I’ve never really given Austria much thought. Sandwiched deep in central Europe, Austria always just seemed like Germany’s younger sister, not somewhere you would specifically make it a point to go visit.
I was wrong. Austria is great, especially for family travel! Everything was very easy, and although German is incomprehensible to me, a lot of people spoke perfect English. So far letting RyanAir sales dictate where we travel is working out excellently.
We went to Austria specifically to full embrace the European Christmas Market tradition, and we got more than our fill. We visited six major Christmas markets in Vienna and another two in Salzburg.
Our first stop was Vienna, one of the largest cities in Europe. It was very, very cold, but also very pretty and a city I would love to return to… in warmer weather. With temperatures hovering right below freezing we fast established a routine of sleeping in, Christmas markets and sightseeing during the warmest few hours of the day, then huddling in our cozy AirBNB with take out (korean! vietnamese! chinese!) when the temperatures started to plummet.
So here is what we got up to, Family Photo Album style:
