RV RENTAL AUSTRIA

AUSTRIA MOTORHOME RENTAL SPECIALS: If you place your Austria RV rental booking request with Motorvana online, our software will apply any relevant specials from the RV hire vendor as well as our own Motorvana QUANTUM online discount.

Book early to secure availability. Many clients book their Austria RV hire months in advance. Moreover, said discount tends to be higher the earlier a motorhome rental booking is made.

Austria is geopolitcally determined by Europe's longest river —the Danube (Donau) — in the north, by the magnificent Alps in the southwest (covering 62 percent of the nation), by the ancient and crucial salt mines in the north-central part of the country, and by the trifecta of Amber Road, Great Hungarian Plain (westernmost expression of the Eurasian Steppe) and western terminus of the wild Carpathian Mountains in the east. The capital city Vienna sits like god of the crossroads, where the Danube passes upon the strategic plain between the Carpathians and the Alps, slightly upriver from where the antique Amber Road crossed to connect the Baltics with Venice and the Mediterranean. In the 1240s the Mongols approached the gates of Vienna but were never able to attack the city. As the very linchpin between Western and Eastern Europe, city seems to be blessed. Paris–Vienna–Moscow: that is the east–west axis of the continent. Modern Austria sports six stunning national parks: Donau-Auen, Neusiedler See-Seewinkel, Gesäuse, Hohe Tauern, Kalkalpen, and Thayatal. The country is thick with culture and is a hiking and RV camping paradise.

Free camping (alias wild camping, boondocking), however, is not permitted and penalties on the order of EUR 500 apply. Yet you are permitted to free camp on private land if you receive the owner's permission. Some regions do allow you to overnight camp in parking lots.

Campfires are generally not allowed.

Austria, Italy, and Spain require an international driving permit (IDP) of drivers who do not hold a driver's license issued by a European country. Our RV rental vendors in these countries therefore require an IDP of such drivers. You can obtain an IDP from only your nation's automobile club (either directly at a local club office, the process taking only about 10 minutes, or online). Such permit proves that your driver's license is recognized by the authorities in your country and it maps the license to an internationally recognized category which on the IDP itself is numerically defined in terms of gross vehicle weight (GVW).

In Austria all expressways are subject to tolls in the form of a physical or digital vignette available in 10-day, 2-month and 1-year versions. For a campervan or typical motorhome (i.e. up to 3500 kg GVW) the mere passenger car price applies: about EUR10, EUR30, and EUR100, respectively. Physical vignettes (stickers) and digital vignettes can be obtained from the Austrian Automobile Club as well as post offices, news stands, and fuel stations. The vignettes are also sold at such outlets in neighbouring countries, most notably at Austria border entry points within those countries. Rental camper vans and motorhomes might come with a still-valid physical vignette affixed, thanks to a previous customer. These physical stickers are valid only if affixed to the windshield; simply possessing the sticker is not sufficient.

Digital versions of the Austrian vignette are also available at ASFINAG or via the ASFINAG app "Unterwegs"; however, a digital vignette purchased from ASFINAG is not valid immediately after the online purchase; due to consumer rights regulations the vignette becomes valid on the 18th day after the online purchase.

Some roads in Austria, such as the Tauern Tunnel between Salzburg and Carinthia, charge a special toll per passage.

If your motorhome's GVW is more than 3500 kg you must buy a "GO-Box" rather than a simple vignette to travel the tollways of Austria. A white box about the size of your palm, the GO-box should be affixed to the inside of the windscreen. The device logs the tollway distance traveled by the vehicle. (Electrical control points are located along the tollway and are queried by overhead DSRC microwave radio transceivers at different locations. Overhead 3-D infrared laser scanners detect and photograph vehicles travelling without the GO-Box.) A GO-Box initially costs EUR75. These devices are sold at most fuel stations on major roads approaching Austria. (In Germany, look for signs reading "GO Vertrieb".) The initial EUR75 is reduced each time the vehicle passes a tollway control point. As the credit drops below EUR30 the GO-box emits a warning signal. You can recharge the GO-Box as necessary. The fine for traveling said expressways without a charged Go-Box is EUR240. For more information, visit www.go-maut.at.

Located in the east of Austria, sophisticated Vienna is known for its artistic and intellectual legacy, having been the home of Beethoven, Mozart, Sigmund Freud and many other greats. Along with museums and buildings dedicated to these influential geniuses, you will find majestic imperial palaces, including Schönbrunn, which was the Habsburgs' summer residence. Vienna is still known for its art scene, so consider spending time in its many galleries. The Christmas markets are increible as well! Directly across the Danube is Danube-Auen National Park. Covering 93 square kilometers, the park is home to over 800 species of plants and animals and is one of the last wild floodplains in Central Europe. The best motorhome campsite near Vienna is Camping Wien West. Only 30 minutes from Vienna's city center, this campground offers bike rentals, delicious food, live entertainment, and a small playground for children.

A short drive southeast of Vienna, Lake Neusiedlis occupies the lowest point of the Little Hungarian Plain, at merely 115 meters above sea level. Here between the Alps and the Transdanubian Highlands and the Carpathians, Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park contrasts sharply with the mountainous images of Austria and is rich in biodiversity. Bird-watching, canoe trips, solar-powered boat tours, and bike trips are the norm in this marshy land. The courtship display of the great bustard is a must for bird watchers. This phenomenon takes place in the fen region of Waasen-Hanság from the beginning of April until the middle of May and can be observed very clearly. The bustard cockerel raises his white plumage and transform it into something resembling a white shuttlecock. Magnificent.

Westward on the Danube from Vienna is the Wachau Valley. This serene region is known for its vineyards, rolling hills and various fortresses. You can visit the castle above Dürnstein, wherein Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned, as well as the nearby Gottweig Abbey and Melk Abbey.

Still farther west on the Danube is the city of Linz, home to a vibrant music and arts scene blending traditional and contemporary. Still flush with beautiful manifestations of history — including a large main square and a quaint Old Town — Linz has become a pioneer of culture, art and technology, as expressed in its "museum of the future", the Ars Electronica Center. The AEC is a significant, worldclass hub for new media arts, attracting a large gathering of technologically oriented artists every year for the Ars Electronica Festival. The Linz harbor on the Danube doubles as one of Europe's biggest graffiti galleries. Linz was the European Capital of Culture in 2009, along with Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2014 Linz was accepted into the international network of UNESCO Creative Cities (UCCN) as a City of Media Arts. Currently 69 cities worldwide comprise the Creative Cities network, which is divided into seven thematic categories: literature, film, music, folk art, design, media art, and gastronomy. The title "City of Media Art" goes to cities which enrich urban life and successfully involve society in electronic art forms through the sponsorship and integration of media art. The seven other CMA are: Enghien-les-Bains, Lyon, Sapporo, Dakar, Gwangju, Tel Aviv-Yafo, and York.

Between Linz and Salzburg is the famed lake district Salzkammergut, literally "salt domain", which includes the Attersee, Traunsee, Wolfgangsee, Mondsee and Hallstätter See. In reality the lake region stretches into Bavaria, where you'll find the similar lakes Chiemsee, Starnberger See and Ammersee. The Attersee, also known as Kammersee, is the largest lake in Salzkammergut and is Austria’s third-largest by area. The lake is a great destination for water sports, including sailing, water-skiing and fishing. Crystal clear and up to 171 meters deep, Attersee is also excellent for scuba diving. Wolfgangsee offers several shore campgrounds. Numerous cable cars also exist in Salzkammergut. The Dachstein cable car near Obertraun on Hallstätter takes you up to an altitude of over 2000 meters. And the show caves on the Dachstein, as well as the salt mines at Hallstatt and Altaussee, are excellent destinations in themselves.

Salzburg. literally "Salttown", is situated in north central Austria, near the German border, not far from Munich. Hometown of Mozart, Salzburg features a Mozart museum, Baroque architecture, and one of the best-preserved old towns north of the Alps. The famous "Sound of Music" was filmed in and around Salzburg.

Let's talk about salt, baby.

The extreme importance of salt in the prehistoric and ancient world is itself preserved in myriad modern words. Nearly four pages of the Oxford English Dictionary are taken up by references to salt, more than any other food. Consider the following: save, salubrious, salary, salute, saliva, salient, sally, salvo, solemn, solid, soldier, soul, sea, and, yes, salmon, all from PIE root sol-, "whole, well-kept", which is intimately related to the PIE root sal-, "salt, grey, dirty; to leap". (The salt that sinks to the bottom of an evaporating pond is not the flakey white stuff that floats on top but the less pure, chunkier grey salt.) No coincidence the Roman goddess of welfare, health and prosperity was named Salus. A Roman soldier's pay, consisting in part of salt, was known as solarium argentum, where solarium means literally "that which is exposed to the sun" or else "sundial" and argentum means "silver". An unsatisfactory soldier was "not worth his salt". The word silver may be deeply connected to the PIE sol- and sal-. The source of the word silver is a mystery but the proto-Germanic silabur and seemingly more deeply the Basque word zilharr are involved. Silver has long been known to be germicidal. A silver coin in milk adds several days to the milk's freshness. Sailors, and settlers in both Australia and America, dropped silver in their water casks to delay spoilage by as much as several months.

The salt trade had been passing between Salzburg and Swabia, now in Germany, for centuries if not millenia. The trails wild animals made — especially to natural salty mineral licks and watering holes — served as the hunting paths predators and early humans alike used for hunting. Many or most of these trails became general paths and, later roads, used by prehistoric, ancient and then modern humans. The Romans built a road between Salzburg and the Swabian town of Augsburg. Founded by and named after Emperor Augustus in 15 BC, Augsburg is one of the oldest and most historically significant towns in Germany. Said road passed over the Isar River south of Munich, near Baierbrunn, and is now an outstanding bicycle path — the Römerstraße Via Julia, or Via Julia Radweg —connecting Salzburg via Chiemsee to Augsburg and on to Günzburg, Germany.

Hallstatt, Austria, sits on a narrow strip of land between the steep hillsides and the western shore of the Hallstätter See. The town is a many-faceted jewel of 16th-century Alpine houses and features a funicular to Salzwelten, the ancient salt mine with a subterranean salt lake and an impressive viewing platform. You can also spend a day hiking from Hallstatt to the Echern Valley Glacier Garden, which is graced with glacial potholes and the magnificent Waldbachstrub Waterfall.

In 1846 Johann Georg Ramsauer discovered a large, very ancient cemetery adjacent to Hallstatt. The excavation of the site would yield 1300 burials of about 2000 people. Unusually there are no royal burials in the cemetery, but the burials do vary considerably in the number and richness of the grave goods — with a high proportion containing goods suggestive of a life well above subsistence level. No corresponding settlement has been found but it could lie beneath present-day Hallstatt itself. The ancient community at Hallstatt was untypical of the wider, mainly farming culture it was part of, as the town's booming economy derived from the salt mines in the area. These mines had been worked from time to time since the Neolithic period (which ended about 4500 BC), with a peak from the 8th to 5th centuries BC. The Hallstatt culture is now considered the predominant Western and Central European culture of the Late Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and the Early Iron Age (Hallstatt C, Hallstatt D) from the 8th to 6th centuries BC, developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of its area by the La Tène culture. This is to say, the Urnfield–Hallstatt culture is the most likely source of Celtic culture. By the 6th century BC, Hallstatt culture had expanded widely east and west, covering much of western and central Europe. As is well known, parts of Britain and Iberia are included in the ultimate expansion of this culture. Yes, Hallstatt and its salt mines are at the core of Celtic culture.

Briefly turning our attention back eastward we encounter the large forests and myriad vineyards characterizing the southern state of Styria (Steiermark), considered the green heart of Austria. The riverside state capital Graz blends Renaissance and Baroque architecture with modern designs such as Murinsel, an artificial island made of glass and steel, and the otherworldly Kunsthaus, a contemporary art museum. Styria is also known for its many spas and castles.

Directly westward the neighboring state of Carinthia is a fairytale land. All the Carinthian lakes — Wörthersee, Ossiacher See, Millstätter See and Weißensee — are excellent for swimming. There are numerous lakeshore RV campgrounds throughout Carinthia. Wörtersee is the largest lake in Carinthia and popular with locals. The distinctively blue-green yet very transparent lake stretches from provincial capital Klagenfurt to Velden. There's a campground on the shore at Klagenfurt whereby you can enjoy both the lake and the lively life in Carinthia's largest city. In contrast, Weissensee is surrounded by high mountains and is more remote, but it still has three campgrounds.

To the west a good choice between Salzburg and Innsbruck is Grubhof Campsite. This award-winning campground boasts a restaurant, a wellness center, and a small playroom for children. The Lofer and Leogang mountains and the Berchtesgaden Alps also surround the campsite. Directly south is the highest mountain in Austria, the Großglockner, towering to 3798 meters. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road, a special toll road constructed in the early 1930s, rises via countless hairpin turns to an altitude of 2500 meters and stunning views of the Großglockner and of the Pasterze glacier. A bit farther west toward Innsbruck are Europe's tallest waterfalls, the Krimml, at 380 meters high. These falls are on the Krimmler Ache River near the village of Krimml in the High Tauern National Park.

Innsbruck, capital of Austria’s western state of Tyrol, is a renowned winter sports destination and well known for its imperial and modern architecture. Spend the day strolling the city before enjoying an evening of delicious cuisine among the Old Town lights. Innsbruck is moreover a university town and home to lively nightlife. Stay at Camping Innsbruck/Natterer See. Built over 90 years ago, this family-run campsite features a library, mini-market, private bathrooms, and children's entertainment.

Finally, the Silvretta High Alpine Road (Silvretta-Hochalpenstraße), known as "The Dream Road of the Alps", is a special toll road that covers 22.3 km using 34 hairpin curves to reach 2032 meters high and connect Tyrol's Paznaun Valley with Montafon Valley in the state of Vorarlberg.

Apart from our Motorvana QUANTUM online discount, the prices and policies presented on the Motorvana website match the prices and policies of our suppliers. You aren't paying extra by going through Motorvana — in fact you're paying less, thanks to our unilateral, QUANTUM discount.

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