Hallstatt: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Hallstatt is a village of about seven hundred people squeezed between a mountain and a deep lake, so short of flat land that its houses stand on one another. Until 1890 it had no road at all; you came by boat. Today it receives thousands of visitors a day, and China built a full-size copy of it. An hour; come early in the morning or stay the night.
A short history of Hallstatt
People were mining salt here as long as about 7,000 years ago, and the Hallstatt salt mine is considered the oldest in the world. In 1846 the mine manager, Johann Georg Ramsauer, discovered a prehistoric cemetery with more than a thousand graves, and the finds were so rich that a whole period in Europe, from the 8th to the 5th century BC, is named after the place: the "Hallstatt culture". The village is squeezed between the mountain and the lake, and until 1890 it could be reached only by boat or on foot. In 1997 the area was declared a World Heritage Site, and in 2012 a replica of the village was built in China.
The ten best sights in Hallstatt
1MarktplatzThe little square of painted houses
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2World Heritage Museum
Seven thousand years of salt and the Hallstatt culture
3Protestant ChurchThe white spire of the postcard view
4Catholic ChurchA Gothic church on the hillside above the roofs
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5Bone House
About twelve hundred skulls, many painted with names
6Postcard ViewpointThe classic view of the town on the lake
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7Welterbeblick
A platform hanging 350 metres over the town
8Salt MineThe oldest salt mine in the world, with miners’ slides
9WaldbachstrubA waterfall in the Echern valley behind the town
10Hallstätter SeeRow a boat on the deep green lake
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Hallstatt →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Hallstatt:
Free walking tours in Hallstatt
The village on the lake
Hallstatt is a village of about seven hundred people squeezed between a mountain and a deep lake, so short of flat land that its houses stand on one another. Until 1890 it had no road at all; you came by boat. Today it receives thousands of visitors a day, and China built a full-size copy of it. An hour; come early in the morning or stay the night.
- Hallstatt Station · The railway station is on the opposite shore, and a small ferry crosses the lake to the village with every train, as boats have done for centuries. The first view from the water, the white houses and the spire against the cliff, is the right way to arrive.
- Marktplatz · The little square of the village, ringed with painted wooden houses, most rebuilt after a fire of 1750 destroyed the centre. In 2012 a Chinese developer built an exact copy of this square and its houses in Guangdong province, to the surprise of the villagers.
- Protestant Church · The white church with its slender spire on the shore is the centre of every photograph. It was built in 1863, when the salt miners, many of whom had kept their Lutheran faith secretly through two centuries of Catholic rule, were finally allowed their own church.
- Catholic Church · A Gothic church reached by a covered stair above the roofs, with a carved and painted altar of about 1515 and a tiny graveyard on a terrace that is the only flat ground available for the dead.
- Bone House · Because the graveyard is so small, for centuries the dead were dug up after ten or fifteen years and their bones moved to this chapel. Families painted the skulls with the person’s name and dates and with garlands — oak leaves for men, flowers for women. About twelve hundred skulls lie here, the last added in the 1990s.
- Postcard Viewpoint · At the southern end of the village, the famous view: the white church, the houses stepping down to the water and the mountain behind, reflected in the lake. Early in the morning, before the buses, the water is still.
Seven thousand years of salt
Hall means salt, and Hallstatt’s wealth for seven thousand years has come from the mountain above it, where people have mined salt since the Stone Age. The finds from its prehistoric cemetery gave their name to a whole period of European history. Half a day; the mine is cool all year.
- World Heritage Museum · In 1846 the mine manager, Johann Georg Ramsauer, began excavating a prehistoric cemetery high on the mountain, and found about a thousand graves full of bronze and iron weapons, jewellery and amber traded from the Baltic. The early Iron Age of central Europe, around 800 to 450 BC, is called the Hallstatt culture after them.
- Salzbergbahn · A funicular climbs in a few minutes from the lake to the high valley of the salt mine, about four hundred metres up. Before it, miners walked up every day for thousands of years.
- Welterbeblick · A steel platform that hangs out from the cliff about three hundred and fifty metres above the village, looking down on the roofs and along the whole length of the lake.
- Salt Mine · The oldest salt mine in the world still working. In 1734 miners found the body of a prehistoric miner preserved in the salt, and in 2002 archaeologists found a wooden staircase of about 1343 BC, the oldest in Europe. Visitors go down into the tunnels on the miners’ long wooden slides.
- Waldbachstrub · On the way down, a walk into the Echern valley behind the village leads to a high waterfall in the forest, past the old brine pipeline. Since 1595 brine has flowed from the mine through wooden and later metal pipes forty kilometres to the salt works at Ebensee — one of the oldest pipelines in the world.
- Hallstätter See · The lake is about a hundred and twenty-five metres deep and very cold. Its whitefish and char were the other food of the salt miners, and boats can be rowed from the village for an hour on the water.
Ice caves, lakes and the emperor
Around Hallstatt is the Salzkammergut, the old salt domain of the Habsburgs: the Dachstein mountain with caves of ice, lakes under glaciers, the emperor’s summer town, and a salt mine where the Nazis hid Europe’s stolen art. A full day and a car.
- Dachstein Ice Cave · A cable car from Obertraun climbs to the entrance of a cave in which cold winter air sinks and freezes the water that drips in, building halls of ice tens of metres thick, some of it hundreds of years old. It is below freezing inside even in August.
- Krippenstein · At the top of the cable car a viewing platform called the Five Fingers sticks out over a sheer drop of about four hundred metres, each of its five arms different — one has a glass floor, one a frame to look through, one a hole.
- Gosausee · A small lake in the forest under the Dachstein, whose glacier is reflected in its water on still mornings. A path runs around it in about an hour.
- Altaussee Salt Mine · In 1944 the Nazis stored thousands of looted works of art deep in this mine, among them the Ghent Altarpiece and Michelangelo’s Madonna of Bruges, meant for Hitler’s planned museum in Linz. In the last days of the war a local official planned to blow it up; Austrian miners removed the bombs, and American art officers, the Monuments Men, brought the treasures out.
- Kaiservilla, Bad Ischl · Emperor Franz Joseph spent almost every summer of his long reign in this villa, a wedding present on his engagement to Elisabeth, Sisi, in Bad Ischl. Here on the twenty-eighth of July 1914 he signed the declaration of war on Serbia that began the First World War.
- St. Wolfgang · A lakeside village famous for the White Horse Inn, the setting of a popular operetta of 1930, and for a church with a great carved and gilded altar of 1481 by Michael Pacher. A steam cog railway climbs the Schafberg above it for a view over three lakes.
Getting to Hallstatt and getting around
- Hallstatt Station · Across the lake; a small ferry meets every train
- Salzbergbahn · The funicular up to the salt mine
Cheap eats in Hallstatt
The Salzkammergut eats from its lakes and from the imperial kitchen: char and whitefish from the cold lakes, smoked or fried; Kaiserschmarrn, a torn sweet pancake with plum jam that the emperor is said to have loved; and the pastries of the Bad Ischl court bakers. A smoked char roll at a lakeside stall costs a few euro.
- Hallstätter See · Smoked char from the lake
- Zauner · The Zaunerstollen of the imperial bakers
- Marktplatz · Kaiserschmarrn in the square
- Gosausee · An inn by the lake under the glacier
- Salt Mine · Hallstatt salt to take home
Museums in Hallstatt
The region’s museums are its mines: the oldest salt mine in the world, the museum of the Hallstatt culture, and the mine that hid the art treasures of Europe.
- World Heritage Museum · The finds of the Iron Age cemetery
- Altaussee Salt Mine · The story of the hidden art
- Kaiservilla, Bad Ischl · The emperor’s rooms and desk
- Bone House · The painted skulls
Nature and day trips near Hallstatt
The Salzkammergut is a land of deep glacial lakes under limestone mountains, with the Dachstein, its caves and its glacier, rising over them.
- Dachstein Ice Cave · Halls of ice inside the mountain
- Gosausee · The glacier mirrored in the lake
- Waldbachstrub · A waterfall walk
- Altausseer See · A quiet lake circuit
- Loser · The panoramic road
Things to do in Hallstatt with kids
Children love the miners’ slides in the salt mine, the ice cave, the Five Fingers over the abyss and the steam railway.
- Salt Mine · Slide down like a miner
- Dachstein Ice Cave · Ice in summer
- Krippenstein · The Five Fingers platform
- Schafberg Railway · A steam train up a mountain
Holy places in Hallstatt
Hallstatt has two churches, Catholic and Protestant, side by side — a memory of the secret Protestants among the miners — and a chapel of painted skulls.
- Protestant Church · The miners’ church
- Catholic Church · The Gothic altar
- Bone House · The chapel of skulls
- St. Wolfgang · Michael Pacher’s altar
Nightlife in Hallstatt
Hallstatt goes quiet when the buses leave: an evening on the water, dinner by the lake, and the village lit up from the far shore.
- Postcard Viewpoint · The village lit at night
- Marktplatz · A quiet evening when the crowds are gone
- Hallstatt Station · The village from across the water
Frequently asked questions about Hallstatt
What is there to see in Hallstatt?
The top sights in Hallstatt are Marktplatz, World Heritage Museum and Protestant Church. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Hallstatt?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Hallstatt without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Hallstatt?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Hallstatt, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The village on the lake.
How do you get to Hallstatt and get around?
The main ways are Hallstatt Station and Salzbergbahn. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Hallstatt, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Hallstatt that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Hallstatt for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.