Rick Steves' Vienna, Salzburg, and Tirol

Comment: A couple of years ago I used Rick Steves's guidebooks to Rome and Florence, and they were excellent -- detailed, filled with "insider" tips, and amusing to boot. The Vienna guidebook has all that, but it's disappointing if you're going to Vienna for one of its primary attractions: classical music and its history. For example, while there is a 5-page section on music that is very informative, he mentions the Vienna Philharmonic only in passing, giving no information on the Musikverein or how to get tickets to a Philharmonic concert there. There is also no mention of the Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof), where Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and many other famous composers are buried. More irritating are ignorant comments such as this reference to the Vienna Boys' Choir: "They're talented kids, but, for my taste, not worth all the commotion." Or this one: "For me, three hours is a lot of opera." I honestly don't care about Rick Steves's "taste" -- a guidebook should be geared to all tastes. If he's not able to make informed comments about classical music in Vienna, maybe he should get a knowledgeable ghostwriter for that section.

Comment: Visiting Austria last September we found the book very helpful during the week in Vienna. Leaving Vienna by car to see something of the rest of the country, I would have appreciated finding something about suggested scenic routes en-route to Tirol.

Comment: We used this book on our recent trip to the Bavarian Region. It was very good for Salzburg, Innsbruck, the Berchtesgaden region, and the Fussen/Garmich region and it is a great packing size. However, Rick's books focus on traveling by train, so if you are traveling by car they do not include other good options. So you may want to consult other books. I used both Frommer's for good towns to visit and Karen Brown's books for good driving itineraries. Karen provides good info on lots of small towns, beautiful scenery, and pretty lakes to visit. We didn't do all of her itinerary since it would take too much time.

I do wish Rick had included Munich as part of the book, as it is part of Bavarian Germany and would have been perfect for our use (I didn't want to carry around the larger Germany book for just that info).

I do agree with the other reviewer that didn't feel that Hallstatt was worth so much fuss. It is nice, however there are many beautiful lakes and towns in this region and if I did it again, I would not go out of my way just to see Hallstatt.
The hotel we stayed in was not very comfortable and I am not sure there are any really good options.

A couple of general notes on the area. The drive between Innsbruck and Fussen was incredibly scenic through the mountains and not too difficult to drive (it is windy). Also the Alpenstrasse is very nice. The boat ride at Lake Koenigssee near Bertesgaden is nice, but slow. The boat is not gas powered and moves pretty slowly so it takes 35 minutes one way to the church. It doesn't bother you too much on the way there, but the trip back seems slow. They have a good guide giving funny commentary but it was all in German.

Just remember when you go to this area that there will be so many scenic spots that you don't have to focus on just one. Also be aware that it can rain and be fairly cloudy over the mountains.

Comment: Rick Steve's Vienna, Salzburg, and Tirol has been a great guide to me on my trip. I highly recommend this book.

Comment: Having followed Rick's recommendations many times in the past, we chose Hallstatt as our number one spot to visit in Austria this June, based on lengthy TV coverage we taped some years ago. This book was not available before we left, but we ordered it as soon as we returned to see what he had to say about Hallstatt now.

Having reserved four days at his highly recommended Gasthof Simony a few days before arriving in Austria, we fortunately canceled it when we received a surprising invitation to spend our entire time in Austria with some Austrian friends who had just rented a place for the summer in Steinback am Attersee, in the heart of the Salzkammergut only a short distance from Hallstatt.

When our friends took us to Hallstatt the day after we arrived in Steinbach, we found the place overrun with tourists despite its being early June -- and wondered what it must be like later in the summer. An hour there was quite sufficient! The view of lake Attersee from our friends' chalet in Steinbach was far superior to what we saw in Hallstatt, with far more amenities on the lake shore and only a scattering of tourists at that time of year.

Even more disappointing was the book's cavalier dismissal of the rest of the Salzkammergut, suggesting that if you've been to Hallstatt, you had seen it all. Quite the contrary, we found any number of places at least as charming, far less crowded, and offering much more by way of history, surrounding attractions, restaurants, lake activities, and other amenities that make Hallstatt seem very third-rate.

Perhaps it's time to take another look, Rick!