Reviews
RatingsTour code: BEAMV4
Tour Inclusions
- Nights
- Meals 7 Breakfasts, 1 Lunch, 3 Dinners
- Hotel
- Driver
- Tour Leader
Essence of Austria
Overview
Fall head over heels for Austria’s deep valleys and sparkling blue lakes on this leisurely sojourn through enchanting alpine villages, charming Baroque cities and fascinating castles. If the breathtaking scenery doesn’t capture your heart, the delicious local cuisine certainly will!
Tour Highlights
- Enjoy a train ride on the SchafbergBahn, a cog railway that has been in operation since 1893
- Immerse yourself in the fairytale charm of Salzburg
- Indulge in a local cheese tasting session within the majestic Salzkammergut region
Tour Itinerary
Expand Full Itinerary
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Day 1 - Munich (Germany)
The Bavarian capital of Munich is where we’ll begin our journey through this picturesque and historic country. After meeting our Tour Leader and fellow travellers at the hotel, we’ll clink glasses over a sumptuous welcome dinner. Accommodation: Hotel Drei Löwen (or similar)
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Meals
- Dinner
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Meals
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Day 2 - Munich – Tegernsee – Zell am See (Austria)
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Day 3 - Zell am See
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Day 4 - Zell am See – Berchtesgaden (Germany) – Salzburg (Austria)
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Day 5 - Salzburg
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Day 6 - Salzburg – SchafbergBahn – Tauplitz
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Day 7 - Tauplitz – Admont and Amstetten – Wachau
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Day 8 - Wachau – Tulln an der Donau – Vienna
Tour Inclusions
Accommodation
- 7 nights in hand-picked accommodation
The Crew
- Experienced Tour Leader and Driver
Transport
- Premium mini-coach transportation
Reviews

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10th July 2023Review ratingLovely small group tour with Kinga a wonderful person and guide. We had unique experiences, visiting lovely places. Only criticism would be the bus and the driver Tomas. The bus was very uncomfortable and the driver not very helpful. He seemed pretty clueless at times. An engine overheating warning light came on and the driver halted the bus immediately there and then, on a hairpin bend. He made no attempt to park the bus closer to the side of the road or drive a little further up the road and pull over in a safer place. This was very unsafe for us the passengers and passing traffic. The engine was not smoking, their were no fumes and plenty of coolant left so he could have driven a little further. He seemed to care more about the welfare of his bus than the safety of the passengers and other passing cars. He then wanted to detach the trailer and have us physically push and move it while it was parked on a downward slope. Alarm bells were ringing. Also the bus was very uncomfortable. I am short, only 156cm tall and found the seats to have very little legroom, I can only imagine what it was like for the taller people in our group. Apparently Tomas had had the bus remodelled to include extra rows of seats. The aisle was also very narrow. Tomas was also very reluctant to pay any extra fees to park closer to our destination, or just to drop us off close by and then go and park the coach away somewhere else and come back later to pick us up, which I witnessed other larger coaches do for their passengers. Despite this it was a wonderful trip.
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9th July 2023Review ratingThe tour itself was great and Kinga was a great tour guide. Accommodation and meals were all good too. I have two criticisms however: 1) there was no record of me as being on the tour when I arrived at the designated hotel in Munich. The tour group the hotel had a list for was an intrepid tour not Back roads but my name was not on that list even though it was my tour. I spent 3 hours believing I had been scammed, which was very distressing. The hotel gave me an emergency room to tide me over but it turned out my tour was the intrepid tour. They still didn’t have a room booked for me though so I used the emergency room the hotel had given me. This kind of incomplete / poor communication really I is unacceptable. 2) the tour bus was described as a “premium” coach. It was not. The coach company had fitted 25 seats into a bus appropriate for 18 seats, such that we had to walk down the aisle sideways. I am 5 foot 2” and my knees were jammed against the seat in front (see photos). There were men on our tour who were 6 foot 4”. Most people had to sit sideways in their seats which was very uncomfortable when travelling distances. There were also a few people who were 60+ and yet there wasn’t even a grab rail to help them climb into the bus. The bus overheated as we travelled up a mountain. The driver was clueless about an overheated vehicle and told me it was hot because it had been parked in the sun! 🙄. He wanted us to detach the trailer and leave it on the side of the road. Then he wanted to detach the trailer on a steep hill on a hairpin bend. When we said it would kill someone if it got away he agreed to drive 20m to flatter ground. The male passengers including a one armed 72 year old and a man who had recently had a kidney transplant were required to help detach and place the trailer at the side of the road while our driver turned the bus around. We never did get to the promised cheese tasting activity and the tour staff sought to trivialize the situation. Again, completely unacceptable considering that this was meant to be a higher end tour. Our driver Thomas’s had a can’t do attitude to his customers overall - he couldn’t drive us to the hotel door several times even though other busses could, leaving us to drag bags over cobblestones etc. he wouldn’t drive us to the cog wheel station in Wolfgangsee because of a fee and one man had to get a horse and carriage to take his wife back the 2km to the bus when she became unwell. Overall the bus was **** and I would question whether it was legal.
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3rd July 2023Review ratingGreat itinerary and activities with knowledgeable tour leader. What spoilt the trip were the cramped bus seating conditions and having to carry own luggage to and from bus to hotel etc. usually this is done by hotel staff with assistance by bus driver.