Austria 6 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)

Six days is our 5-day plan plus Innsbruck and the Alps instead of a rushed trip home from Salzburg. Austria runs on the euro, and this whole loop, Vienna to the Wachau to Salzburg to Innsbruck, connects entirely by OBB Railjet; you never need a car or a motorway vignette unless you specifically want to drive the seasonal Grossglockner High Alpine Road, which this itinerary does not attempt. Go April to May or October for the mildest weather and the thinnest Hallstatt crowds. A seventh day free, our 7-day itinerary gives Innsbruck a proper second day instead of a same-day departure.

Book these before you go

Day Focus OBB rail Rough daily cost
1 Innere Stadt, Stephansdom, Naschmarkt none EUR 60-90
2 Schonbrunn, Upper Belvedere none EUR 70-100
3 Wachau valley, Durnstein, Melk Abbey ~1h each way EUR 70-110
4 Salzburg Altstadt and Hohensalzburg ~2h22 to Salzburg EUR 90-130
5 Hallstatt and the Salzkammergut lakes ~1h10-1h30 each way from Salzburg EUR 80-120
6 Travel to Innsbruck, old town, Nordkette ~2h40-3h from Salzburg EUR 100-140

Day 1: Vienna’s old town, done on foot

Stephansdom is free to enter, the tower climb a small extra fee, and the Ringstrasse loop past the Opera House costs nothing. Lunch at the Naschmarkt, then a proper Kaffeehaus sitting before dinner; give it the hour it deserves.

Day 2: Schonbrunn and the Belvedere

Schonbrunn Palace runs EUR 30 to EUR 42 depending on the ticket, bookable at schoenbrunn.at . The Upper Belvedere, not the Albertina, holds Klimt’s “The Kiss,” a correction worth making before you plan the afternoon around the wrong building.

Day 3: The Wachau valley

Durnstein and Melk Abbey, roughly an hour from Vienna, are the better third day this itinerary was built around. Check current hours at austria.info before you go; Melk runs EUR 16 to EUR 20 depending on the tour, and Grüner Veltliner from the valley’s terraces is the wine to order with lunch.

Day 4: Salzburg’s Altstadt and Hohensalzburg Fortress

The Railjet from Vienna to Salzburg runs roughly 2h22-2h25 on the fastest services. Hohensalzburg Fortress runs EUR 15.50 basic with the Festungsbahn funicular, EUR 19.20 all-inclusive; go before 10am, ahead of the Sound of Music coach groups. Mozart’s birthplace and the free Salzburg Cathedral fill the rest of the day. Price the Salzburg Card, EUR 28 to 46 depending on duration and season, against your plan at salzburg.info if you are hitting more than three paid sights.

Day 5: Hallstatt, early, or not at all

From Salzburg, Hallstatt runs via a regional-train change at Attnang-Puchheim plus a short lake ferry, roughly 1h10 to 1h30 each way, Sparschiene fares from around EUR 10 to 19.90. There is no entry fee and no enforced daily visitor cap as of 2026, only a coach-bus time-slot system from May 2024 that manages tour buses, not individual arrivals. A village of roughly 760 residents absorbing over a million visitors a year, up to 10,000 on a peak day, only works as a relaxed visit if you take the first train out.

Day 6: Innsbruck, the Alps you actually came for

Salzburg to Innsbruck runs roughly 2h40 to 3 hours by Railjet through the Inn Valley. Innsbruck’s compact old town, the Golden Roof, and the Innsbruck Cathedral cover a couple of hours; skip the Alpine Zoo, it is a mediocre stop competing for time against the thing worth doing. The Nordkettenbahn, a funicular plus two cable cars starting in the city center, reaches the Hafelekar viewpoint at 2,256 meters in under 30 minutes; a round-trip ticket runs roughly EUR 61, or the Innsbruck Card at roughly EUR 59 for 24 hours if you are also hitting the city’s museums. Go up in late afternoon for the light on the Karwendel range, then have Tiroler Gröstl or Speckknödel for dinner, not the generic Wiener Schnitzel available everywhere.

Is Hallstatt worth the overtourism?

Yes on the terms above, no otherwise. The lake, the church spire, and the mountain backdrop deliver on the postcard; a midday peak-summer crowd funneled off tour coaches does not. Take the first train or ferry out of Salzburg, get two unhurried hours before the wave hits, and the detour earns its place in this itinerary.

Is Innsbruck worth the detour from the Vienna-Salzburg loop?

Yes, and it is the part most six-day Austria itineraries shortchange by treating it as a same-day arrival-and-departure afterthought. The Nordkette puts you on a genuine Alpine ridge under 30 minutes from a city center, something neither Vienna nor Salzburg can offer at any price. If a single afternoon in Innsbruck feels rushed once you are there, the 7-day itinerary gives it the second day it deserves.

Check current Railjet connections at oebb.at before booking this leg; the Salzburg-Innsbruck timing shifts with the seasonal timetable more than the Vienna-Salzburg corridor does.