The Rough Guide to Austria

by Rough Guides, Jonathan Bousfield, Rob Humphreys

INTRODUCTION It’s the spectacular, snowcapped mountains of regions like the Tyrol that provide the most familiar images of Austria – a landscape of jagged peaks and rampaging rivers, giving way to green pastures studded with onion-domed churches. Yet Austria is by no means all alpine the country stretches across central Europe for some 700km, from the shores of the Bodensee in the west to the edge of the flat Hungarian plain in the east. Far removed from the archetype are the wetlands and reed beds of Burgenland, and the dramatic sequence of stopes that carve their way up the Erzberg in Styria. In Upper and Lower Austria in particular, a predominantly low-key landscape of gentle rolling hills and vineyards can come as something of a surprise to first-time visitors. Yet this fertile, low-lying northern half of the country is, in fact, where the majority of Austrians live and work, many of them within commuting distance of the capital, Vienna – the country’s chief tourist destination after the alpine regions. For all its bucolic charm and fondness for the days of empire, when Vienna sat at the centre of the vast, multinational Habsburg dynasty, Austria today is thoroughly modern, clean, efficient and eminently civilized, with uniformly excellent tourist facilities. Like neighbouring Switzerland, it’s also a supremely law-abiding nation, where no one jaywalks or drops litter, and the trains and trams run on time. Whether you’re staying in one of the popular skiing, hiking or spa resorts, or in an out-of-the-way Gasthof, you’re likely to experience "Gemütlichkeit" – a typically Austrian term expressing a mixture of cosiness and hospitality – at some point during your visit. Looking at the country at the close of the twentieth century – stable, conservative and wealthy – you wouldn’t think that Austria had spent the first half of the century struggling to find a national identity. After all, it was only in 1918, when the Habsburg Empire disintegrated, that the idea of a modern Austrian nation was born. The new republic, with a population of just eight million reluctant citizens, was riven by left- and right-wing political violence and, as a result, the majority of Austrians were wildly enthusiastic about the Anschluss with Nazi Germany in 1938. The price of Austria’s participation, and ultimately defeat, in World War II, however, was Allied occupation. For ten years the country was split, like Germany, into Soviet, American, British and French zones. As a gesture of détente, the Soviets finally agreed to withdraw their troops, in return for Austria’s "permanent neutrality". At this point, Austria turned over a new leaf, and recast itself as a model of consensus politics, with an almost Scandinavian emphasis on social policy as the guiding principle of national life. Postwar stability saw the growth of a genuine patriotism, while the end of the Cold War put the country, and its capital, back at the heart of Europe. In 1995, Austria became a full member of the European Union, a move that for many was a sign that the country had finally entered the mainstream of European politics. From time to time, Austria’s more reactionary elements have attracted widespread media attention, most notably during the Waldheim affair, when the wartime record of the president was called into question, and in the recent rise of the Far Right under the charismatic Jörg Haider. But the reality is that the Socialist party retains the strongest influence in government, as it has for much of the postwar period, and the country’s political stability, for the most part, continues intact.

Genres: Travel

624 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Founded in 1982, Rough Guides Ltd is a British publisher of print and digital guide book, phrasebooks and inspirational travel reference books, and a provider of personalised trips. Since November 2017, Rough Guides has been owned by APA Publications UK Ltd, the parent company of Insight Guides.
With the company's personalised trip service encompassing over eighty destinations, and 200 guidebooks covering 180 destinations, Rough Guides is a multi-faceted travel platform, with global sales of 100 million guidebooks since their inception.

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stuffed with information, though in a typeface a little smaller than I'd optimally like. Both practical and inspirational, the Rough Guides are short on photos and long on specifics: addresses, phone numbers, prices, etc. As might be expected, the details are not always correct, since opening times and whatnot tend to change. However, I give this guidebook series an "A" for effort -- they do update the guides frequently. Just be sure to be carrying the most recent one.

One thing I particularly like which sets this guidebook series apart from others is the bibliography at the end. I read voraciously on most places I'm planning to go to, so I find the RG book suggestions -- everything from history to literature to culture -- to be quite useful.

[Jack Hrkach · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating of a Rough Guide is usually higher than two stars. I try on Goodreads to not exaggerate a book's importance to me, so too many may fall in that third star category, which for me covers most reading. Four stars means that a book has really got to me; five stars I reserve for only the finest books I have read in my life.

Full Rough Guides give me great satisfaction. I was surprised that there wasn't a Rough Guide dealing with Austria, so I ordered this one (cost me only $4.99 in the Kindle store), but as soon as I began it - I've written before of travel gooks/guides that I do not usually read the entire book, just about the places in it I plan to visit, and perhaps others that I may want to visit - I remembered that I had ordered another such "on a budget" guide and that it was almost completely useless. So was this. Very little info, very few places to stay - "budget" is key and while I am a budget traveler I no longer care to bunk in a room with 8 strangers (actually I never DID care for that - my years in the US Air Force taught me well in that regard) - not nearly enough to justify even the small sum I paid for it.

Do NOT decide against reading Rough Guides based on this. Almost all that I have read are among the finest travel guides I could hope for. But if you expect anything more than the most basic information, stay away from this one.