Hallstatt is a beautiful lakeside village in the Austria’s Salzkammergut region. The old town is tiny and car-free (you can cover one end to the other on foot in about 10 minutes). After visiting a couple of small churches (one featuring a lovely bone chapel), a nice town square surrounded by shops, cafes, and hotels, a quirky museum, and a salt mine, you can run out of things to see quickly.
Just relax! Save your energy and sense of adventure for bigger cities like Vienna and Salzburg. You have come to Hallstatt for a vacation from your vacation, and the best way to enjoy this place is to slow down and take in the scenery.
We were there for two nights in June of 2015, and it rained off and on during our stay. Fortunately, our hotel room had a lakeview balcony that allowed us to lounge around and to enjoy watching clouds and rain floating across the lake while munching on snacks and local wines.
We took a video of Stefani (the boat, more on that later) crossing the lake in the rain. Enjoy!
In the future, we will post a Snippet on our Hallstatt Salt Mine tour, so please check back frequently.
Where we stayed
We stayed at Gasthof Simony. It is the second building from the right in photo below. See its Google Maps location here.
We stayed in room # 12 (top floor); if you want to read about our experience with this hotel, please see my TripAdvisor review here.
Getting there
We took a train from Vienna to Hallstatt (and from Hallstatt to Salzburg). Train from Vienna takes about 3 1/2 to 4 hours, while it takes a little over 2 1/2 hours from Salzburg. You will need to change train in Attnang-Puchheim; connection can be tight, so don’t linger there too long. Austrian Federal Railway (ÖBB) is highly efficient and dependable, so I would recommend booking your tickets in advance (see its website here); you can even get the Attnang-Puchheim platform number for your train to Hallstatt in advance so you don’t have to sweat it while making that connection.
The train arrives at a small whistlestop across the lake from Hallstatt. The boat Stefanie (featured in video above) is synchronized with train arrival and departure. For the latest time table and prices, please see its website here.
Alternatively, you can take a bus to Salzburg. If you search for Salzburg to Hallstatt connection on ÖBB website, it would provide some bus routes (look for bus logo under the “Products’ column). Most routes utilize bus # 150 from Salzburg to Bad Ischl and a train between Bad Ischl and Hallstatt. You can also take bus # 542 or 543 from Hallstatt to Bad Ischl (and then connect to Salzburg via bus # 150). See Postbus website here to search for timetable, or ask TI or your hotel in Hallstatt for more details.
If you drive to Hallstatt, you will have to park in the newer part of town (called Lahn). There are three parking lots that are well signed. Please see the website here for complete info on Hallstatt parking.