SALZBURG,  AUSTRIA - HOTEL, ACCOMMODATION & TRAVEL GUIDE

Top 10 Places to Visit in Austria   by Martin G. Jones

First stop on our 10 places to visit is the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Even if you not really into horses you'll be amazed at how the riders get their mounts to perform. While in Vienna you must visit the Schönbrunn - Austria's most popular tourist attraction. This massive baroque palace was originally built as a summer residence for the imperial family of the Habsburgs, but is now a museum that also features a park and a zoo.

Austria has produced some of the best ever classical composers, and in 2006 the city of Vienna celebrated the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of its most famous residents - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. You can still visit some of the places he frequented in the city, as well as similar for a whole host of dead composers who chose to reside in Vienna such as Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert. Getting to Vienna, the city that claims to be the capital of classical music, is now even easier thanks to the abundance of cheap flights to Austria. Once there try another bit of Viennese culture, the somewhat quirky KunstHausWien, created by noted Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and built in 1991. The architecture is distinctly different with uneven floors and odd-shaped rooms with the interior and exterior all in garish and bright colours. You can even get married there for a wedding that no one will forget in a hurry.

Next up, not just one place but a whole selection - the Sound of Music locations in and around Salzburg - the city known as the "Rome of the North", to which you can also buy cheap flights. If you do visit Salzburg you must see the Eisriesenwelt Caves; the world's largest ice caves which are found just south of the city and are a truly awe-inspiring sight.

Austria with its beautiful mountainous scenery is rightly renowned for its skiing. Innsbruck, which has hosted two Winter Olympics, continues to be extremely popular and is well worth a visit even in the summer months. Here you will find the amazing Swarovski Crystal Walk Visitor Centre where you can marvel at the stunning crystal on display. For the more adventurous, jump on the aerial gondola ride up to the two-mile high Stubai glacier also just outside Innsbruck; it's so high that while riding the gondola you will be rubbing shoulders with skiers, even in summer!

For the last in our ten places to visit you'll have to get on the road. Either get on a bus or get behind the wheel yourself and steer your car up the Grossglockner Alpine Road. Since 1935 an estimated 50 million visitors have taken in the spectacular views on this most famous of Alpine roads, which leads to the 3,798 Grossglockner Mountain; home to the largest glacier in Austria.

Wherever you decide to go in Austria, you'll find that as well the ten places we've listed there are also many other fantastic places to see. Getting there is easy and most airlines operate cheap flights to Salzburg and Vienna from major and regional airports throughout the UK.

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