Product Description

Slalom the ski slopes at Kitzbuhel, hike the trails through the Tyrol and explore the musical heritage from Salzburg to Vienna. Whether you’re here for the cities or to fill your lungs with pure mountain air, this inspiring guide will help you connect with the heart of the country.

Carve Up The Slopes or saunter along woodland trails with a dedicated chapter to help plan your outdoor activities.

Dream Sweetly in Alpine chalets and exclusive boutique hotels – reviews to suit every taste and budget.

Escape The Country and explore the cities – from Linz to Graz and Innsbruck to Salzburg, all the information you need for great city breaks.

Sound Of Music or the Vienna Boys’ Choir? Get beyond the clichés, or embrace them, with extensive entertainment listings for a wide range of musical events.

Get Around with itineraries suggestions and comprehensive maps to help you plan your own grand tour.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #395597 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Midwest Book Review
Austria provides excellent coverage of accommodation from camping and hostels to five-star establishments. It provides maps of cities, provinces and rail routes. Also featured is comprehensive information on architecture and the arts, from the splendor of Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral to the sites of Salzburg. Details on spectacular skiing and mountaineering locations in the Alps are provided. An extensive guide to Vienna's famous coffee houses as well as traditional wine taverns throughout the country are noted. Austria is also a very practical guide to navigating the breathtaking Hohe Tauern National Park. Whether a backpacker, business traveler, or simple tourist, Austria is highly recommend.

Review
Best for curious and independent-minded travelers' --Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher
Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travellers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travellers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
* When we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travellers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travellers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Customer Reviews

Austria via Lonely Planet
Printed in 2005, some of the factual material is out-of-date (e.g., banks that change currency or traveller's checks), but the arrrangement by geographical areas works and the city maps--and the variety of things given on them--are clear and useful, as usual.

Travel Prep
A great book in preparation for your trip to Austria. Several smaller, yet interesting, areas are discussed.

Needs more guidance and priortization; also missed info
I just returned from a brief trip to Austria. Lonely Planet is a reliable guide, but it has many problems some of which have been discussed already. I agree that it is a bit too oriented towards backpackers, wanderers, and poor students. This is not bad, because some guides such as the Guide Vert don't even acknowledge hostels it seems.

The LP notably missed the number of organized tours that were available, in English, from Salzburg. I was able to go to Berchtesgaden/Eagles Nest on a guided tour. There are also the Ice Caves. These tours significantly reduced my level of effort and organization required.

The other problem is that with few pictures (not a terrible thing given limited space) it is hard to have a good sense of where you want to go and what you should prioritize. For example, how does an Alpine castle in Austria compare to one in Germany or France? "Best in Europe" is a useful description you don't find; "Best in Austria" is not especially useful given that Austria is not the largest country in Europe, and one is more likely than not to be passing through Austria between Italy, Germany, and France rather than spending weeks there.

In the case of Vienna, I found that there were some significant museums and sites that were missing; such as the arsenal or the German flak towers. However, they did have most of the important sites and if you only have a day or two that's fine.

The LP books consistently have more descriptions and destinations for any mainstream books. If you want that "hidden treasure" you need to get a regional/local book, usually in the local language.