When planning my trip to Vienna, I knew I absolutely had to do a day trip out to Austria’s Lake District to explore the small towns – especially the picturesque Hallstatt! While public transportation in Europe is generally very good, getting to these small towns can be a bit tricky (especially on a time crunch). Therefore, I chose to book a day trip with a tour, knowing that they would take care of all the logistics and I can just enjoy! And it turned out to be an absolutely perfect day bopping around. I booked the Hallstatt Christmas Tour with White Alligator Tours and couldn’t recommend them enough! We visited several small towns and had plenty of free time to explore. Here’s my recap exploring Christmas markets in Austria’s Lake District!
Pick up and drive to the Lake District
The tour started bright at early, with a 7:00 am pickup time from my hotel. I stayed at the Hilton Vienna Plaza, which was a perfect home base for exploring the Christmas markets in Vienna! The hotel was beautiful, modern, in a central location, and reasonably priced (if you book far in advance)! I loaded up into the cozy Mercedes Benz sprinter van with four other passengers, and we were off! Our guide gave us good tips, info, and history on the places we passed through Vienna, but wasn’t overbearing at all. We settled in for the long drive out to the Lakes District, stopping for a quick fresh air stop at Landzeit. This place had a full cafeteria, coffee cafe, and small gift shop.
Mondsee
Our first official stop of the trip was in the beautiful lakeside town of Mondsee. This little town was cozy and quaint and having thirty minutes to explore on our own was the perfect amount of time. We arrived just as their Christmas market, Advent in Mondsee, was opening. The market is set up in the center of town, right in front of the famous St. Michael Basilica, where they filmed the wedding scene in The Sound of Music! The basilica is free to enter, and is worth popping in to view the stunning alter, organ, and iconic pink arches! Just outside the square were beautiful buildings pasted with pastel colors, which made for such a beautiful stroll through town.
Mondsee is also located right on (you guessed it…) Lake Mondsee. It’s worth taking a short walk down to enjoy the views. I loved looking up at the hills and taking photos of the homes, churches, and buildings that sit so peacefully (and also being jealous of the people that live there).
Wolfgangsee Overlook
Our next stop was a quick scenic overlook of the Wolfgangsee (Lake Wolfgang). From this stop, we got beautiful views over the lake, the snow-capped mountains that surround the area, and the town of St. Gilgen (which we would explore next!). This was a quick stop to take some photos and enjoy the views, but just enough time to get to appreciate it all. Shoutout to our guide who kindly offered to take pictures of me (and then do more when I hated the way I looked in the first ones, lol!).
St. Gilgen
We then made our way down the hill into the charming town of St. Gilgen. The town is located right on Lake Wolfgang and has a beautiful, short boardwalk (the Seepromenade) to walk along and enjoy the views. St. Gilgen was larger than Mondsee and there were many more stalls and vendors at their Christmas market. St. Gilgen is most famous for being the birthplace of Mozart’s mother. You can visit the house, located here (which is now a cultural and events center), but I would instead recommend spending your time up in town at the market! One of my favorite places was here, right in the center of town. There is also a statue of a young Mozart, which is cute and also worth a quick snap.
Hallstatt
Next up was the start of the show: Hallstatt! The drive from St. Gilgen to Hallstatt was incredibly scenic as we drive right alongside Wolfgangsee and Hallstätter See. Hallstatt actually doesn’t have any Christmas markets, so this was just time to enjoy the town itself. The town of Hallstatt is unfortunately overwhelmed by over tourism, and a Christmas market would only make things worse! It is a small, old salt mining town of only about 750 residents, so if you do visit definitely make an effort to support the local shops and residents! Included with our day trip was a 30 minute walking tour around Hallstatt with a resident who was born and raised here. It was a fascinating tour and we learned all about what it’s like to live this isolated town and their rich salt mining history.
We then had a few hours to stroll the town on our own. I enjoyed bopping into the many shops, walking down along the water, and taking in the scenic viewpoints. Two of my favorites were here (the iconic photo spot of the town and church), and around here (on the staircase leading to the parking garage).
St. Wolfgang
Our last stop of the day was in the town of St. Wolfgang. This was by far the largest market we visited, as the entire town transforms into one cohesive Christmas market! I’ll be honest: this one was a little overwhelming for me. The crowds were dense and it was hard to move around. While I never felt unsafe, I did feel anxious and had to find spots away from the crowds just to breathe. My favorite spots for this were over on the waterfront walkway outside the St. Wolfgang Kirche, inside the Scalaria Events Center, and then down a little side street located about here where they had llamas and alpacas! If you’re looking to avoid crowds, I’d definitely visit here during the day. We were at this market for about 2 hours and it felt like it just got busier and busier as it got later.
Back to Vienna
Finally, it was time to head back to Vienna. The drive was long, about three hours, but after a busy day it was a welcome opportunity to sit down and turn your brain off. I spent some time flipping through my thousands of photos and got a head start on editing them. That was before my exhaustion took over and I fell asleep in the back of the van and was awoken when we pulled into my hotel. It was a fabulous day exploring the Christmas markets in Austria’s Lake District!
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