Fortunately for visitors to Austria, the country’s four most popular cities are also its best bases for daytrips. This makes it quite easy for you to enjoy the many charms of Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck, while at the same time probing the rest of the country for experiences that are simply not available in the cities. Just take a break in your urban sightseeing and make a few one-day excursions into the nearby countryside; visiting mountains, lakes, vineyards, country palaces, salt mines, a pilgrimage center, and even another city or two where tourists are rare and the pleasures unspoiled. Along the way you can relish regional cuisine at modest prices; ride ancient steam trains, cable cars, and boats; take mountain hikes or explore by bicycle; plunge deep into the earth; or ascend to the top of a snow-capped mountain.

None of these daytrips are difficult. All of them can be taken with or without your own car, and all will get you back to your base city in plenty of time for dinner and a good night’s sleep. The first ten daytrips use Vienna as a base; the next four are from Graz; followed by six from Salzburg and another six from Innsbruck.

DAYTRIPS AUSTRIA is the perfect companion book to DAYTRIPS GERMANY, now in its 7th Edition, and to the new DAYTRIPS PRAGUE & THE CZECH REPUBLIC.