🇦🇹 Austria · Complete Activity Guide
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Things to Do in Austria
Alpine extremes, world-class opera, and experiences that are uniquely, unmistakably Austrian
Alpine extremes, world-class opera, and experiences that are uniquely, unmistakably Austrian
Austria operates at two speeds simultaneously: extreme and refined. It's the country where you can cycle over a 2,500-metre alpine pass in the morning and sit in one of the world's great opera houses that evening. Where via ferrata routes scale vertical limestone faces above UNESCO lake districts, and cooking classes teach you to stretch strudel dough paper-thin in Viennese kitchens. The range is extraordinary for a country this size.
This guide covers the best things to do in Austria in 2026 — the experiences that make travellers say they'd come back just to do them again. From the Alps to Vienna to Salzburg, these are the ones that make Austria unforgettable.
The Großglockner High Alpine Road is one of the greatest cycling climbs in Europe — a 48-kilometre toll road that winds from Bruck in Salzburg state to Heiligenblut in Carinthia, reaching 2,504 metres at the Hochtor pass. The numbers are serious: 14% maximum gradient, 36 hairpin bends, and Austria's highest mountain — the 3,798-metre Großglockner — dominating the skyline above the Pasterze glacier throughout.
The road was built between 1930 and 1935 as an engineering and scenic marvel, and it remains both. At altitude, the landscape shifts from alpine meadow to bare rock and permanent snowfields, with views across the Hohe Tauern range that extend on clear days to the Dolomites. The descent on either side is 30-plus kilometres of sweeping curves through scenery that has no equivalent anywhere in the Eastern Alps.
The road is open from approximately late April to early November, with the best cycling conditions in June through September. Start from Bruck an der Großglocknerstraße early in the morning — the climb takes most cyclists 2.5 to 4 hours depending on fitness. There is a toll for motor vehicles (cyclists are free). The road can be crowded with camper vans and motorcycles mid-morning; starting at dawn gives you the climb largely to yourself.
Austria is one of the birthplaces of via ferrata — the klettersteig (iron-rung route) tradition of fixed cables, iron rungs, and stemples that allows non-technical climbers to ascend vertical and near-vertical rock faces safely. The Dachstein massif above the Salzkammergut lakes offers some of the finest routes in the country: limestone faces of extraordinary quality, views across the Gosausee and the surrounding alpine landscape, and a range of difficulty levels from family-friendly to genuinely committing.
The Dachstein Klettersteig routes include the Via Ferrata Klettersteig on the south face, accessible from the Dachstein cable car, and several routes in the Gosaukamm range nearby. The rock is solid Dachstein limestone — rough, positive holds, and the kind of stone that makes Austrian alpine climbing famous. The iron infrastructure is well-maintained and regularly inspected.
All via ferrata requires a klettersteig set — harness, via ferrata lanyard (Y-shaped with two carabiners), and helmet. These can be rented at the base stations in Ramsau am Dachstein and at the cable car. First-timers should strongly consider a guided half or full day — guides provide equipment, instruction on technique, and route selection appropriate to your fitness and experience. No prior climbing experience is required for beginner routes.
The Vienna State Opera is one of the most important opera houses in the world — alongside La Scala in Milan and the Met in New York, it sits at the absolute top of the form. The building on the Ringstraße, completed in 1869, is a masterwork of neo-Renaissance architecture. The productions are legendary. The roster of conductors and performers who have worked here — Mahler, Karajan, Bernstein, Domingo — reads like a history of 20th-century classical music.
What makes Vienna unique is accessibility. Standing room tickets cost €3 to €10 and go on sale 80 minutes before each performance at the Stehparterre entrance. The sightlines from the standing areas are good, the acoustic is extraordinary, and the experience of watching a world-class production in this building — the gilded tiers, the chandelier, the curtain rising on a full orchestra — is one of the great cultural experiences in Europe at a price that is essentially nothing.
Standing room: arrive at the Stehparterre entrance (on the right side of the building facing the Ringstraße) at least 90 minutes before the performance. Queue forms early for popular productions. Dress up — there is no strict dress code but the atmosphere rewards it. Seated tickets are available through wiener-staatsoper.at and sell out months in advance for premier performances and the opera ball season.
The 1965 film The Sound of Music was shot almost entirely on location in and around Salzburg, and the city's landscape — the baroque old town, the lake district, the alpine meadows above the Untersberg — is immediately recognisable to anyone who has seen it. The Original Sound of Music Tour, operated by Panorama Tours since 1972, visits the key filming locations in sequence: Mirabell Gardens (the Do-Re-Mi steps), Nonnberg Abbey, the Leopoldskron Palace lake terrace, and the mountain meadows used for the opening scene.
The Trapp family story is also genuine Austrian history — Georg von Trapp was a decorated naval commander of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the family's escape from Nazi occupation in 1938 (somewhat dramatised in the film) is a real chapter in Salzburg's 20th-century story. The tour contextualises both the film locations and the historical background.
The tour runs daily year-round and takes approximately 4 hours, covering both city locations and the Salzkammergut lake district. Panorama Tours is the original operator — book through their website or through Viator to ensure you're on the genuine original tour rather than one of several imitations. The tour departs from Mirabellplatz in central Salzburg; transport from your hotel is often included.
Apfelstrudel is Austria's most iconic pastry — layers of paper-thin stretched dough wrapped around spiced apple, raisins, and breadcrumbs, baked until golden and served with vanilla sauce or cream. It is also technically one of the most demanding pastries in European cuisine: the dough must be stretched by hand until it is thin enough to read a newspaper through, without tearing, across a tablecloth-sized surface. A hands-on strudel class is both a cooking lesson and a genuine test of patience and technique.
Vienna's strudel cooking classes are typically held in traditional Viennese kitchens, often in historic buildings in the first or second district. The class covers the full process: mixing and resting the dough, the stretching technique (which takes most people several attempts to get right), the filling preparation, rolling, and baking. You eat everything you make — ideally with a glass of Austrian Riesling.
Classes typically run 2–3 hours and are taught in English. Group sizes are usually small — 6 to 12 people. No prior cooking experience is required or expected. The stretching technique is the focus of the class and the part that surprises most participants: the dough becomes extraordinarily thin and elastic when handled correctly, and the moment it works properly is very satisfying. Book through Viator for the best availability — classes in peak season fill up days in advance.
Austria has two distinct peak seasons driven by its dual identity as an alpine and cultural destination.
