I have started (reluctantly!) planning the final five weeks of our trip before we return home in mid August.
We are thinking we would like to rent a place in the lake district outside of Salzburg for two weeks beginning July 9th. We could enjoy the beautiful mountains and lakes but also day trip into Salzburg. I'm hoping to find something in Mondsee, St. Gilgens, St. Wolfgang or maybe down toward Hallstatt, ideally a charming two-bedroom place with a beautiful view. We would also consider something in Berchtesgaden, Germany or on the Konigsee.
I have been spoiled by the abundance of vacation rentals in England, France and Italy and am finding it tough going to identify properties in Austria. Although I have a few possibilities (no replies yet!), I thought I'd post and see if anyone has any suggestions for rental websites or even properties in this part of Europe. I have been "googling" like crazy, even trying to work through websites in German. When I do a search on the message board, I find that most of the posts relating to Salzburg and the Salzkammergut are by me!
Hi Kathy, get on www.google.at and search for "ferienwohnung" if you want an apartment or "ferienhaus" for a house... i rented a house myself about 6 years ago (unfortunately can't remember the address or the town name) we were just 20 minutes from Salzburg in a very comfortable, clean and ideally located home. hope this is of some help... see you on lake Como in april... Ciao, Giovanni
Kathy, keep track of any good sites that you find with listings and I will add them to the site. You could post them here as you come across them. I have only found a few and have them on THIS PAGE.
It is really easy to find vacation rentals in Switzerland - they are all available through the tourist offices. Perhaps try that with Austria? Find the tourist office site for each town.
I just e-mailed the owner and we have decided to rent this place in St. Gilgen on Lake Wolfgang for two weeks in July. Although the apartment doesn't have quite as much local charm as I might have liked, the views are wonderful, the price is right (about $600 a week), and the very helpful owner (who is British) will let me pay with a US check! We really like the village of St. Gilgen. We will be just 30 minutes from Salzburg and about 40 minutes to Berchtesgaden, Germany, which is another area where we considered basing for this time.
I did find it difficult to find possible rentals in the Salzkammergut or Berchtesgaden. I think there are lots of rentals, but they are not heavily marketed to English-speaking people and are not equipped for this clientele either. Many of the websites are only in German, and although I learned how to interpret the key words, I couldn't always understand the information. Many of the rentals were much more spartan/rustic than we would want.
As Gio suggested, I did search on "ferienwohnung" (rental apartment) and "ferienhaus" (rental house). I also found that if I searched on a town I was interested in (like St. Wolfgang, Hallstatt, or Bertesgaden), I could get to some rentals on a town website... though often most of the owner websites were only in German. I did find some listings on several rent-by-owner websites, though often the listing would state that the owner spoke only German.
I found the first listing for our St. Gilgen apartment on www.holidaylettings.co.uk. Here are some other websites I found with a decent number of Salzkammergut and Bavarian listings:
Just wanted to say that your home there should be very comfortable... It looks like you have the best of both worlds with the traditional landhaus outside and functionally stylish and modern interior...
You will have a wonderful time... Hallstatt is really the most spectacular (and most isolated), Your location is a much more central base... and is frequented by some serious high society Viennese. St. Gilgen is small enough that you might start to recognize your neighbors, but people come from all over Austria to their summer homes there.
The first time I went I was with Munich friends. We drove down from the Chiemsee and visited a Viennese family (friends of theirs). This young man was staying in this large, traditional style summer home just a block off the lake. His uncle (in Africa on Safari at the time) was a big game hunter and his enormous house was filled with mounted heads and all kinds of hunting trophies--exotic ones, included... I found it a bit creepy, but that's just me. Anyways, you'll see that deer antlers and mountings of local game are pretty common in that area--both inside and out. Sounds like (you and) your British landlord, though, have other tastes.... :-)
I hope you enjoy the Salzkammergut. I look forward to hearing about it! --- P.S> I bet it wasn't that easy to find a rental--that kind of stuff over there is all in German. I really can only think of one reason: most English-speaking tourists don't stay long enough... and if it isn't right at the ski resort, you really only tend to get the Austrians and maybe their relatives in Germany.
"Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space has ceased." (John Steinbeck)
Posts: 372 | Location: Back in Seattle! | Registered: 07 February 2004
Kaydee, We have stayed in St.Gilgen and find it to be the perfect location for that area. I have printed your rental page for future reference--you will have a great time. We were there for 3 nites which included a dual wedding in town---2 brothers. All of the town was out in native garb that day--it was magical. I have a photo of the 2 couples if you are interested.
Thanks for your comments about our upcoming stay in St. Gilgen, which only helps to confirm that we've made a good decision. It seems like a good central base for much of what we want to do in that area. After passing through St. Gilgen several times in the winter, I'm really anxious to experience it in the summertime.
Bob, I'd love to see the photo of the wedding couples. Can you post it?
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