I am going to be visiting Austria in June and will probably be doing a little solo siteseeing and travelling.

This will be my first trip to country where English is not the primary spoken language.

My question is, as an English-only speaker, how challenging will it be for me to find my way around places like Vienna and Salzburg, and especially the metro and train systems?

I will be buying some travel books, but wanted to also get some opinions here.

Thanks!

In and around the major cities you mentioned you won't have any problems. Signage is good and relatively easy to understand. Invest in a basic phrasebook and learn some key phrases in German and you'll be fine. You will find that most folks you encounter in a service capacity will speak at least a little english.
Have a good trip, the Austrian's are a freindly bunch.

Do get a phrase book as it'll help. Most people speak some english in the major cities.

As far as Austrian friendliness go, I've heard through friends, read in books and here on Flyertalk that they can be very bigoted towards foreigners - even towards whites (northern European) - especially in the rural areas (same can be said for the U.S., Canada and Japan, among other places, I suppose) though I haven't had the opportunity to meet too many Austrians in such areas. Just be aware of those around you and know when to leave if you feel unwelcome. I say that even though my GF is ethnic Austrian and her parents and all her extended family are native Austrians.

I am sorry Terenz , I do not want to be impolite, but I have not read such nonsense for a long time.

Austria is well known for its welcome towards tourists. The most demanding customers are probably the Swiss, (not very friendly themselves, by the way) and they choose Austria as their favourite winter vacation place because of Austrian hospitality.

As far as language is concerned, Austria has excellent schools and they learn English at a quite early age. Many will not speak English fluently but will direct you to the right person if they cannot cope. At least they will try.

Go to Austria, you will be met everywhere politely and as you asked, Salzburg and Vienna receive thousands of English speaking tourists every year and I have never heard of a single tourist in difficulty because of lack of language.

Remember that Austria is not a third world country with no schools and education. As a matter of fact, they could teach many a thing or two.

By the way, you also will not have to worry being attacked or shot at as in the US.

Sorry if I touched a sensitive bone but I stand by what I said.

Most of the older persons in my GF's family (people 40+ - her and paren'ts generation) have very limited, if any, English. This is rural Austria we're talking about - not the major tourist/commercial/financial centres. You certainly don't distinguish between rural and urban. I don't doubt Austria has a good education system but you can teach a foreign language all you want but if there is no reason to practise, it becomes rusty all very quickly (much like how much French is spoken in english-speaking Canada).

As for attacks, I have come across potentially very dangerous situations due to my appearance in Denmark and the U.K. that I can recall right now. It can happen anywhere and Europe is no stranger to attacks on visible minorities.

BTW, I was in Wien only last month.

June is a great time to go to Vienna (Wien in German). You should have absolutly no problems with getting around, the tourist infrastructure is very developed, many people speak excellent English (although any attempt to learn German is always appriciated) and is overall a nice place. To avoid offence, always greet shop owners, especially outside of Vienna with 'Gruess Gott' and say 'Auf Wiedersehen' when leaving. It is a really small thing that goes really far. The only places I have been in Austria where not speaking any German would be a problem are small villages, where although they understand my Berlin-accented German, I often have no idea what they are saying to me. The U-Bahn (Subway), S-Bahn (suburban light-rail) and Tram systems of Vienna are easy to use, and the ticket machines have directions in English. Off the record, you really don't have to buy a ticket, my girlfriend lived in Vienna for six months, rode the tram every day, and was never checked. But if you are caught, it is 40 EUR fine on the spot.

If you are flying into VIE, take the S-Bahn into the city, not the CAT. Although the CAT is a little faster, it costs three times the price of an S-Bahn ticket (on the route to the airport, your ticket will most definatly be checked). Spend the Euros you save on a good Viennese coffeehouse.

Sorry Terenz, I don't know how you look like... I understood what you said about rural areas and English, FlyingHawaiian was asking about Salzburg and Vienna... He will have no problems with English there, for sure.

Thank you (Danke) all for your comments and insight - it's been a great help in planning my trip. ^^^

You should have no problem with the language, as my wife didn't speak a word, and had no trouble. And, every time, it seemed, I tried to speak to them in German--remembering it from some 30 years ago, they always responded back in English.

But, in addition to learning the basic phrases, you really have to learn the names of all their coffees if you plan to hit any of them. Even though they know what a cappuccino is, you have to call it, IIRC, an einspaenner. Even "mit schlag" didn't seem to work for me--they wouldn't let me describe it, I had to name it. But, coffeehouses are a big tradition in Viennna and they hold to a certain decorum. We enjoyed it, as I'm sure you will.

And, I do second taking the S-bahn. If memory serves, it was 3 Euros vs 9, even though it takes 29 minutes vs 16, back in December.

It's the S-7 line IIRC which takes you to Wien Mitte (less then 200' from the Hilton Vienna) and it was EUR 3 as of last month and CAT was EUR 9. I think it takes 9 minutes longer than the CAT which stops further away in Mitte (from the Hilton).

No worries. It's just that I know FlyinHawaiian is the same ethnicity as me so at least some caution is warranted. FWIW, my GF's nephew recently spent nearly 2 weeks in Austria visiting his extended family. He looks like your typical germanic Austrian (tall, blonde, fair) so has no problems (and as he's with family...). While a good many of his numerous 2nd cousins (toddlers to 30+) do speak/understand at least some English, it's very marginal even for those who went to school in Vienna let alone the ones from the rural Salzkammergut (the older generations, as I earlier said, speak very little if any). Good thing the nephew has been learning German from his grandmother.


As you discovered, not only is the German spoken accented (even in Vienna) but dialects are also spoken everywhere and are very localised to boot (different valleys have different dialects). One of my GF's lifelong Viennese cousins can't understand the rural dialect spoken in her husband's home province of Carinthia. FWIW, the dialect spoken in the westernmost province of Austria is an Allemanic dialect akin to the "German" spoken in Switzerland and is not comprehensible to many other Austrians.