When Chris and I first thought about writing a post on our recent trip to Europe, we started to realize that not so many people get the chance to make big trips, whether it be to different states, provinces, or anywhere around the world. This is simply due to the fact of not having enough time or money. But I can assure you that a “well planned” vacation doesn’t have to be expensive, you don’t have to cross the ocean, or go to a different continent to have a fun and nice vacation.
Travel is getting out of your comfort zone and experiencing something that you haven’t yet. In our blog, our goal was to document our adventures that led from New Jersey, through Canada, and ultimately the Pacific Northwest. We wanted to offer tips on restaurants, pubs, museums, parks, etc. But after some more travels, we also want to provide you with tips on how to travel on a budget.
I remember of playing choice questions games many times when I was a kid, and one of them was “What do you like best, the Beach or Mountains?” And in my head I thought I had seen both, until the day I got to see Hinterthal, Austria. =)
Today, I think we can both agree that it’s one of our favorite places in the world and I can assure you that I prefer Mountains. I’ve heard from many people who are often in this region that the summer view is not comparable with the beauty of this place during winter time (I’ll post some pictures of Hinterthal during the winter too).
There are many ski areas in the region. However the summer is still lovely, there was nothing better than sitting outside, having breakfast and looking at the amazing view. It’s impossible not to fall in love with this place.
The climate in this area may vary a bit from one day to another, obviously the altitude is higher, so it tends to be colder, but it may get really hot some-days as the temperature can reach 30 to 35C. What is also funny is that when the temperature gets around 20C (what I think is a bit cold), all the Austrian people walk around in shorts and flip flops like it was the hottest summer for them =)
Well about the prices, surprisingly it is not too expensive to rent an apartment in this area. I’ll be sure to attach the link of the place we stayed at. It was great! Clean, well located, and the people were very friendly. There are apartments for 2 to a max of 7 people and in the summer the prices are around 25 euros (per day/ per person) with small kitchen, so you can save money cooking your own meals and enjoying having breakfast at your balcony with a fantastic view.
During the winter the prices increase a bit because of the season, and the ski stations are open so you’d spend about extra 10 euros a day. It’s a complete opposite of most places where you have much higher summer rates.
When it comes to transportation, I’d recommend you to go by car in this area. We didn’t see much public transportation and also if you have a car you have much more flexibility to visit other beautiful cities around and there’s a lot to see! Hopefully you won’t have the same experience we did with our car.
Shortly after picking up our rental, we wanted to have lunch just outside of Salzburg. Right after parking, I got out of the car but Chris didn’t. I went to see what the problem is and he said the key is stuck in the ignition!
Granted, it wasn’t our first choice for a car but like I mentioned, we’re traveling on a budget. Turns out, there was a hidden “key release” button which he finally located but it would have been nice for the rental agency to point that out. We’ll be laughing over that one for a while.
We flew to the Salzburg airport and rented a car there. This airport is situated about 50 min from Hinterthal. So if you’re planning on visiting Europe in the near future and you aren’t sure which spots you should see, keep this one in mind as it’s totally worth it. It was just one stop in our recent European vacation but one of our favorites.
We had so much fun in Europe and got to visit a few other countries. We’ll be sure put up a some more posts in the near future about some of our other favorite locations.