is carved straight into the mountain — a thermal bath where the rock itself is the wall. Water between 36 and 44 degrees from 47 springs, and a valley with a 341-metre waterfall in the middle of town.
GPS: 47.1113, 13.1335
The grating beneath your feet is all that stands between you and a 114-metre free fall. Highline179 near Reutte in Tyrol, Austria, stretches 406 metres and connects the Ehrenberg castle ruins with Fort Claudia. The wind tugs. The bridge sways. The Tyrolean Alps open up in every direction.
GPS: 47.4598, 10.7161
The temperature drops with every step. Your breath hangs as white smoke before your face. Then the torch hits the first ice wall — and you are standing in a cathedral of frozen water. Eisriesenwelt near Werfen in Salzburgerland is the world's largest ice cave: 42 kilometres of underground passages.
GPS: 47.5025, 13.1908
Mozart was born at 9 Getreidegasse in 1756, but Salzburg was already ancient then. Hohensalzburg Fortress towers 120 metres above the city — Central Europe's largest preserved castle. Baroque churches, narrow lanes and wrought-iron signs above the shops. Salzburg's Altstadt in Austria has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.
GPS: 47.7981, 13.0476
1,441 rooms. Empress Sisi's morning exercise room. Mozart's first concert as a six-year-old in the Hall of Mirrors. Maria Theresa's yellow facade stretches like a wall of power across the park. Schönbrunn in Vienna is the Habsburgs' summer palace and Austria's most visited site — UNESCO World Heritage since 1996.
GPS: 48.1845, 16.3122
In winter it is a park with benches and paths. In spring, meltwater swallows it all — and suddenly the benches sit underwater, paths vanish in green light, and the lake is 12 metres deep. Grüner See in Styria, Austria, is a lake that is reborn every spring and vanishes every autumn.
GPS: 47.5423, 15.0567
You stand on a narrow suspension bridge with turquoise water 500 metres below. The Schlegeis reservoir in Zillertal, Austria, glitters like a gemstone between glaciers. The bridge at Olpererhütte is only 40 metres long, but the image has become one of Austria's most shared — and you understand why when the wind takes hold.
GPS: 47.0420, 11.6884
The Danube winds through terraces of Grüner Veltliner vines, and above them perch castle ruins and Baroque churches. The Wachau Valley in Lower Austria is 36 km of Europe's most picturesque river valley. The apricot blossom in April paints the entire valley pink. UNESCO World Heritage since 2000.
GPS: 48.3949, 15.5190
The golden library gleams before you — 100,000 volumes against walnut wood walls, the ceiling fresco painted as a sky of angels. Melk Abbey in Lower Austria rises on a cliff 60 metres above the Danube. A 900-year-old Benedictine monastery. Europe's most magnificent Baroque gathered under one roof.
GPS: 48.2281, 15.3325
Three floating bowls of glass and steel filled with 34-degree thermal water. Behind them: the Ötztal Alps in white and blue. Aqua Dome in Längenfeld, Tyrol, Austria, is a thermal bath that looks like a space station — just with a better view. The water comes from 1,865 metres below.
GPS: 47.0694, 10.9646
34 hairpins up to Bielerhöhe at 2,032 metres, and then the view opens over Silvrettasee — a turquoise alpine lake surrounded by glacier-capped peaks. The Silvretta High Alpine Road in Austria connects Vorarlberg with Tyrol through a landscape so quiet you hear your own pulse.
GPS: 46.9688, 10.0636
The south tower shoots 136 metres above Vienna. 343 steps in a narrow spiral staircase — and then the entire city lies beneath you. The roof is covered in 230,000 glazed tiles in a zigzag pattern with the Habsburg eagle. Stephansdom in Vienna, Austria, has been the city's soul since 1147.
GPS: 48.2085, 16.3731
200 metres of concrete rise vertically before you. Then you step onto the Airwalk — a glass platform jutting 12 metres over the abyss, and you look straight down into the Malta Valley. Kölnbreinsperre in Carinthia, Austria, is the country's highest dam and one of the Alps' most dramatic engineering feats.
GPS: 47.0787, 13.3379
Turquoise water, white steamships and the steep Schafberg rising 1,783 metres behind St. Wolfgang. Wolfgangsee in Salzkammergut, Austria, is the imperial era's favourite lake — Emperor Franz Joseph holidayed here, and you can still feel it in the hotels and colourful facades along the shore.
GPS: 47.7458, 13.4033
You look up at the dome and forget you came to see paintings. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria, is itself a work of art — marble floors, gilding and Klimt's frescoes in the stairwell. And then Vermeer, Bruegel, Caravaggio and Velázquez hang in the galleries beyond.
GPS: 48.2034, 16.3614
159 metres of water thundering down the cliff face in two colossal stages. Stuibenfall near Umhausen in the Ötztal, Tyrol, Austria, is the country's tallest free-falling waterfall. A via ferrata along the cliff takes the brave right up beside the water. The rest of us make do with the viewing platforms — and that is plenty.
GPS: 47.1263, 10.9476
No straight lines. No identical windows. Roofs covered in grass, golden domes and undulating walls in every colour of the rainbow. Rogner Bad Blumau in Styria, Austria, is Friedensreich Hundertwasser's largest project — a thermal bath where the architecture itself is the art. Hot spring water from 3,000 metres below.
GPS: 47.1158, 16.0545
Baroque unfolds like a fan of gilded paper. The reflecting pool before Upper Belvedere captures the entire façade — the symmetry almost aggressive in its perfection. Inside, Klimt's 'The Kiss' hangs in a room that makes people hold their breath. Prince Eugene's 1723 summer residence is now Austria's most important art museum.
GPS: 48.1915, 16.3807
16.5 kilometres of mountain road spirals up Dobratsch to 1,732 metres, where three countries meet on the horizon. Austria, Italy, and Slovenia merge into a panoramic view that makes everything feel small. Villacher Alpenstrasse in Carinthia isn't the world's most famous alpine road — but it's one of the most rewarding.
GPS: 46.5929, 13.7113
200 metres long, 110 metres above the floor of Höhenbachklamm — and the steel grating underfoot shows you exactly how deep it goes. Hängebrücke Holzgau in Lechtal sways with every step. The gorge walls are so close you can hear the waterfall below vibrating through the steel cables. Free access, open year-round.
GPS: 47.2648, 10.3403
Neo-Renaissance in sand-coloured stone, 1,709 seats, and a tradition stretching back to 1869. Wiener Staatsoper isn't just a building — it's a living instrument. Every evening the curtain rises on a new performance, 300 nights a year. The façade along Opernring lights up like a stage in itself when darkness falls.
GPS: 48.2017, 16.3677
Turquoise meltwater captured behind a 131-metre dam in Zillertal. Schlegeis Stausee at 1,782 metres has the colour only glacial water can produce — an almost impossible blue that shifts with the light. Mountains rise directly from the shore, and the silence is total apart from the wind and melting ice.
GPS: 47.0376, 11.7067
The world's first mountain railway across a major alpine pass, built 1848-54 with pick and shovel. 41 km of track, 16 viaducts, 15 tunnels — all in stone, all by hand. The Kalte Rinne viaduct is a two-storey arch in raw limestone. UNESCO calls the Semmeringbahn in Austria a masterpiece of early railway engineering.
GPS: 47.6573, 15.8057
A clock tower from 1560 on a cliff in the middle of the city. Schlossberg rises 123 metres above the red rooftops of Graz, and the Uhrturm on top is the city's most beloved landmark. The hands are reversed — the large one shows hours, the small one minutes. Napoleon never got the tower down. The citizens of Graz paid a ransom to keep it.
GPS: 47.0735, 15.4378
80 metres long, 20 metres high, 200,000 books from floor to ceiling — and a dome fresco that makes you forget to look at the books. The Prunksaal in Vienna is the Baroque answer to a video game: every corner has new details. Prince Eugene's collection of 15,000 volumes fills an entire wing, gold-embossed spine to spine.
GPS: 48.2037, 16.3598
Zaha Hadid designed a tower that looks as if it hovers above Innsbruck. The 2002 Bergisel ski jump is half sculpture, half viewpoint — and still a functioning K-120 hill where the World Cup is held. The restaurant at the top doesn't rotate, but it doesn't need to: the view over Nordkette and the Inn valley is 360 degrees unfiltered.
GPS: 47.2427, 11.3928
The world's oldest zoo — founded in 1752 as an imperial menagerie. Tiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna has Baroque pavilions where the emperor once sipped morning coffee watching animals from four continents. Today it houses pandas, elephants and koalas behind the original walls. The 1759 Imperial Pavilion is still the centre of it all.
GPS: 48.1760, 16.3015
1.5 million graphic works — from Dürer to Picasso — collected behind a neoclassical façade on the Augustinerbastei. The Albertina in Vienna holds one of the world's largest collections of printed art, and its rotating exhibitions draw names that make people queue around the corner. The Habsburg state rooms upstairs are furnished as when Archduke Karl lived here.
GPS: 48.2047, 16.3683
The world's largest Schiele collection behind a white limestone cube. The Leopold Museum in Vienna's MuseumsQuartier has 44 Schiele paintings and 188 drawings — naked bodies, contorted poses and an honesty that still provokes. Rudolf Leopold gathered it all over 50 years, from flea market finds to auction houses.
GPS: 48.2026, 16.3591
1.5 kilometres of food, spices and Viennese attitude. Vienna's Naschmarkt stretches along the Wienzeile with over 120 stalls selling everything from Syrian falafel to Styrian pumpkin seed oil. Saturday's flea market at the western end is chaos in the best sense — vintage glass, Turkish carpets and Austrian antiques piled on top of each other.
GPS: 48.1987, 16.3636
14 gates up a cliff. Burg Hochosterwitz in Carinthia rises 160 metres above the Zollfeld plain, and the only way up passes gate after gate — each with its own defensive trap. The castle has never been conquered. From the top you look out over the entire Sankt Veit an der Glan valley, and on clear days the view reaches the Karawanken mountains.
GPS: 46.7565, 14.4515
Europe's only steppe lake — so shallow you can wade 200 metres out and still touch the bottom. Neusiedlersee in Burgenland is only 1.8 metres at its deepest, surrounded by reed belts humming with birdlife. The lake is shared with Hungary and holds UNESCO status for its unique cultural landscape of vineyards, bird colonies and Pannonian steppe.
GPS: 47.8023, 16.6931
A steamship on the ground floor, a MiG-21 in the hall and the world's oldest functioning telephone exchange in the basement. Technisches Museum Wien is not the dusty museum you imagine — it's 22,000 m² of machines you can touch, buttons you can press and inventions that changed the world. Opened in 1918, when Austria's industry was still an empire.
GPS: 48.1909, 16.3179
252 metres of concrete and one lift. The Donauturm in Vienna is Austria's tallest structure, and from the observation deck at 150 metres you can see Stephansdom, Kahlenberg and the Danube arm threading through the city. Built for the garden exhibition in 1964, it remains the best way to understand Vienna's geography — the river, the vineyards, the hills.
GPS: 48.2403, 16.4100
Salzkammergut's largest lake — 46 km² of crystal-clear water with up to 25 metres visibility. Attersee in Upper Austria has the turquoise-blue colour that made Klimt paint here every summer from 1900 to 1916. UNESCO pile dwellings from the Bronze Age lie beneath the surface. Mountains on three sides, and the temperature reaches 24°C in August.
GPS: 47.9496, 13.5921
One kilometre of walkway between the treetops, 20 metres above the forest floor. The Baumkronenweg in Kopfing, Upper Austria, follows the canopy of 80-year-old beech trees, and the 40-metre observation tower at the end gives views over the Inn valley all the way to the Bavarian Alps. Children love it. Adults forget they're adults.
GPS: 48.4486, 13.6744
A city that has been Europe's centre for 600 years — and still feels like it. Vienna's Altstadt is UNESCO World Heritage for the layers of history piled on top of each other: Gothic cathedral, Baroque palaces, Ringstraße historicism and Art Nouveau rebellion. All within walking distance. Stephansplatz is the heart, but every street corner bears a different century's fingerprint.
GPS: 48.2050, 16.3701
The rock walls squeeze together overhead. 300 metres below daylight, the Großarler Ache forces itself through a crack so narrow you can touch both sides. Waterfalls hammer down from 50 metres, spray coating your glasses. Liechtensteinklamm near St. Johann im Pongau in Salzburgerland — named after the prince who funded the path in 1875.
GPS: 47.3128, 13.1893
Turquoise meltwater from the Kitzsteinhorn glacier forces itself through a 320-metre gorge at Kaprun. 14,000 years of carving into rock. Wooden walkways over the water, ice-cold spray in your face. 32 metres at the deepest — and the colour is so impossibly blue it looks like a filter.
GPS: 47.2581, 12.7371
Carinthia's wildest gorge. The Raggabach has carved 200 metres into rock near Flattach in the Mölltal. Walls almost touching overhead, waterfalls thundering around every bend, stalactite-like formations dripping from the ceiling. Open only in summer — winter seals the trail with ice and stone.
GPS: 46.9255, 13.1417
354 steps up through a gorge of turquoise cascades. Wolfsklamm at Stans is Tyrol's most beautiful water staircase. The trail ends at Sankt Georgenberg — a monastery clinging to a rock ledge since 950. Monks have been climbing this way for over a thousand years.
GPS: 47.3735, 11.7041
Central Europe's deepest gorge. 10,000 years the Breitach has spent carving 150 metres into rock. In winter the waterfalls freeze into blue icicles hanging from the ceiling like organ pipes. The border between Austria and Bavaria runs straight through — you cross it without knowing.
GPS: 47.3935, 10.2321
The family gorge. The Kundler Ache flows calmly between 200-metre cliff walls, but there are no chains, no ladders — just a wide gravel path along the river. Children collect stones at the water's edge, adults look up. Kundler Klamm between Wildschönau and the Inn Valley is Tyrol's most accessible canyon.
GPS: 47.4458, 11.9873
A fairytale gorge at Erpfendorf. Stairs, bridges and ladders along the Grießbach — moss-covered cliff walls and a waterfall around every bend. The trail ends at an Alm with views over the Pillersee valley. Tyrol's best-kept secret among gorge hikes.
GPS: 47.5200, 12.5300
Austria's Grand Canyon. The Ötscherbach has carved into limestone for millions of years — emerald pools, waterfalls and vertical cliff walls. A 22 km hiking route from Wienerbruck to Erlaufklause. Lower Austria's best-kept secret, just two hours from Vienna.
GPS: 47.8497, 15.2846
Carinthia's warmest lake — up to 28°C in summer. 16 km of turquoise water surrounded by Art Nouveau villas from the imperial era. Klagenfurt at one end, Velden with its casino at the other. Wörthersee is Austria's Riviera, and it lives up to the name.
GPS: 46.6250, 14.1528
Carinthia's deepest lake — 141 metres to the bottom. Crystal-clear water and the Millstatt Abbey from 1070 on the shore. Quieter than Wörthersee, more majestic than Faaker See. Millstätter See is the lake the locals keep to themselves.
GPS: 46.7950, 13.5797
No motorboats, only two-thirds of the shore has a road. In winter, Weissensee freezes into Europe's largest natural skating rink — 6.5 km of ice, mountain backdrop, no walls. Carinthia's untouched jewel, high up in the Gailtaler Alps.
GPS: 46.7167, 13.3000
Turquoise water with the Mittagskogel (2,145 m) as a backdrop. A small island in the middle, Caribbean colours, Alpine panorama. Faaker See near Villach is Carinthia's most photogenic lake. European Bike Week draws 100,000 motorcyclists here every September.
GPS: 46.5764, 13.9229
Tyrol's largest lake — fjord-like, 133 metres deep, framed by the Rofan and Karwendel ranges. The Achenseebahn steam train has been climbing up from Jenbach since 1889. The water is so clear you can see the bottom 10 metres down. Achensee is Tyrol's fjord among the mountains.
GPS: 47.4630, 11.7091
The Sound of Music wedding was filmed in Mondsee Basilica. The lake reaches 27°C, surrounded by the Drachenwand and Schafberg. Pile dwelling settlements from 5,000 BC are UNESCO World Heritage. Mondsee in Salzkammergut is where Hollywood meets prehistory.
GPS: 47.8560, 13.3501
The Dachstein glacier mirrors itself in emerald water. The trail around Vorderer Gosausee takes 90 minutes — every step with the glacier as backdrop. Behind it waits Hinterer Gosausee, wilder and more remote. Gosausee in Upper Austria is Salzkammergut's secret.
GPS: 47.5332, 13.4968
Turquoise mountain lake at 1,970 metres in the Rätikon massif. The Lünerseebahn gondola from Brandnertal takes you up in 6 minutes. A 5 km loop walk with Schesaplana (2,965 m) as backdrop. Lünersee in Vorarlberg was once called Austria's most beautiful alpine lake — and still for good reason.
GPS: 47.0525, 9.7531
Tyrol's largest glacier ski area. The gondola takes you to 3,210 metres, the Top of Tyrol viewing platform hovers over the abyss. The ice grotto leads you INSIDE the glacier — bluish light, frozen walls, air so cold it bites. Stubaier Gletscher is the crown of the Stubai Valley.
GPS: 46.9919, 11.1172
Austria's largest glacier — an 8 km ice tongue at the foot of Grossglockner (3,798 m). The Gletscherbahn takes you down to the ice edge. Pasterze shrinks 10 metres per year — what you see today won't exist in 50 years. A living climate story in Carinthia's Hohe Tauern.
GPS: 47.0856, 12.7233
Austria's only year-round ski area. 365 days, snow guaranteed. The Natur Eis Palast is an underground ice world with frozen waterfalls and crystals behind glass doors inside the glacier. Hintertuxer Gletscher at the end of the Zillertal — where winter never ends.
GPS: 47.0857, 11.6648
From Innsbruck city centre to 2,334 metres in 20 minutes. The Hungerburgbahn by Zaha Hadid, Seegrubenbahn, Hafelekar — three railways, three worlds. The city vanishes, the Alps open up. Nordkette in Tyrol is where city and wilderness exist without a gap.
GPS: 47.3062, 11.3886
Austria's largest alpine lake — 1,762 metres up in the Radstädter Tauern. No road, hiking only. 2.5 hours from Kleinarl, the reward: an emerald lake surrounded by 2,500-metre peaks. The Tappenkarseehütte serves Kaiserschmarrn with alpine panorama.
GPS: 47.1925, 13.3197
1,783 metres with views over 7 lakes. The Schafbergbahn steam train climbs 1,190 metres from St. Wolfgang — Europe's steepest cog railway. Wolfgangsee, Mondsee, Attersee and the entire Salzkammergut in panorama. Schafberg is Salzburgerland's viewpoint.
GPS: 47.7744, 13.4347
Europe's largest fully preserved castle complex. 250 metres above Salzburg, built 1077, never conquered. Funicular or a 20-minute stair climb. From the ramparts: all of Salzburg, the Untersberg and the Alps in one glance. Festung Hohensalzburg is Salzburg's crown.
GPS: 47.7952, 13.0481
Medieval castle from 1077 on a cliff above the Salzach Valley. Birds of prey shows with eagles and falcons diving over the audience. Where Eagles Dare was filmed here. The Eisriesenwelt ice cave is 8 km away. Burg Hohenwerfen in Salzburgerland is Austria's most fairytale-like castle.
GPS: 47.4827, 13.1886
Tyrol's medieval fortress above the Inn River. The Heldenorgel is the world's largest open-air organ — 4,948 pipes, playing daily at noon, audible across the entire town. The Kaiser Tower from 1522 has 4-metre-thick walls. Kufstein is the gateway to Tyrol.
GPS: 47.5810, 12.1689
An impregnable fortress on a 482-metre basalt cliff. 3 km of defensive walls, 7 gates, 2 moats. Baroness Katharina defended it against the Ottomans in the 1600s — a woman in a man's world. Riegersburg in Styria is Austria's most dramatic castle.
GPS: 47.0008, 15.9360
Austria's most photographed castle — on a small island in Traunsee, connected by a 123-metre wooden bridge. The Traunstein (1,691 m) rises vertically like a wall behind it. Schloss Ort in Gmunden, Upper Austria — the romantic heart of Salzkammergut.
GPS: 47.9114, 13.7921
The Goldenes Dachl gleams with 2,657 gilded copper tiles. Emperor Maximilian I had it built in 1500 to watch tournaments from the balcony. Colourful baroque houses along the Inn River, Nordkette directly behind the rooftops. Innsbruck in Tyrol — alpine town and imperial city in one.
GPS: 47.2682, 11.3928
Alpine town where the lake touches the mountain. Zeller See in front, Kitzsteinhorn (3,203 m) with year-round skiing behind. Summer: swim in the lake. Winter: ski to 3,000 metres. The Schmittenhöhe railway gives a 360° panorama. Zell am See in Salzburgerland — everything within 20 minutes.
GPS: 47.3240, 12.7963
The legendary ski town. The Hahnenkamm race is the world's most dangerous downhill — 80% gradient, 140 km/h, the whole world watching. Kitzbühel's medieval pedestrian streets with pastel facades and Wilder Kaiser as backdrop is Tyrol in haute couture.
GPS: 47.4464, 12.3919
Emperor Franz Joseph's summer retreat for 60 years. The Kaiservilla where he spent every summer and signed the declaration of war against Serbia on 28 July 1914. Café Zauner serves Zaunerstollen from an 1832 recipe. Bad Ischl in Upper Austria — European Capital of Culture 2024.
GPS: 47.7115, 13.6239
Europe's most spectacular opera stage. The Bregenzer Festspiele perform on a floating stage in Lake Constance — 7,000 spectators, sunset over water, Alps as backdrop. The Pfänder (1,064 m) behind gives views across four countries. Bregenz in Vorarlberg is culture with a waterfront.
GPS: 47.5026, 9.7473
Blue church tower above the Danube and the ruins of the castle where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned 1192-93. The jewel of the Wachau valley — terraced vineyards, apricots and a medieval town too beautiful to be real. Dürnstein in Lower Austria is Austria's most romantic river town.
GPS: 48.3950, 15.5190
Underground ice cathedral in the Dachstein massif. The Parzifaldom is an ice hall so vast a church could fit inside. Ice sculptures, frozen waterfalls, -2°C year-round. Gondola to 1,350 metres, 15 minutes' walk to the entrance. Dachstein Rieseneishöhle in Upper Austria — the world's ice inside the mountain.
GPS: 47.5348, 13.7186
The world's deepest through-cave — 1,632 metres from top to bottom, 51 km of passages. 700 metres of lit path lead you into the mountain. Underground streams, stalactites, silence so thick you hear your own heart. Lamprechtshöhle near Lofer in Salzburgerland.
GPS: 47.5261, 12.7392
The world's largest monastic library. 70,000 volumes under a ceiling fresco from 1776 covering the entire sky. 70 metres long, 14 metres high, light from 48 windows. Stift Admont in Styria, Austria, founded 1074 in the Enns Valley. The Baroque answer to the internet — all knowledge, one room.
GPS: 47.5753, 14.4643
Austria's smallest state capital and Joseph Haydn's city. Schloss Esterházy with the Haydnsaal — one of the world's best-preserved concert halls with perfect 18th-century acoustics. Jewish quarter, baroque churches, vineyards just outside the city walls. Eisenstadt in Burgenland — a cultural city in pocket format.
GPS: 47.8455, 16.5189
Central Europe's largest national park — 1,856 km² with 300 peaks over 3,000 metres, 342 glaciers and Grossglockner (3,798 m) as the highest point. Ibex, golden eagles, marmots. The Krimml Waterfalls and Pasterze Glacier are both inside. Hohe Tauern National Park in Austria — the wild heart of the Alps.
GPS: 47.1200, 12.7100
Austria's largest nature park — 727 km² of alpine wilderness directly behind Innsbruck. The Karwendel range with cliffs, glacial streams and Europe's largest maple forest. Großer Ahornboden is iconic — 2,000 maple trees on a green plateau surrounded by vertical limestone cliffs. The mountains start where the city ends.
GPS: 47.4086, 11.5750
360° panorama from 2,224 metres with the Hohe Tauern, Grossvenediger and Grossglockner on the horizon. The world's longest illuminated toboggan run — 14 km down to Bramberg under the stars. Summer: hiking trails and alpine pastures. Winter: toboggan runs and family skiing. Wildkogel in Salzburgerland is the mountain's big show.
GPS: 47.2858, 12.2974
The boat glides silently across black water. Above you: 20 metres of rock. Below you: Europe's largest underground lake. Seegrotte in Hinterbrühl south of Vienna was a gypsum mine until a blast in 1912 released millions of litres of groundwater and created this surreal underworld. During World War II, forced labourers from Mauthausen produced parts for He 162 jet fighters down here.
GPS: 48.0858, 16.2575
In 1894, seven cave explorers went in despite heavy rain. The water rose. They were trapped for ten days. Over a thousand rescuers dug them out. Lurgrotte near Peggau north of Graz is the largest karst cave in the Eastern Alps — and the story of the dramatic rescue makes it more than just stalactites and darkness. The cave's two entrances (Peggau and Semriach) are connected by 5 km of underground passages.
GPS: 47.2269, 15.3794
No straight lines. Trees growing from the windows. Undulating floors. Friedensreich Hundertwasser designed this apartment block in Vienna as a revolt against architecture's rectangular tyranny — and refused payment for the design. 53 apartments, 250 trees and bushes, and no two windows are alike. Built in 1985 on the corner of Kegelgasse and Löwengasse in Vienna's 3rd district.
GPS: 48.2075, 16.3939
The colour of the water is impossible. Turquoise, emerald, neon blue — depending on the light and the season. Silberkarklamm near Ramsau am Dachstein in Styria is a glacial gorge where meltwater from the Dachstein glacier has cut deep into the limestone walls. Wooden stairs and iron ladders take you up through the gorge. Three via ferratas (Hias, Rosina and Siega) attract climbers from across Europe.
GPS: 47.4381, 13.7158
An entire mountain has been eaten. Layer by layer, terrace by terrace — Erzberg near Eisenerz in Styria is Central Europe's largest open-pit mine and the Alps' most important iron ore deposit. Iron has been mined here for over 1,300 years. Today 12 million tonnes of rock are produced annually. The Hauly tour puts you in an 860-HP mine truck and drives you along the gigantic terraces.
GPS: 47.5250, 14.9117
Glass floor beneath your feet. 250 metres of vertical drop below the glass. The Dachstein Skywalk on Krippenstein at 2,700 metres is the Alps' most spectacular viewing platform. And as if that were not enough: the 'Stairway to Nothingness' — 14 glass steps leading down to a suspended platform over a 400-metre abyss. 40 tonnes of steel hold it all together. The structure withstands gusts of 210 km/h.
GPS: 47.4674, 13.6263
The body in the Kapuzinergruft. The heart in the Augustinerkirche. The entrails in St Stephen's Cathedral. The Habsburgs divided themselves in three after death. 145 royals rest in these vaults beneath Neuer Markt in Vienna — 12 emperors, 18 empresses, 107 metal sarcophagi ranging from puritan simplicity to lavish rococo. Maria Theresa's double sarcophagus with Franz Stephan stands 3 metres tall. Founded in 1618. Most recent burial: 2023.
GPS: 48.2054, 16.3706
An eagle swoops over your heads. Falcons circle. Owls land silently. Adlerarena Burg Landskron above Villach in Carinthia is Austria's most dramatic birds of prey show — with the castle ruins and Ossiacher See as backdrop. And at the foot of the castle, over 180 Japanese macaques roam free on Affenberg — Austria's only monkey colony. Medieval ruins, raptors and monkeys: all on one mountain.
GPS: 46.6424, 13.8969
The Benedictines have been here since 1083 — nearly a thousand years above the Wachau valley. Stift Göttweig sits enthroned on a hill 422 metres above the Danube, and the baroque staircase painted by Paul Troger in 1739 is one of Austria's most lavish ceiling frescoes. UNESCO-listed as part of the Wachau cultural landscape. The imperial wing was never completed — only half the planned monastery was built.
GPS: 48.3665, 15.6124
Cistercian monks have sung Gregorian chant here without interruption since 1133. Stift Heiligenkreuz in the Vienna Woods is the world's oldest continuously active Cistercian monastery — the monks still live, pray and sing here. The cloister has a Romanesque arcade from the 1200s so quiet you can hear your own footsteps.
GPS: 48.0550, 16.1320
Archduke Ferdinand II collected the strange. His Chamber of Art and Curiosities at Schloss Ambras above Innsbruck holds armour for giants and dwarfs, sharks in glass and coral jewellery from the 1500s. The castle itself is a Renaissance gem with the Spanischer Saal — a 43-metre-long banquet hall with 27 full-length portraits of Tyrol's rulers. The view over the Inn valley is free.
GPS: 47.2566, 11.4352
35 kilometres of gentle curves through Europe's roundest mountains. The Nockalmstraße in Carinthia winds over the Nockberge — no dramatic chasms, no hairpins, just rolling alpine meadows, grazing cows and 52 bends that flow like a lullaby. Highest point: Eisentalhöhe at 2,042 metres. Toll road, but worth every cent.
GPS: 46.8880, 13.8428
The Dachstein massif mirrors itself in the water. Altaussee in Styria is the quieter, finer version of Hallstatt — without the tourist buses. Beneath the lake hides a salt mine where in 1945 the Nazis stashed 6,500 artworks, including the Ghent Altarpiece and Michelangelo's Bruges Madonna. Miners refused to blow the entrance. The art survived.
GPS: 47.6399, 13.7641
164 wooden ladders and iron bridges take you 1.3 km through a vertical limestone gorge. Bärenschützklamm north of Graz is Styria's wildest gorge hike — you climb 350 metres up wet cliff faces with waterfalls spraying from all sides. 300-metre-high limestone walls, 2,500 wooden rungs. Not for the faint of knee.
GPS: 47.3421, 15.3959
The Enns River has cut through the Ennstaler Alps, creating Austria's wildest canyon. Nationalpark Gesäuse is Styria's only national park — 12,300 hectares of raw nature, vertical limestone and thundering rapids. The name 'Gesäuse' comes from the roar of the river. Stift Admont with the world's largest monastic library is 10 km away. Rafting, climbing and 1,234 butterfly species.
GPS: 47.5749, 14.6306
A blue, blob-shaped spaceship has landed in the middle of Graz's baroque old town. Kunsthaus Graz — called 'the Friendly Alien' — is Peter Cook and Colin Fournier's biomorphic art hall from 2003, built for Graz's year as European Capital of Culture. The BIX facade has 930 light rings that at night display art installations visible from across the city. Inside: contemporary art rotating every quarter.
GPS: 47.0713, 15.4341
100 metres tall, built from larch wood and steel, twisted like a DNA helix. Pyramidenkogel by Wörthersee is the world's tallest wooden tower — and you can take a slide down. 441 steps up, 120 seconds down. From the top you see Wörthersee, Klagenfurt, the Karawanken range and on clear days all the way to Slovenia. Built in 2013 by Klauss Kager.
GPS: 46.6090, 14.1449
50,000 people lived here. Carnuntum was the Roman Empire's most important garrison town north of the Alps — capital of the province of Pannonia. Marcus Aurelius wrote parts of his Meditations here. Today the Heidentor still stands 14 metres tall, and an entire Roman quarter has been reconstructed using original techniques — underfloor heating, wall paintings, latrines. You can walk in and feel 2,000 years beneath your feet.
GPS: 48.1141, 16.8658
191 metres deep — Austria's deepest lake. Traunsee in the Salzkammergut is surrounded by Traunstein (1,691 m) rising almost vertically from the shore. Gmunden at the northern end has a water castle (Schloss Ort) connected to land by a 123-metre wooden bridge. The steamship Gisela has sailed here since 1871.
GPS: 47.8631, 13.7966
A tiny island with a chapel ruin in the middle of an emerald mountain lake. Obernberger See lies hidden in a side valley near the Brenner Pass — 1,590 metres up, 20 minutes from the motorway but a different world. The lake is only 500 metres long, but the larch trees in autumn and the chapel ruin on the island give it a fairytale quality. Walk from the car park: 30 minutes.
GPS: 46.9920, 11.4039
In 1945, SS officers sank crates of counterfeit British pounds in this lake. Toplitzsee in the Salzkammergut is 103 metres deep, surrounded by vertical cliff faces, and only accessible on foot or by punt. Divers have found crates of fake banknotes — part of Operation Bernhard, Hitler's plan to destroy the British economy. More crates are believed to still lie on the bottom.
GPS: 47.6438, 13.9278
Austria's most important pilgrimage site. Basilika Mariazell has drawn the faithful to the Styrian Alps since 1157 — a wooden Madonna figure, 48 cm tall, surrounded by silver and gold in the Gothic Gnadenkapelle. Emperor Charles VI had the church rebuilt in Baroque, but the Gothic nave survived. Over 1 million pilgrims per year. Mariazeller Bahn — Austria's oldest mountain railway — runs here.
GPS: 47.7728, 15.3189
Two rivers meet, and between them lies one of Austria's best-preserved medieval towns. Steyr in Upper Austria has a town square with Gothic and Baroque facades, Bummerlhaus from 1497, and a blade-making tradition going back 600 years. Franz Schubert composed his Trout Quintet here in the summer of 1819. Christmas: the Christkindl post office has sent letters with its famous stamp since 1950.
GPS: 48.0560, 14.4198
3,203 metres — and you can take a gondola all the way up. Kitzsteinhorn near Kaprun is the only glacier summit in Salzburgerland with year-round skiing and a panorama platform giving 360° views over the Hohe Tauern. The Top of Salzburg terrace hangs over the glacier, and on clear days you see Grossglockner, Großvenediger and 30+ three-thousanders. Nationalpark Gallery: a tunnel inside the mountain.
GPS: 47.1880, 12.6875
1,827 metres up in the Lechquellengebirge. Spullersee in Vorarlberg is a natural mountain lake expanded into a reservoir — surrounded by 2,600-metre peaks mirrored in the milky blue water. The road up is so narrow and steep it is only open to cars at set times. Walk around the lake: 1.5 hours. No café, no shop, just stone and sky.
GPS: 47.1573, 10.0777
Styria's largest lake, called the 'Styrian Sea'. Grundlsee stretches 5.7 km between forested mountains in the Salzkammergut — and behind it hide Toplitzsee and the even more inaccessible Kammersee. Three lakes in a chain, each wilder than the last. The punt across Toplitzsee is the only way forward. Grundlsee itself is calm, clear and perfect for swimming.
GPS: 47.6273, 13.8379
The Augustinians have been here since 1114 — and they make wine. Stift Klosterneuburg north of Vienna is one of Austria's oldest and richest monasteries, with a wine production going back 900 years. The Verdun Altar from 1181 — 51 enamel plaques with biblical scenes — is the Middle Ages' answer to a graphic novel. The monastery's wine cellar offers tastings of Grüner Veltliner from its own vineyards.
GPS: 48.3072, 16.3262
1897. The same year Dracula was published. The Wiener Riesenrad in the Prater has turned above Vienna for over 125 years — 64.75 metres tall, 15 red gondolas, and one revolution takes 20 minutes. Harry Lime delivered his famous speech here in The Third Man. In the evening the wheel lights up like a lantern above the dark Prater park.
GPS: 48.2167, 16.3959
30 km long, flanked by glaciers, and with a steam railway from 1902 still running. Zillertal in Tyrol is Austria's most visited alpine valley — but its size absorbs the crowds. Four side valleys lead to glaciers above 3,000 metres. Mayrhofen at the bottom is base camp. Zillertalbahn steams from Jenbach to Mayrhofen in 55 minutes, and the sound of the whistle in the valley is pure nostalgia.
GPS: 47.1600, 11.8700
Two dams, 2,040 metres up, surrounded by ice and granite. The Kaprun Hochgebirgsstauseen — Mooserboden and Wasserfallboden — are Austria's most spectacular alpine reservoirs. Built 1947-1955 by 3,200 workers under extreme conditions. The bus up drives through a tunnel inside the mountain. Up top: turquoise meltwater, Hohe Tauern glaciers and a silence broken only by the wind.
GPS: 47.1820, 12.7180
300 metres above the Danube, Aggstein looms — the Wachau valley's most dramatic castle ruin. The robber baron Jörg Scheck vom Wald lurked here in the 1400s, forcing passing ships to pay toll. Legend says he put prisoners on the 'Rosengärtlein' — a ledge with no way down. Today the view over the Danube's bends, the vineyards and Melk monastery on the horizon is worth every step. 900 years of history in the walls.
GPS: 48.3137, 15.4214
341 metres of free fall — in the middle of a town. Gasteiner Wasserfall plunges through the centre of Bad Gastein, between abandoned belle époque hotels and steaming thermal pools. It is surreal: fin-de-siècle architecture meets raw alpine waterfall. The Gasteiner Ache river hurls itself over three stages, and spray fills the entire valley. Austria's most unexpected natural scenery.
GPS: 47.1135, 13.1364
Voted Austria's most beautiful place in 2015 — and it is hard to argue. Formarinsee (1,793 m) is a turquoise karst lake beneath the Rote Wand cliff. The water disappears in autumn into a karst sinkhole and reappears 18 km away as the source of the Lech River. The hike from Freiburger Hütte takes 20 minutes. Only accessible June-October.
GPS: 47.1672, 9.9878
14.4 kilometres and 30 waterfalls. The Malta Hochalmstraße in Carinthia's Maltatal is Austria's most waterfall-rich alpine road — the road winds up to the Kölnbrein Dam (200 m high, Austria's tallest) past cascade after cascade. Gössfall (71 m) and Fallbach (200 m) are the most spectacular. The road is narrow and tolled, but the experience is unique in the Alps.
GPS: 46.9736, 13.5209
Two lakes, one panorama. The Giglachseen (1,956 m) are the most beautiful hiking destination in the Schladminger Tauern — Oberer and Unterer Giglachsee lie like turquoise mirrors beneath the peaks. The hike from Ursprungalm takes 2 hours through alpine meadows and over rocky ridges. Giglachseehütte serves Kaiserschmarrn with a view. No road up there. Just your legs.
GPS: 47.2800, 13.6458
The first rays of morning sun hit the water, and the mountains mirror themselves in perfect symmetry. Jägersee in the Kleinarltal is one of Salzburgerland's hidden lakes — 22 metres deep, surrounded by spruce forest and alpine meadows. The walk around the lake takes 30 minutes. Tappenkarsee (Austria's largest alpine lake) is just 2 hours' hike further up. Swimming temperature reaches 20°C in summer.
GPS: 47.2361, 13.3305
Lower Austria's Grand Canyon — and it is not an exaggeration. The Ötscher-Tormäuer is a 22 km gorge with emerald-green water, waterfalls and paths carved into the cliff faces. Lassingfall (20 m) is the gorge's crown jewel. The nature park protects 170 km² of wild nature just 2 hours' drive from Vienna. Austria's most underrated hiking destination.
GPS: 47.8520, 15.2938
It looks like a castle from a fantasy novel — and it almost is. Kreuzenstein was entirely rebuilt 1874-1906 by Count Johann Nepomuk Wilczek, who collected medieval building parts from across Europe and assembled them into this monument. Drawbridge, knights' halls, armouries and a chapel with Gothic stained glass. 20 minutes from Vienna, but a world away.
GPS: 48.3792, 16.3089
The best-preserved castle in the Waldviertel — and one of Lower Austria's least-visited gems. Rappottenstein perches above the small town on a granite cliff, unchanged since the 1100s. Five curtain walls, a Romanesque chapel and a torture cellar that still gives goosebumps. Guided tours reveal the dark history of the witch trials — 17 women were burned here in the 1600s.
GPS: 48.5119, 15.0881
Founded in 1138 — and the monks still live there. Stift Zwettl is one of the world's oldest active Cistercian monasteries. The Gothic cloister from the 1200s is architecturally perfect — columns, vaults and light falling in like a cathedral. The Baroque church, the library's 60,000 volumes and the monastery garden hold 900 years of unbroken prayer and book production.
GPS: 48.6169, 15.2001
Huge granite boulders in bizarre formations — balancing on each other, rolled down hills, grown into the forest floor. Blockheide near Gmünd is the Waldviertel's most surreal landscape. Ice-age glaciers left these 'wackelsteine' (wobble stones) — rocks up to 100 tonnes that wobble when you push them. The viewing tower gives a panorama over the Czech border.
GPS: 48.7750, 14.9800
The geographical centre of the Salzkammergut — and its secret capital. Bad Aussee is an alpine spa town with a salt history stretching back 3,000 years. Every year at Narzissenfest (May/June), locals decorate floats and sculptures with 35,000 fresh narcissi. The town is the starting point for Toplitzsee, Grundlsee and Altausseer See — three of Austria's most beautiful lakes within 15 minutes' drive.
GPS: 47.6100, 13.7800
Three eras in one building: Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque, grown together over 700 years. Schloss Herberstein sits dramatically on the edge of the Feistritz gorge in eastern Styria. The family castle museum shows 20 generations of noble life. Tierwelt Herberstein — the animal park around the castle — has 130 species from cheetahs to red pandas. The historical gardens are reconstructed from 1600s originals.
GPS: 47.2184, 15.8134
3,768 metres. Austria's second-highest mountain — and the highest in Tyrol. Wildspitze in the Ötztal Alps is a glacier-covered colossus that draws mountaineers from across Europe. The ascent from Breslauer Hütte takes 4-5 hours over the Taschachferner glacier. From the summit you see 200 km of Alps in every direction. Requires glacier skills and an ice axe, but the reward is unmatched.
GPS: 46.8853, 10.8673
1,909 metres with Carinthia's finest panorama. Gerlitzen Alpe above Ossiacher See gives a 360° view: the Karawanken range to the south, Hohe Tauern to the west, Julian Alps in Slovenia. The gondola from Annenheim runs year-round. In winter it is a ski area, in summer a paragliding mecca and hiking base. The sunset from the summit paints the entire Drau valley golden.
GPS: 46.6942, 13.9167
Zugspitze (2,962 m) — Germany's highest mountain — has its best access from the Austrian side. The Tiroler Zugspitzbahn from Ehrwald takes 10 minutes to the summit, and the view covers four countries: Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Less chaotic than the German side, better parking and shorter queues. From Ehrwald you see the Zugspitze north face — one of the Alps' most impressive cliff walls.
GPS: 47.4203, 10.9319