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Hey Everyone, the wife and I are planning a trip to Austria and northern Italy in August. The plan is pretty loose right now, a ten day trip, probably 5 days in Austria, thinking of starting in Vienna and moving east to Salzburg and then south to Italy. I was just wondering if anyone had any brewery, winery, or hiking trail recommendations? I've obviously read a bit but would really like some first hand recommendations.

We spent three days in Vienna last year - a great place to visit. You can easily spend an entire day at Schönbrunn Palace, including wandering the grounds (which is free). The tours aren't free but we got all-in tickets and they were worth it. Beer-wise there isn't a lot going on. Beer Store Vienna (http://www.beerstorevienna.at/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) is your best bet to pick up any local micro bottles. You can even drink on site. The guys working there were really nice and very helpful. They had Steamworks available, which was hilarious. I guess the Steamworks owner is cousins with a beer distributor in Bavaria or something like that.

Mel's Craft Beers and Diner was good with a decent number of taps. I was told by a local beer guy that it's one of the only places you can get flights, which come with tasty free bread. We also went to 1516 Brewing, a brewpub. Decent food and some pretty fun glassware that you can buy.

Not sure if you'll need data, but if you have an unlocked phone you can buy a one week pre-paid phone plan at any A1 shop for about 10 Euro, including the sim card and more data than you can use. I think it was called B.free internet, but it did include a phone number and some number of minutes that we never used.

http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Austria" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

From what we read Salzburg is a lot more touristy and smaller, yet more crowded. We never stopped, but for what it's worth we'd go back to Vienna without hesitation.

Wife and I did a Euro trip a couple of years ago, and hit up Austria as part of that trip. We didn't love Vienna. As the seat of government, it's a little "stiff". To be fair though, it does certainly have a lot of good cultural institutions and the Naschmarkt is pretty cool.

We much preferred Innsbruck. It was actually our favourite stop on our trip, and we ended up extending our stay there by a couple of days at the expense of time in Vienna (we were going the other direction), and were very glad we did. Ironically, we had originally added Innsbruck to the itinerary as an opportunity to go skiing for a day, but in the end we didn't ski. There is a lot to do there, especially if you're looking for outdoorsy stuff. The highlight of our Euro trip was hiking up to Maria Waldrast, a monastery. It's actually in Fulpmes, a small ski community outside of Innsbruck. It was a challenging hike, made worse by the fact that all these super-fit-80-year-old-Austrians will power past you, but it's beautiful, and the beer and meal at the monastery tastes absolutely delicious after a big hike. Depending on where you're heading in Italy, Innsbruck would be on your way.

As for beer, this part of the world generally doesn't have a lot of selection. Each town or region has its one brewery, which puts out very traditional beers in maybe two or three varieties (some sort of lager or pilsner, and some sort of dark beer). That being said, beer is always top quality and very cheap by our standards. Beer is a very enjoyable commodity, rather than an adventure in taste. We couldn't find any breweries that did tours.

Awesome, thanks so much for the feedback so far! We'll definitely look into the suggestions. Pretty excited about the whole thing.

Way back when, I went to 1516 Brewpub too, funny to see that name again! Still have my Weiss glass from them on my shelf of honour.

Don't remember much else from there, I'd stopped there to pick up a friend before a couple of days in Munich for Okoberfest.

The timing on this is funny, i was in Austria for work last week and was looking for the same stuff. I spent Friday night first at Beerlovers, a craft beer store where the service was great. One of the staffers, an ex-American, walked me through the store and they had a great selection of European craft. I picked up a few bottles of what they recommended for Slovakian craft brewer (Pohjala) and Austrian craft beer (Bevog), I quite enjoyed the pale ale from Bevog.

They recommended to go to Hawidere, a pub/burger place with craft on tap. Overall I wasn't in love with the burgers or the beer, I myself wouldn't go back.

This article would help:
http://www.viennawurstelstand.com/food- ... crowd.html

Have fun!

Yes, I should also mention I stopped at Beerlovers. For Austrian micros the best, by far, is Beer Store Vienna, but Beerlovers does have a bigger, wider selection.

Pro tip - if you're looking for something special, there's this one beer with no label and a yellow cap that they sometimes stock at Beerlovers. I had to ask for it, they hummed and hawed a bit, went out back, then let me buy two bottles.

Re: Italy, if you're in Milan you must go to Birrificio Lambrate, maybe the first modern brewpub in Italy. Also: LambicZoon—one of the best beer bars I've been to in Europe (and the owner is really kind).

Turin & Piedmont wine country is kind of all about Baladin, but that's a good thing. Their new bar in Turin is pretty cool and their strange little Inn, Casa Baladin, in Piozzo is worth a stay over IMO.

If you're near Como, north of Milan, stop in to Birrificio Italiano for a Tipo Pils. Probably the best pils on planet Earth and worth a detour.

Haven't been myself yet, but LoverBeer is a pretty amazing brewery; they make naturally-fermented beers inoculated with only grape must (usually in large quantities).

Awesome info so far everyone, I really appreciate the advice!

Hey Everyone I just wanted to say thanks for the recommendations; I checked out Beer Lovers in Vienna, Did the Maria Waldrast Monastery hike outside Innsbruck, and went to Birrificio Como. The trip was awesome and the advice certainly helped!


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Ohhh I went to 1516 brew pub too, nice spot. And Toni I tried the yellow cap pro tip but no dice.


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SFR709 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 23, 2017 3:20 pm

Ohhh I went to 1516 brew pub too, nice spot. And Toni I tried the yellow cap pro tip but no dice.


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Glad you had fun! Too bad you couldn't get any Westy. Probably because Stillwell was having it shipped here for Sunday!