Things to do
14-
Hallstatt Museum
Finds from the prehistoric cemetery and the mine end up in the World Heritage Museum, a short walk from the market square on the lake road, arranged from the Stone Age to the present. It fills an hour, and a wet one best. Hours shrink outside summer, so check them before a winter visit.
-
Hallstatt Prehistoric Cemetery
Hallstatt's prehistoric graves are dug in the open on summer weekdays, and you can watch the Natural History Museum's archaeologists at work. Few archaeological sites put the excavation itself on show.
View more → -
Katholische Pfarrkirche
Ten minutes in the charnel house, with its painted skulls, and twenty in the church above it is enough. Come before the coaches arrive, while the chapel is quiet.
View more → -
Salzwelten Hallstatt
Allow half a day, not an hour: the guided tour is ninety minutes, and the funicular, the walk up and the wait for the next group take as long again.
View more → -
Welterbeblick Skywalk
Near the funicular's top station a steel platform juts from the slope about three hundred and sixty metres above the roofs, with the whole lake laid out below. The funicular is the way up, and a clear day is the time to ride it.
-
Christuskirche
The slim spire at the water's edge in every photograph of the village belongs to this Protestant church, completed in 1863 on the shore beside the market square. Inside it is plain and quiet, a few minutes' stop. It shows best from the water, or from the northern end of the village first thing.
-
Dachstein Krippenstein-Seilbahn
Two of the three sections are worth riding: the first for the ice caves, the second for the viewing platform and the plateau walks. The third is only worth it if you have boots on.
-
Dachstein-Mammuthöhle
No ice in this one: the mammoth of the name is the size of the passages, vast dry galleries cut by water through the mountain. It leaves from the same middle station as the ice cave, a fifteen to twenty minute walk away, and the guided tour runs about fifty minutes. Last tours leave at two, or three in high summer, so reach the middle station by noon.
-
Dachstein-Rieseneishöhle
This cave stays below freezing even in summer, so bring warm clothes. Visits are by guided tour only, from May to the first of November.
-
Gosauseen
Best on a clear day: the Dachstein glacier at the head of the valley is the view, and the easy walk round the lower lake keeps it in sight most of the way.
-
Hallstätter See
Take the boat at least once, even if you arrive by car. The crossing from the railway station on the far bank gives you the classic view of the village. Bring cash: the ferry takes nothing else.
-
Koppenbrüllerhöhle
After heavy rain or snowmelt the dry stream bed in this cave turns within minutes into a roaring brook, which is where the name comes from. A level quarter hour path along the Traun from the edge of Obertraun reaches the entrance, and guided tours of about an hour run from May to late September. It stays at about six degrees inside, so bring a warm layer.
-
Krippenstein
The 5fingers platform is five steel walkways built out over a drop of about five hundred metres. In cloud the plateau is just fog, so pick your day.
-
Waldbachstrub
From Lahn at the southern end of the village a path follows the Echern valley past glacier polished rock to the falls, where the Waldbach drops through a gorge. Allow about two hours each way from the village, less from the car park at the valley mouth. The last stretch to the upper falls is steep and exposed, graded for sure footed walkers only.
