HALLSTATT + Salt Mine Tour+ Salzkammergut lakes

From Salzburg we will pass Fuschl hunting lodge beside the emerald Lake Fuschlsee. We take a photo stop at St. Gilgen village by the lake Wolfgangsee where W.A. Mozart’s mother was born. The lake is surrounded by impressive mountains and rock faces, we will also pass Bad Ischl, the summer residence of the Austrian Emperor Kaiser Franz Joseph, spa town and also known for music and operettas.

This salt mine is something so unique in the world that you should not miss it. Millenia of salt mining! In the Salzberg funicular train you are comfortably taken up to the cliff face then further with a panorama lift to the vantage point bridge – the Top of Hallstatt view point then connect to a trail leading through a Celtic burial area up to the mine entrance . After a short walk a mine train takes you along glistening rock faces into the mountain. You change the levels using old worn wooden slides (64m!). To use the stairs is less safe., You will see the oldest staircase in the world, a salt lake, a Time Spiral covering 7,000 years of mining and the history of the probably most important find: the Mann im Salz (man in salt), the corpse of a man naturally preserved by the salt discovered in 1734 by miners.

Hallstatt and its lake Hallstättersee are described by the UNESCO committee as “Nature of extraordinary beauty added to scientific import”. Here besides the beauty of the site you can marvel at archaeological excavations, findings from the oldest salt mine of the world, the world’s biggest collection of sculls with elaborate paintings and much more. The sensational findings even gave an entire epoch and a culture its names: The “Hallstatt Period” and “Hallstatt Culture” are scientific names for the Early Iron Age.
You will never forget what many guests have called the most beautiful lake village in the world.