Hallstatt Salt Mine

A Baroque palace pair holding Austrian art including Klimt's The Kiss, with a terraced garden between the two buildings.

An eleventh-century hilltop fortress above the old town, reached by funicular, with state rooms and a rampart view over the Alps.

Formal Baroque gardens laid out on axis with the fortress, with hedge terraces, fountains and the steps used in The Sound of Music.

Hallstatt is a lakeside village pressed between a steep salt mountain and the Hallstätter See, with houses stacked along a narrow shelf of land. Salt has been mined above it for more than 3,000 years, and the mine and its funicular are the main reason to go up. The village is very small and receives large day-trip numbers, so early morning or an overnight stay changes the experience completely.

The Krimml falls drop 380 metres in three stages at the western end of the Salzach valley, inside Hohe Tauern National Park. A well-graded switchback path climbs beside the water to a series of viewing platforms, taking about ninety minutes to the top. The spray zone is used therapeutically for respiratory conditions, and the trail closes in deep winter.

The Habsburg summer residence with 1,441 rooms, formal gardens climbing to the Gloriette and the world's oldest surviving zoo in its grounds. The Habsburgs used this Baroque palace as their summer residence. Its grounds include formal gardens, the Gloriette and Tiergarten Schönbrunn, the world's oldest operating zoo. Palace and gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.