On the Day 2 of my Austria mini road trip series, our main destination was to Innsbruck. Luckily, the weather was not as bad as yesterday, so I had good feeling about it.
We chose Salzburg as our base, and did daytrips to the nearby towns or cities by renting a car. This was actually my very first time renting car in Europe that I highly recommend it. Especially if you’re traveling with 2 or more people since it will give you flexibility in terms of time and destination. I mean… Austria’s countryside is exquisitely beautiful so you should not missed the details of it.
Google Map says that it would take around 2 hours one way from Salzburg to Innsbruck, meaning we’ll spend 4 hours return. Since we didn’t want to go back during the dark, we decided to head straight to Innsbruck first, then we’ll make stops at the other towns on the way back if the time allows.
Thankfully, our trip went smooth all the way to Innsbruck, no more heart-slapping accident like yesterday as my friend is getting use to the car already. Proud of her!
Upon arrival at Innsbruck, we headed to the most picturesque spots in the town which called the Innbrucke, the popular bridge by the river with colorful houses and framed by the stunning backdrop of the Alps. It looks exactly the same like in the picture I saw everywhere.
We took a stroll through surrounding area that bustling with restaurants and shops, had lunch at the restaurant that looks like a very popular one in the area, called Cafe Central.
Although upon entering the restaurant, I felt a bit out of place as we received several curious stares from other guests. Not sure why – maybe it was because we were the only Asians there or perhaps we looked too young to be dining on our own, considering most of the other guests were families or elderly couples. Nevertheless, we shook it off because foods were excellent! No wonder the place was packed!
After lunch time, we decided to leave as soon as possible since we still wanted to see as many lovely towns on the way back. This time we took normal road instead of toll road so that we could enjoy the scenic driveway through greenery landscape with stack of pines and houses dotted the rolling hillsides. The sights along the way were completely mind-blowing, as we passed through handful of quaint towns that I craved to visit such as Hall in Tirol, Wattens, Weer, Pill, and Schwaz.
Since we didn’t have luxury in time, we only could afford to visit one town called Schwaz, for a coffee break and a quick glimpse of the town’s charm. Like many other towns in Tirol Region of Austria, Schwaz is divided by a beautiful river called The Inn that adding the charm for the town itself.
We parked the car at the other side of the town and walking towards the opposite area that has many cafe options. The town is really easy to enjoy just by walking around, I could smell its calm and soothing atmosphere with slow driving cars, people walking with no hurry, even the river flowing gently. Ah I wish I had more time to spend here.
In the middle of enjoying my coffee over the view of Schwaz neighborhood suddenly I caught a glimpse of sun dipping towards the horizon. Alarming that we need to get back to Salzburg real soon as we need to return the car by 6 PM 🙁
2 days of driving along the Salzkammergut and Tirol, we spent around 50 Euro for gasoline. Not bad and very much worth it. Funny thing was we had no idea how to fill-up the fuel in gas station, so we did Youtube it too! Lol! Thanks to those brilliant YouTubers who created the very helpful video on ‘how to fill up the fuel tank in Europe’ – you save our life!
Well if you ask, which one is prettier the countryside of Tirol or Salzkammergut, to me both are bombs! I like both and will definitely recommend to do both! Also, please not only focus in visiting the main destination like Hallstatt or Innsbruck, do pay a visit to its surrounding charming towns too!