Information about Austria
General information
Austria is a very small country with about 8 million inhabitants. It consists of nine states - one of these states is the capital (Vienna, Wien) itself, where nearly a fifth of all people is living (1,6 million). So you can imagine that in most parts of Austria you will find only small villages and lots of nature, like meadows, fields, many lakes and even more mountains.
Graz (capital of the state "Steiermark"/Styria) is the second largest city of Austria with about 227.000 inhabitants, Innsbruck (capital of the state Tirol) with about 114.000 inhabitants and Salzburg (capital of the same-named state) with about 150.000 belong to the smaller cities.
Thanks to the Second World War, tourism and education, you will find many people able to speak english in all generations.
Explore the country
If you want to explore our country on weekends, we would recommend you our public train (see www.oebb.at), which is clean and comfortable. At a speed of 100 km/h you can reach a lot of interesting places within a very short time! A journey from the far east to the west end of Austria would take about 8 hours (800 km). If you buy a discount card ("Vorteilscard") for 20 Euros, you can even save 45% of the ticket price! Often there are also special offers for night-trains to capitals of neigbouring countries, for example to Rome or Berlin for 29 Euros.
Explore Europe
If you want to explore the rest of Europe it may be a good idea to buy an interrail ticket (see www.oebb.at), which is a personalized train ticket, valid for 21 days up to a month that takes your really everywhere in Europe.
An even more interesting possibility nowadays are low-fare-carriers with really interesting rates. If you book your flight half a year in advance, you can have flights for 50 Euros for both directions, including all taxes. We recommend you www.sky-europe.com. Flights take off from Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, which is only half an hour away from Vienna and can be reached for some Euros by train, bus or ship. Another interesting opportunity is www.ryanair.com.
Check that links
- Information about Tourism in Austria - www.austria-tourism.at
- Lonely Planet - Austria - www.lonelyplanet.com
- Austrian Embassy - www.austria.org
- What the CIA says about Austria - www.cia.gov
- Austrian Government - www.austria.gv.at
- City of Vienna - www.wien.gv.at
- City of Innsbruck - www.innsbruck-tourismus.at
- City of Graz - www.graz.at
- City of Salzburg - www.salzburg.info
