Austria Escorted Tours

Tours to Austria

The Essence of Austria

Landlocked but littered with crystal-clear lakes, Austria is a scenic feast of peaks, pistes and alpine meadows, palaces, fortresses and elegant cities. Enhancing all these are its joyous musical soundtrack, soft-spoken reserve, and penchant for pastries.

Why choose a tour in Austria? 

With majestic cities, Tirolean villages, mesmerising scenery, and the musical repertoires of Mozart and Strauss, Austria is enthralling and entertaining, in equal measure.

Vienna is a picture-perfect place of music and grandeur, lavish palaces and Lipizzaner horses, but it’s far from a living museum. Modern architecture meets regal mansions, chic shops vie with street markets, and parks, promenades and riverbank restaurants line the omnipresent Danube.

Salzburg’s Baroque and medieval buildings line grand squares in the UNESCO listed Altstadt; the Salzach River rushes through the city, while visitors idle over pastries at people-watching café tables; and all is overseen by an imposing clifftop castle.

Innsbruck, the capital of the Tirol, has an air of exuberance and a list of attractions which ranges from the Olympic ski-jump to the Habsburg Imperial Palace, and 995ft rise of the Hungerburg funicular.

A Grand Tour visits these and more, touring by road and rail from Vienna’s medieval churches and glorious Hofburg Palace, to Beethoven’s home in Baden; Mozart’s birthplace, Salzburg, nestled in super-scenic, ‘Sound of Music’ surrounds; to sail on Lake Wolfgang, and enjoy Innsbruck’s narrow streets and wide-open panoramas.

Two tours cruise the Danube from the Austrian capital to its counterparts in Hungary and Slovakia, with matching ports of call but very different experiences; one focused on art, history and culture, the other hiking the hills and valleys of the great outdoors.

The highest point on the route is Melk, its ancient abbey clinging to the cliff-side for a millennium of monastic life; the lowest is Kalocsa, for the protected plains of the Puszta prairie, famed for its feats of traditional horsemanship. In between are the UNESCO listed Wachau Valley, Dürnstein Castle on its rocky ridge, Budapest’s bastions and elegant boulevards; picturesque Esztergom with its grand Basilica; and Bratislava, mixing Art Nouveau with Middle Ages monuments.

Swap summer meadows for winter wonderlands with cruises to the Christmas Markets of the trio of capital cities; or a Tirolean week of snowshoe walks, horse-drawn sleigh rides, and visits to Seefeld, Stams Abbey, and Innsbruck, in the fourteen scattered hamlets collectively called Obsteig village.

When to go on Austria holidays

Austria’s climate varies from mild winters and warm summers in the west, to almost Mediterranean heat in south-eastern areas, and definite Alpine seasons in the mountains, the higher the altitude, the lower the temperatures. In general, January is the coldest month, July and August the hottest, and the shoulder months of May, June, August and September enjoy warm temperatures between 16 and 24°.  

All Jules Verne’s Austrian tours and cruises are timed for the seasons which suit the various areas, so that you enjoy each destination at its best.

Who are Austria tours suited to?

Cultural cityscapes, natural landscapes, refreshing river cruises, and delicious cuisine come together in Jules Verne’s Austrian tours, often all in one journey, so there will be something in each of them to inspire a variety of visitors, from hikers to historians, from sailors to skiers. 

Travelling in small groups of couples, friends, and families, we also offer ‘No Single Supplement’ dates for solo travellers on our Musical Christmas and Danube Waltz cruises.

Why book Austria tours with Jules Verne?

With 45 years’ experience and a passion for creating extraordinary adventures, Jules Verne visits iconic landmarks and lesser-known sites, with expert tour guides who share their local knowledge, and show you hidden gems. Memorable interludes on our journeys in Austria include a performance by the Vienna Hofburg Orchestra; a Mozart Dinner Concert in the Baroque Hall of Salzburg’s St. Peter’s Monastery; walking through Sandberg, a one-time sea, where fossils of marine fauna were found; and watching the equine and human skills of the “Gulya” cowboys’ horsemanship. 

All our guided tours to Austria are ABTA and ATOL protected, and we offer a 100% price guarantee, so you can book with complete confidence.