This baroque town is one of our favorites, partly because its setting is so dramatic—on the narrow shore between Hallstatter Lake and the sheer face of a cliff, an easy-to-reach 30 mi/50 km southeast of Salzburg. The train station is on the opposite side of the lake, so many visitors are brought into town by boat. The town is also accessible by highway, although there is limited public parking.
Hallstatt has the World Cultural Heritage Museum (Celtic artifacts dating from the Iron Age) and the eerie Beinhaus (Bone House), located in the 12th-century St. Michael's Chapel, which has row upon row of decorated skulls. Nearby are the 2,800-year-old Salzwelten salt mines (open April-October) and the two huge Dachstein caves (called Ice Cave and Mammoth Cave).
