Salzburg and the Salzkammergut
Six days that link baroque Salzburg, the Eisriesenwelt ice cave above Werfen and the Salzkammergut lakes into one compact loop. The stops lie close together, so you can watch the Dachstein mirrored in the Gosausee in the morning and sit on the shore of the Wolfgangsee in the afternoon. It is a route children enjoy as well: caves, cable cars, lidos and lanes made for aimless wandering. The season is set by the opening of the Eisriesenwelt and by the lakeside campsites, so it runs from May to October.
From Prague the route runs through Dolní Dvořiště and Linz, a whole day of steady driving on expressway and motorway. You reach Salzburg in the afternoon, so there is still time to settle into the campsite and take a first walk along the Salzach. In the evening it pays to stay on the riverbank and save the city for the next day, when you will have all the time you need for it.
Hohensalzburg Fortress stands above the city, a funicular runs up to it and from the ramparts you can see the whole basin and the first Alpine ridges. Down below, Getreidegasse with Mozart's birthplace, the cathedral and the Mirabell gardens are waiting. With children the combination that works best is the fortress in the morning, the gardens and a rest by the river in the afternoon.
According to its operator, Eisriesenwelt is open daily from 1 May to 1 November and you buy a ticket for a specific time slot online in advance. Inside, the temperature stays below freezing even in August, so a warm jacket and sturdy shoes are no exaggeration; you reach the cave on foot and by cable car, and the whole visit takes roughly three hours. The road up is narrow and climbs in hairpins, so with a longer vehicle it is better to set off early in the morning. Above the valley stands Hohenwerfen Castle, visible from practically the entire route.
Hallstatt is best seen on foot: the charnel house by the parish church, the narrow square and the promenade along the lake all fit into one morning. A funicular runs up to the salt mine and the Skywalk viewing platform, and from up there you finally see how the whole village sits between the rock face and the water. In the afternoon Obertraun on the opposite shore offers the caves in the Dachstein massif and a lido with a view across the lake.
An easy shoreline path circles the Vorderer Gosausee and on a windless morning the Dachstein is mirrored in the surface, which is why people come here early in the day. In the afternoon you drive back down the valley and on through Bad Ischl and Strobl to St. Wolfgang, home to the pilgrimage church with Pacher's carved altarpiece. The cog railway up the Schafberg starts from the same place, and from it you can see several Salzkammergut lakes at once.
Gmunden closes the loop at the northern end of the Traunsee: Schloss Ort on its small island, linked to the shore by a wooden footbridge, and Gmunden ceramics with their typical green decoration. After lunch you head back through Linz and Dolní Dvořiště, so you are home in the evening. If you have time to spare, you can stretch the trip with a stop at the Attersee.
Up to 3.5 t (which covers most of the motorhomes sold here) the ordinary Austrian category B vignette applies, either digital or the sticker version. ASFINAG rates for 2026: around €9.60 for one day, around €12.80 for ten days, around €32 for two months and around €106.80 for a year. Watch one detail: with the one-day and ten-day digital vignettes you can choose immediate validity when buying online — if you do not choose it, the same eighteen-day delay applies to them as to the two-month and annual ones. Above 3.5 t the vignette is not used at all — you pay distance-based tolls through the GO-Box on-board unit, which has to be obtained before you enter the motorway. This route does not use the toll tunnels on the A10; those begin south of Werfen. Do budget, though, for the paid car park at the Vorderer Gosausee and for the admission and cable car at the Eisriesenwelt.
Austria generally does not welcome overnight stays outside campsites, and in the Salzkammergut you should certainly not count on it — the villages around the lakes have bans of their own and they are enforced in season. Access to the centre of Hallstatt is regulated: a motorhome belongs in the paid car parks above the village, where P3 is reserved for coaches and motorhomes, and further spaces are available in neighbouring Obertraun. From there you continue into the centre on foot or by the shuttle, which runs from P1 on request. You will not get into Salzburg's historic centre with a motorhome at all, so plan on parking at the edge of the city and coming in by public transport.
You can top up water and empty the tanks on the very first day at Camping Nord-Sam in Salzburg, which has its own service point for motorhomes with fresh water and a chemical disposal drain. In the Salzkammergut, plan the service around whichever campsite you are staying at, and deal with it on arrival rather than on the morning you set off. Most of the lakeside campsites are seasonal, so in early May and in October it is safer to confirm the opening by phone in advance.
Adria Compact
The Compact is a semi-integrated motorhome with a compact body, which pays off twice on this route: on the hairpins up to the car park below the Eisriesenwelt and when hunting for a space in the regulated car parks in Salzburg and Hallstatt. It also stays under 3.5 t, so in Austria a vignette is all you need and you never have to deal with a GO-Box.
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