Hallstatt Private Tour

The federal capital Vienna is located in the east of Austria. The A1 Westautobahn is the most important road from Vienna in a westerly direction to St. Pölten, Linz and Salzburg. The connection from Vienna to the west used to be the Roman imperial road, which ran along the southern bank of the Danube, the northern border of the Roman Empire. Later came the k.k. (imperial-royal) Reichsstraße and, from 1921, the Bundesstraße 1, which runs parallel to the A1 west motorway. The National Socialists were keen to build a motorway from Bavaria to Vienna. On 13 March 1938, Austria was annexed by Germany and on 7 April 1938, Adolf Hitler began building the Westautobahn near Salzburg. After the Second World War, further construction of the motorway was prevented by the Soviet occupying forces. Further construction was only possible after the State Treaty of 1955. We take the Westautobahn motorway from Vienna to Regau, where we turn off onto the Salzkammergut Bundesstraße B 145.

From the Regau exit of the Westautobahn motorway, we take the Salzkammergutstraße B 145 via Gmunden and Bad Ischl to Bad Goisern, where we board the Salzkammergutbahn railway at Steeg-Gosau station. The Salzkammergutstraße runs from Gmunden via Altmünster and Traunkirchen to Ebensee on the western shore of Lake Traunsee, a very scenic section that was only completed in 1861. Before Ebensee, the Salzkammergutstraße runs at the foot of the Kleiner and Großer Sonnstein, which drop steeply down to the lake, partly through tunnels. From the Salzkammergutstraße you have a beautiful view of Lake Traunsee and the Traunstein on the eastern shore. From Ebensee, the route continues along the Traun river through the Traun valley, formed in this section by the Höllengebirge mountains in the north and the Totes Gebirge mountains in the south, to Bad Ischl and from Bad Ischl to the valley basin of Bad Goisern in the Inner Salzkammergut, which lies at the northern end of Lake Hallstatt.

Traunsee

Pass-by Only

Lake Traunsee is located on the northern edge of the Limestone Alps at an altitude of 423 metres above sea level and extends over a length of 11.9 km from Ebensee to Gmunden. The Traun flows through it from south to north. Both the Salzkammergut railway and the Salzkammergut road, on which we are travelling to Hallstatt, run along the western shore of Lake Traun. The northern eastern shore of Lake Traunsee near Gmunden is dominated by the rock faces of the Traunstein, some of which drop vertically into the lake. The Traun glacier carved out the basin of Lake Traun as an overdeepened tongue basin. After the lake basin had become ice-free, the Traun began to fill the basin. From the salt mine of Hallstatt the salt was transported down the Traun to Gmunden, from where it was transported onwards to Bohemia by a horse-drawn railway. During the time of the k. u. k. Monarchy, Gmunden was a renowned summer resort. The most famous sight in Gmunden is the Ort lake castle.