If you’re going to Austria, or anywhere near it, make sure you check out Salzkammergut, or the upper Austrian lakes district which is east of Salzburg. This is mile after mile after mile of beautiful blue lakes, picturesque mountains, sweeping valleys and is just gorgeous. If you like the outdoors, fresh air and nature, you’ll love Salzkammergut or the Salzburg Lakes district as some people call it.
Hallstat, a World Heritage site, is the most well-known but unfortunately is teaming with tourists. Despite this fact, it’s still worth a visit, a few nights is enough here and then I’d head towards one of the other lesser known towns where there’s less crowds. Hire a car and spend a week or more driving around the different lakes, it doesn’t get boring. The water’s a bit cold, but if you need waking up, just take a quick dip and you’ll be wide awake for the rest of the say. You’ll see the locals swimming all the time, not many of the Asian tourists swim in there, and I got a few surprised looks from the locals when I went in. When it gets hot it’s beautiful though.
View from Hallstat Skywalk
You won’t find 5 star accommodation at any of the towns in Salzkammergut, they might say they’re 5 star but not compared to almost anything in Asia. This is actually a good thing, any over the top hotel at any of the beautiful towns in the Salzkammergut region would ruin what these towns are – just beautiful quaint little Austrian towns with loads of character and for the most part, friendly locals. You can read more about the accommodation we stayed at in the blog posts below, but honestly, go for something cheap because the difference isn’t going to be that great.
The Salzkammergut region would have to be one of my favourite places I’ve ever visited. With the exception of Hallstat, there’s very few tourists, the roads are easy to drive on, and it’s just a very, VERY enjoyable way to spend a week. I could have easily spent a month here just chilling out, no TV, no McDonalds, no fancy theme parks, no distractions, just nature as it’s intended.
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