Coach Holidays to Austria and the Tyrol
Austria packs a great deal into a small space. An hour or two on the road takes you from the arcaded streets of Innsbruck to a lake clear enough to see the bottom of, and another hour puts you on a pass with the Hohe Tauern ahead. The distances between the places worth stopping at are short and the roads are kept in good order, which is why the country has always suited coach travel.
Any Austrian coach holidays we are running appear below. Our arrangements here change from season to season, so if you have a region, a date or a group in mind, tell us and we will let you know what is planned.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Coach Holidays to Austria Tours
June and September are the two that regular travellers keep going back for. June brings the alpine meadows into flower and long daylight; September is usually clearer and quieter, with the lakes still warm enough to look inviting. July and August are the warmest but the busiest, particularly in Salzburg and Hallstatt. The high passes are open roughly May to early November, and Advent brings the Christmas markets.
More than you might expect, though rarely anything strenuous. Old towns such as Innsbruck, Salzburg and Hallstatt are cobbled, built on slopes and largely closed to traffic, so there is walking between the coach and the sights. Cable cars and lake steamers do the hard climbing on many excursions. If you are unsure about the ground on a particular itinerary, ask us before booking and we will describe it honestly.
Yes — a club, society or group of friends can book a whole tour, and Austria works well that way because the touring areas are compact and a single base hotel can cover a lot of ground. Our Austrian arrangements vary from year to year, so tell us your rough dates, group size and the region you have in mind, and we will tell you what can be put together.
Where an Austrian coach tour tends to go
Austria divides neatly into a handful of touring areas, and most coach holidays settle into one or two of them rather than crossing the whole country.
- The Tyrol — Innsbruck with its Golden Roof and the Nordkette rising straight above the rooftops, and valley bases such as the Zillertal, Seefeld and the Achensee.
- Salzburg and the Salzkammergut — Mozart's birthplace on the Getreidegasse, the Mirabell gardens, then the lake country beyond: Wolfgangsee, Mondsee, Hallstatt and the imperial spa town of Bad Ischl.
- Carinthia and the Hohe Tauern — Zell am See, the Krimml waterfalls and the high alpine road over the Grossglockner.
- Vienna and the Wachau — Schonbrunn, the Ringstrasse and the Danube upstream through terraced vineyards and apricot orchards to Melk Abbey.
Vorarlberg, in the far west by Lake Constance, is often paired with a Swiss or Bavarian itinerary rather than visited on its own.
Austrian mountain roads and journey times
Travelling overland from the UK, Austria is a long way — roughly 700 miles from Calais to Innsbruck — so an overland coach holiday is normally broken with a night in Belgium, Germany or eastern France in each direction. Other holidays fly or take the rail route and use a coach once in Austria. Ask us which applies to any departure you are considering, as it changes the shape of the first and last days considerably.
Once there, the driving is easier than the scenery suggests. Austrian motorways and valley roads are well engineered, and the famous climbs are properly built for buses. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road reaches about 2,500 metres at the Hochtor tunnel and is usually open from early May until the first heavy snows in late autumn; in winter it is closed altogether.
In the smaller lake villages, coaches drop off and park on the edge of the centre, so expect a short walk in.
