Lower Austria, the countryside, river and mountains around Vienna.

Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) is the largest region in the country and the one that surrounds Vienna on all four sides. For anyone flying from Spain to Vienna, it is day-trip country: almost everything is one or two hours away by train and there is no need to change hotel. It has three very different landscapes. To the west, the Danube squeezes between vineyards in the Wachau. To the south, the Vienna Woods and the plain of the spa towns, with Baden. And to the south-west, where the Alps begin, the Semmering pass, with its mountain railway of 1854.

Getting around from Vienna

The rail network is good and almost everything can be done without a car. Until the end of October 2027 the central stretch of the Vienna S-Bahn, between Praterstern and Hauptbahnhof, is closed for works: trains to the south leave from Wien Hauptbahnhof or Wien Meidling, and it is worth checking the departure station for each line on ÖBB. To Baden there is also the Badner Bahn, the interurban tram that leaves opposite the Opera and does not depend on the S-Bahn. A car is only worth it for the Vienna Woods, out-of-the-way Heurigen or if you want to combine several places in one day.

The destinations

• The Wachau: the stretch of the Danube between Melk and Krems, a World Heritage site, with the Baroque abbey of Melk, Dürnstein and its ruined castle, terraced vineyards and apricot trees. You can travel it by boat, by bike or on the north-bank train. Melk Abbey is part of the visit: it is not a separate destination but the western end of the valley.
• Baden bei Wien: the spa town of the Habsburgs and Beethoven, with sulphur baths open all year. 15 km away, in the Vienna Woods, are the Cistercian abbey of Heiligenkreuz and the hunting lodge of Mayerling, where Prince Rudolf died.
• Carnuntum: the Roman capital on the Danube, 45 minutes by train from Wien Hauptbahnhof, with reconstructed houses and baths, the Heidentor and, next door, the walled town of Hainburg.
• Schloss Hof and the Marchfeld: Prince Eugene's country palace, with terraced Baroque gardens above the March, the castles of the Danube woods and the storks of Marchegg.
• The Rax: the Viennese people's mountain, with Austria's first cable car, walks on the plateau and the Höllental gorge, next to Reichenau.
• The Semmering: the first mountain railway in Europe, a World Heritage site, with a path that follows the line from station to station, and the ski resort closest to Vienna.
• Tulln: the birthplace of Egon Schiele, beside the Danube, with his museum, the station house where he was born and DIE GARTEN TULLN, less than an hour on the S40 from Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof.
• Göttweig and the Kamptal: the Benedictine abbey above the eastern end of the Wachau, with its imperial staircase, and the wine valley of Langenlois, with 900-year-old cellars, the Heiligenstein and Rosenburg castle.
• Mödling and Burg Liechtenstein: the town right next to Vienna where the woods begin, with the Liechtenstein family's original castle and the Husarentempel, on the southern line.
• Puchberg and the Schneeberg: the rack railway that has climbed since 1897 to 1,800 metres on the highest mountain in Lower Austria.

How to combine them

With Vienna as a base, each one is a day: the Wachau from spring to autumn, when the boats sail; Baden any day of the year; the Semmering in summer for walking or in winter for skiing. If you prefer to sleep out, the Wachau needs two nights to do it by bike and boat without rushing, and Baden or the Semmering one. East of Vienna, already in another region, are Lake Neusiedl, in Burgenland, and Bratislava, the Slovak capital, an hour away by train.

When to go

From April to October everything is running: Wachau boats, Heurigen open, the Bahnwanderweg and the Semmering gondola in summer. July is apricot month in the Wachau; September and October, the grape harvest. In winter you have the Baden baths, skiing and tobogganing at the Semmering and the Christmas markets, but many Wachau hotels close and the boats do not sail.