I’m not sure I have been anywhere quite as picture perfect as Hallstatt. You would really need a hard heart not to swoon at the incredible mixture of the town, lake and Alpine peaks, especially if you arrive by train and have to bob across the water from the station to the town centre.

Hallstatt is certainly small, but a little larger than I had expected, which was good in absorbing the large number of people visiting. I rather enjoyed ducking off down little side streets and climbing up flights of steps to find new viewpoints. One of the highlights of these explorations was the Beinhaus, which was home to the decorated exhumed skulls of the town’s former inhabitants.

Like the others here I enjoyed the museum in the centre which does a great job of explaining why this whole area is a world heritage site. It is especially good at highlighting the importance of the area during the Hallstatt era (3,000 thousand years ago). Its displays showed that this place wasn’t on the World Heritage List just because it looks quite pretty, but rather that at one stage it was the centre of a large cultural sphere. In saying that the interesting exhibits on the areas mining heritage couldn’t convince me to stump up the high fees to visit the Salt Mines above town.

The cost of a visit is one thing to keep in mind if you are visiting, my day trip from Salzburg ended up being one of the more expensive excursions I have made in hunting out WHS towns. I guess this is due to its remote mountain location, however the general attrition of mounting small fees and things being just that bit more expensive than I thought they were worth did somewhat detract from the overall experience.

On the whole I did enjoy my trip out to one of the most picturesque places I have ever visited, and I would thoroughly recommend a trip to the lovely little museum which explains why this place has been important for thousands of years.

[Site 7: Experience 6]