I seek tips for traveling from New Hampshire, USA, to Vienna, Austria! ?
Written by master on April 5th, 2009
AskingQuestions asked:
Questions:
*What is the cheapest way to get there?
-Should I take Portsmouth International Airport, PSM, to Vienna International Airport, VIE,
or are there cheaper alternatives? I enjoy public transit and don’t mind where I leave or land as long as I’m in the approximate area with in a reasonable distance to New Hampshire/Austria.
Questions:
*What is the cheapest way to get there?
-Should I take Portsmouth International Airport, PSM, to Vienna International Airport, VIE,
or are there cheaper alternatives? I enjoy public transit and don’t mind where I leave or land as long as I’m in the approximate area with in a reasonable distance to New Hampshire/Austria.
*What are the places to see in Austria?
-Please, a short list of ‘must-sees’ that are exclusive to the culture and geography of the Austrian area, and if there are suggestions of places to stay/eat/do while seeing those places.
Notes:
*Desired time frame, give-or-take; 05/28/09 to 05/18/09.
*Have Passport.
*Know some German.
*I have a AAA Premier Membership, (w/ -Benefits, -Maps, -travel guide books, -trip interruption, -lost luggage, Notary and -Travel Concierge, etc).
*Credit Cards, Amex & Visa, (w/ -Currency Delivery, -Purchase Protection, etc).
Edit; Notes:
*Desired time frame, give-or-take; 05/28/09 to 06/18/09.
5
PM
There’s a wealth of information online to help prepare yourself for your upcoming trip. You can read about Austria on Wiki: and learn about this country’s background and history as well as the state of current affairs. Knowing this background will be more helpful than you think when you are sightseeing around Vienna.
The Virtual Vienna site also has comprehensive information about Austria:
as well as a link for accommodations, etc.;
Here’s a good site to help organize your sightseeing day:
See if AAA has any free guide books or things like that for you.
Use internet resources - there’s a lot of great info out there.
7
PM
A good ressource for for travel information is Wikitravel:
Must-Sees:
*) Vienna (capital) with Hofburg, Schönbrunn, Stephansdom and many more
As accomodation I recommend using a private apartment. Many are located in the very city center at a reasonable price compared to a hotel:
*) Salzburg - the City of Mozart is definitively a must-see. A beautiful historical center with lots of churches.
*) Wachau - the Wachau is a valley in lower Austria, famous for its apricots and wine. Especially Dürnstein and Melk are the places to go.
*) Near Salzburg I would recommend to go to the lake area (Wolfgangssee, Attersee, Mondsee) - nice for recreation. Or you could go to Bad Ischl, Halstatt and Bad Aussee - thats were the former Austrian Emperor Kaiser Franz Joseph used to stay during the summer (”Sommerfrische”)
There are many other nices places to go such as Innsbruck (Goldenes Dachl, 2 times Olympic Winter Games), Lower Austria with its old steel production area Eisenwurzn, the wine area around lake Neusiedlersee, …
10
PM
Ok, in that time if you’re really concentrated on Austria, you can stay in all of 6 Austria’s states. However, I’d suggest go from Austria to at least Budapest, Lubliana and Venice (but it’s up to you).
Anyway, I suggest to stay in Vienna and then go to Graz, then Klagenfurt, Salzburg and then start
with mountains like in Innsbruck (Tirol), you can go even to South Tirol, what is in Italy, but there is German spoken there. And from there you can go to Bodensee area (Bregenz). Also suggestion to visit Liechtenstein (very close to Austria) and if time - Zurich, but Zurich and Switzerland- they are worth of a separate travel.
Yea, if you are a vine drinker, than don’t forget Burgenland (East Austria) as well Lower Austria (Niederosterreich).
12
AM
As for the flight:
I suggest that you check with the major European Airlines websites. They often have special offers. Flying from New York (JFK or Newark) might be cheaper than from Portsmouth. Lufthansa, Air France/KLM, Britsih Airways, Austrian Airlines or Delta would be good to start with. There should be either direct flights from New York or you have to change once at one of the major European airports like Heathrow, Paris or Frankfurt. Please bear in mind when chosing a connecting flight from there that one one hour might be to short to change planes on one of the mentioned airports as you have to go through passport control. There are quite a number of daily flights to Vienna from all of these large European airports.
Credit cards: Most accepted are MasterCard and Visa, Amex is accepted in fewer places but should be no problem with international hotels.
What to see:
Vienna and Salzburg are musts, the rest depends. The Upper Austrian lake district is very nice and close to Salzburg. Innsbruck and the surrounding mountains are also great. Southern Austria has a very nice climate and landscape and is really beautiful in that time of the year. As Austria is really small, 6-7 hours by train bring you from east to west, you can really see a lot of it in your time frame. It depends on your interests if you want to spend more time in the cities with their cultural hightlights or if you prefer the countryside and the landscapes. Austria is a tourist country so it’s quite easy to find accomadation in all of the interesting places. In May/June tourist season has already started but it will reach it’s peak in July/August only.
I know that’s rather brief but should give you an idea.