Guidebook Updates for Austria

For books printed before September 2025, the following may also apply:

• There's no longer boat service between Hallstatt and Steeg.
  

For books printed before September 2025, the following may apply:

• Our guidebook's self-guided walk takes less than a half-hour (estimates cited at the top of the chapter are way off).
• If the luggage lockers at Innsbruck's Hauptbahnhof are out of commission when you arrive, try the City Locker Store near the TI (at Marktgraben 13, open 24/7).
• Innsbruck's main tourism office is now open Sundays (9:00–15:00), but the branch at the train station now has shorter hours (Thu–Mon 9:00–13:00, closed Tue–Wed).
• The Innsbruck outpost of Café Sacher has closed.
• Innsbruck's Hofburg palace now houses, in addition to its imperial apartments, a new exhibit on Maximilian I. While it goes into more detail about the emperor's life than most of us non-Tiroleans are looking for, it's well-presented and certainly worth some minutes if you've already purchased the Innsbruck Card (without the card the exhibit costs €7.50, or €15 combo ticket with Hofburg's imperial apartments).
• You can now reach the Tirol Panorama painting, which shares a hillside with the Bergisel ski jump, via hourly bus #589 from the train station — it drops you off right in front of the Tirol Panorama. (More frequent buses and trams drop you off at the foot of Bergisel, with the Panorama Museum a 10-minute uphill walk away.)
• Ambras Castle is now easily reached by bus #M from the city center (runs 4/hour).
• The Reformstark Martin shop no longer has a deli in the back (the deli has moved several streets away to Museumstrasse 22). Vegetarians will find plenty of options just across the street at Swing Kitchen and, a short walk south of the old town, at D••Werk.
• There is no longer an MPreis supermarket in the old town.
• Gasthof Badl, in nearby Hall, no longer has a restaurant. (But dogs Ella and Lucy remain very good girls.)

For books printed before July 2025, the following may apply:

• Hotel Maximilian's restaurant is now open only to hotel guests.
• Gasthof-Pension Waldrast has two new phone numbers: +43 676 421 7403 or +43 676 922 6214. Their website and email address also now have hyphens in them: www.waldrast-tirol.com, [email protected].
• Moserhof restaurant has closed.

• Eagle's Nest Historical Tours is once again offering regularly scheduled three-hour tours, though just three days a week (Tue, Thu, and Sun at 13:15 from Berggasthof Obersalzberg restaurant, €75, includes bus ride up to Eagle's Nest chalet, no kids under 8). Their private tours for up to six people now cost €375 (€355 with cash) and do not include the bus ride up to the chalet.
• Gasthaus Wilder Mann restaurant in the Old Town has closed.

For books printed before July 2025, the following may also apply:

• The Salzburg Museum is closed until at least 2026 while the New Residenz, which houses it, undergoes renovation.
• The Panorama Museum is closed as the city relocates it to its new home in the southern wing of the Orangerie of Mirabell Palace, where it should reopen in 2026.
• The tourist information office on Mozartplatz is now open 9:00–18:00 year-round (i.e. no longer stays open late in summer), as is the office at the train station.
• St. Peter's Cemetery now closes at 19:00 in summer (not 20:00), and St. Peter's Church now closes at 20:00 year-round.
• Prices for bus tickets within Salzburg have gotten slightly more expensive: A one-hour ticket (Stundenkarte) is now €2.40, a 24-hour ticket (Tageskarte) €4.70, and a weekly pass (Wochenkarte) €21.
• A day pass (Tageskarte) that gets you to Berchtesgaden (on bus #840) and covers all buses in the Berchtesgaden region — except bus #849 to the Eagle's Nest — now costs €13.20 (not €11). The last bus #840 from Berchtesgaden to Salzburg now leaves at 19:15, not 18:15 (always confirm locally).
• The best website for checking the bus schedule to Berchtesgaden is now https://albus.at.
• Tickets for the Eagle's Nest shuttle bus #849 can now be booked in advance on the Eagle's Nest website.
• Before booking any tour in the Berchtesgaden region, be sure you're aware of what it does (and doesn't) include:
  • Discover Eagle's Nest three-hour tour (€60) includes the €32 bus ride up to the chalet from Obersalzberg (not all the way from Salzburg) — which means you're paying €28 for a historical talk about the Eagle's Nest chalet; this tour does not take you through the bunkers in Obersalzberg.
  • Eagle's Nest Historical Tours' three-hour tour (€75) includes the €32 bus ride to the chalet, plus a driving tour of Third Reich sites in Obersalzberg, including the ruins of Hitler's Berghof retreat.
  • Panorama Tours' Eagle's Nest tour (€90) leaves from Salzburg and also includes the €32 bus ride all the way to the chalet, but less substantial historical background than offered by either of the outfits listed above. Since a day pass that gets you from Salzburg to Obersalzberg and back is just €13.60, that means you'd be paying about €45 for a relatively short history talk. Panorama's Bavarian Mountains tour drives through the region, and stops in the town of Berchtesgaden, but does not visit the Eagle's Nest or Obersalzberg.
  • Bob's Special Tours' Bavarian Mountain Tour visits the Eagle's Nest and Obersalzberg on its whole day tour (€140), and includes these stops as an option on its half-day tour (€70), but these prices do not include the €32 bus ride up to the chalet.
  • Visiting on your own costs just €32 for the bus ride to the chalet (the Eagle's Nest chalet itself does not charge admission). A day pass that gets you from Salzburg to Obersalzberg and back is €13.60. Consider that visiting on your own gives you more flexibility with timing (buses to Obersalzberg from Berchtesgaden run about hourly, and buses between Obersalzberg and the Eagle's Nest run every 25 minutes).
• The Obersalzberg Documentation Center (above Berchtesgaden) has reopened.
• 2024 prices for Sound of Music tours: €65 with Bob's Special Tours provided you show a Rick Steves book (or a student ID or are under 22; otherwise €70 and €50 for kids under 7), €60 with Panorama Tours (but 10 percent discount for Rick Steves readers who book in person or over the phone and pay in cash), and €43 with Fräulein Maria's Bicycle Tours provided you show a Rick Steves book (otherwise €45; kids' prices remain €25/20 depending on age).
• Hotel pickup for morning Sound of Music tours with Bob's Special Tours begins at 8:30; for afternoon tours, arrive at their office at Rudolfskai 38 by 13:45.
• Hohensalzburg Fortress's museums now close at 19:00 in summer (not 20:00).
• The free concerts held in Mirabell Gardens on now begin at 20:00 on Wednesday evenings (not 20:30; Sunday morning performances still begin at 10:30).
• Mirabell Palace is now open on Saturdays (generally 8:00–18:00, same as weekdays), but closed on Sundays (except during concerts).
• All four of the private local guides recommended in our guidebooks now charge at least 10 percent more than the prices currently listed in our books (and several substantially more than that).
• Tours of the New Residenz's glockenspiel bell tower run Friday at 16:30 in English (otherwise Thu at 17:30 and Fri at 10:30 in German with an English handout). The correct phone number for registering is +43 662 620 808 722.
• Tours of the cathedral now cost €9.
• The Cathedral Excavations Museum is closed for renovations.
• The Norge Exquisit launderette in the New Town (at the corner of Paris-Londron-Strasse and Wolf-Dietrich-Strasse) is now closed on Saturdays as well as Sundays.
• We no longer recommend Hotel Jedermann.

For books printed before September 2025, the following may also apply:

• We no longer recommend visiting Schönbrunn Palace late in the day without a reservation, as same-day tickets often sell out as early as 11:00.
• The Wien Museum Karlsplatz has reopened after a three-year renovation, nearly doubling its previous size. It's now open Tue–Fri 9:00–18:00, Thu until 21:00, and Sat–Sun 10:00–18:00 (closed Mon). It's free to see the permanent exhibition "Vienna. My History"; special exhibits range from €8 to €12. Admission to all exhibits is free on the first Sunday of each month.
• The tourist information office has a new phone number: +43 1 24 555.
• The Wochenkarte transit ticket and the 8-day Climate Ticket have both been discontinued, replaced by the 7 Tage Wien (which lets you choose your start date).
• Standing room tickets for the Vienna State Opera are now available online and at the box office at 10:00 on the day of the show (line up at least 30 minutes prior). If you're unable to secure a ticket in the morning, return to the box office at least 80 minutes before curtain time, as more standing tickets may be released then (one ticket per person).
• The Vienna State Opera no longer shows live performances on a screen outside the venue. 
• The Virgil Chapel in St. Stephen's Cathedral is closed for restoration.
• The Imperial Porcelain and Silver Collection at the Hofburg Imperial Apartments has closed indefinitely.
• The Dorotheum Auction House now conducts auctions almost exclusively online, but you can still visit to look at the displays of items for auction (think of it more like a museum).
• Bushplanet has closed.
• Boutique Hotel Nossek has a new phone number: +43 1 5337 04111.
• Hotel Astoria has new contact info: +43 1 515 770, [email protected].
• Café Central has a new phone number: +43 1 533 376 324.
• Mayer am Pfarrplatz wine tavern has a new phone number: +43 1 370 1287.
• Venuss Vegan Bistro has closed.