Austria Adventure Vacations & Hiking Tours

As an Active Adventures traveller, It’s essential you take out travel insurance to cover the likes of personal injury, medical expenses, trip cancellation for your travel with us. Please head to our Travel Insurance page for more in-depth information and insurance provider options. It’s also important to check your insurance covers all the activities you’ll be partaking in, in case you’re travelling to altitude or looking at extreme sports.

We recommend booking your flights through our preferred travel partner – Fuzion Travel. They’re our experienced hand-picked experts in travel, passionate about what they do, and will tailor-make your flight itinerary to match your Active Adventures tour. Get in touch with them directly by email – [email protected] fuziontravel.co.nz or on +1-833-244-5886. Let them know your preferred travel plans, including any stopovers or extra nights’ accommodation, and they’ll put everything in place for you. They offer a total travel solution and five star service that you’ll want to tell your friends about!

Accommodation
On your Austria trip you'll stay in a variety of places depending on the destination and activities. You'll stay in a 1890’s Grand Hotel nestled into the mountain landscape, 13th-century Hotel located in an authentic, postcard-perfect Austrian village known for being featured in films, and a 4-star family run hotel, centrally located, offering a charming mix of family flair and noble ambience.

Transport
Your transport will be a mixture of private vehicle, bike, kayak and your very own two feet on our trips in Austria. All your transport is included from the start of your trip and we'll drop you at the airport at the end. The details are all listed in the trip specific itineraries.

Meals
All your meals are included as described in the itinerary except for two dinners and one lunch. We have found that people enjoy checking out what is on offer by themselves sometimes, so you can go and see what's out there! On every other day and especially after any long hikes, we've chosen places to eat that can cater for our hearty appetites, work well with our small groups (they know we are coming) and provide us with an authentic destination specific culinary experience. There are always options for you, so you can either be brave or choose something more familiar. You can be assured that on all our trips we will make sure you are very well fed, and Europe's vast array of cuisine won't disappoint you!

Trip leaders
Our trips are all led by an experienced Trip Leader alongside a local specialist guide. Our Trip Leaders are very proud to work with Active Adventures and often lead our trips for many years, for which we are very lucky and very grateful, as it means we're able to consistently offer a fantastic level of service. They work closely with our local specialist guides to provide you with a seamless, fun, exciting and memorable trip. They will happily share with you as much or as little as you want to know about the history, culture, social aspects and lifestyle of the country you are visiting.

We generally take up to 18 people per trip, although this can vary, and all our trips have at least two of our guides to look after you (apart from the occasions we have a small group). We have found that our trips tend to attract a particular kind of person and many people have commented that the social scene was one of the highlights of their trip!

Once you've booked your trip, you'll have access to a gear list in your portal on exactly what to bring along. The gear list is carefully thought out to provide you with everything you need to be warm and happy, or cool and relaxed, whatever the weather! So it is best to bring everything we recommend along, if you don't bring everything you need, we can't guarantee your comfort.

If you have good ankles that will be able to cope pretty well with varied terrain, then good hiking shoes or sneakers should be fine, but if not then hiking boots will give you better support.

Austrian cuisine is most often associated with Viennese cuisine, with plenty of beef, pork, chicken, turkey and goose. The prominent Wiener Schnitzel, a thin, breaded and deep fried meat dish, is traditionally made of veal.
Breakfast in Austria usually consists of Semmel (a type of round bread roll) with butter, muesli, cold cuts of ham, smoked bacon (Speck), cut sausages, and a boiled egg. This usually comes with various cakes and pastries, jams, and coffee, tea, or fruit juice. The midday meal was traditionally the main meal of the day, though Austrians now work longer hours further from home therefore he main meal is now often taken in the evening. Tafelspitz is generally considered to be the national dish of Austria - a boiled beef broth which is served with horseradish, root vegetables, spices and minced apples.

We are accustomed to catering to the following special diets:

• vegan (no meat or animal products)
• vegetarian (no meat products)
• fishatarian (vegetarian, and eat fish)
• no red meat (eat chicken & fish)
• gluten intolerant (no wheat, rye, barley or oats)
• lactose intolerant (no dairy products)

You will get the opportunity to specify your particular requirements when you fill in our pre-trip questionnaire. If you have any other dietary requirements please let us know well in advance, via email or the online questionnaire.

The currency in Austria is the Euro €.

Our trips include all transportation, guiding, meals and activities (except where indicated on the itinerary). The only things you will definitely need cash for are drinks other than water (drinking water is fine to drink from the tap on all our trips), souvenirs and tips. 

Usually the easiest thing to do is use your credit or debit card to withdraw money directly from your home account, in local currency. There are plenty of ATM's and banks in larger towns in Austria, and ATM's will accept all major credit cards and many debit cards. Cash advances are the most convenient way to get cash.

For the majority of the summer season Austria is in the Central European (CET), which is 1 hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Austria operate on a 220V AC system with Plug Type C which consists of two round parallel pins while the wall plug has two holes where it is connected.

WiFi is available almost everywhere in cities and easy enough to find in most towns/villages so you can rely on having regularly access during your trip. If you have data roaming switched on, then you'll be able to use the internet on your smartphone, but beware of the fees! WiFi is available at most of the accommodations that you'll be staying at, sometimes for a small cost so check this out at each location when you arrive.

Weather conditions vary only slightly across Austria, with the lowland regions in the north and east having more continental influenced conditions with colder winters and hotter summers with moderate precipitation throughout the year. The southeastern areas of Austria have longer and warmer, almost Mediterranean-like summers. The winter snow cover lasts from late December through March in the valleys, with the coldest month being January sitting at an average of 10C (50F). Summer days can be hot, with temperatures reaching 30C (86F) though summer evenings are usually cool.

Please contact our New Zealand office using the details below. If the office is unattended (outside of New Zealand business hours), please leave a message so we can pick it up and respond as soon as we can.
Free phone 1 800 661 9073 (USA, Canada & Australia)
Free phone 0808 234 7780 (UK)
Free phone 0800 234 726 (New Zealand)
Worldwide +64 3 450 0414, ext 1
Email: service@activeadventures.com

Active Adventures & Austin Adventures family vacations are naturally about spending time with family and as such, most families opt to share rooms on our trips. At time of booking, families consisting of four guests with children aged 17 and under will be automatically assigned one shared room. However, the following alternative rooming allocations are available:

• Families consisting of four guests with all children aged 13 and above are welcome to opt for additional rooms as per advertised double occupancy adult rates.
• Families consisting of four guests with at least one child aged 12 and under are automatically assigned a shared room. However, families can opt to pay the adult rates for all guests in their family to have an additional room.
• The same principles apply for families consisting of more than four guests.

Rooming preferences are subject to availability and must be communicated in writing at time of booking. Automatic assignments as per this policy will be applied in the absence of any specification provided by guests. Any request for additional rooms during trips will be at the guests’ own expense and subject to rates made available by the accommodation provider at the time. All minors (guests aged 17 and under) must be accompanied by at least one adult.