Tour guide tips and other essential information

The official language in Austria is German, but English is spoken everywhere. Almost 8.2 million people call Austria home. The winters are cold, snowy and wet and the summers are warm and delightfully comfortable. The biggest city is Vienna, followed by Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is a member of the European Union and the United Nations, and has signed the Schengen agreement, which standardizes border controls and allows unlimited travel without a visa in member countries.

It's easy to think you can travel on your own in Austria and a lot of people do just that, but a guide service pays for itself over and over again, not only because they know where to go, but because they design the trip around your travel preferences. A reliable tour guide team like ours can help you in the planning stage of the trip by giving you valuable information about local customs, language, tourist traps, the climate, transportation, and quick facts about each city you're visiting, as well as the current media and political information that may impact your trip. Our team of professional tour guides will save you money on money exchange, sleeping accommodations, meals, transportation, souvenirs and other purchases. Our guide service will direct you to markets like Naschmarkt in Vienna, and similar markets in other cities, which offer reasonably priced items you might need while you're traveling. We help you shop where the locals shop. Value is our main concern and one of the best ways to find value in Austria is to listen to our seasoned tour guides; they know how to save money.

Some of the tips we offer our clients are simple ones, which only locals know like making lunch your main meal, especially if you're on a tight budget. Most Austrian restaurants offer cheaper prices at lunch; the locals take a long lunch and eat a snack or a sandwich for dinner, which saves them money. If you want to buy groceries, buy where the locals buy. Hofer and Zielpunkt are the best value markets, but Spar and Billa are available if you don't mind paying a little more. Spar and Billa are more upscale; they have gourmet departments, where you can get fresh bread, cheese, fruit and vegetables.

If you want to visit multiple cities on your trip, our guide service offers you excursions like: The Three lake Tour of the Salzkammergut, and The Tyrolian Alps Tour, as well as Vienna City Walks, and the Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg, plus many other exciting Austrian adventures.

Another important thing to remember about our guide services is we like to break away from the mundane tours that don't expose you to local lifestyles in Austria. It's important to experience the real Austria on your vacation, and when you interact with the people of Austria, you make it very real. Visiting local cafes and spending time talking to the people will make your Austrian holiday an exciting and incredibly unique experience.

Generally speaking it's always best to stay away from crowds; they tend to push prices up regardless of the venue. If you want to eat a cheap meal, try the Mensa, which has franchised university canteens in different cities. If you like beer and want to buy it by the can, the Hofer supermarkets sell it cheaper than bottled water. It's legal to drink in almost all the public places in Austria (except for the major train stations!), so you can bring your favorite brew anywhere.

More tips by GuidedTours^AT

One very important issue when traveling to a foreign country is the way you would like to do your money exchange. Our team has collected some important information on the topics of money exchange and currency trading that you will find on a separate page about money exchange in Austria. Furthermore, when travelling to Austria it might be a good idea to be informed about the right way to behave. In order to help you, we have prepared a tip section with valuable information about proper etiquette in Austria. Should you have questions about these or other topics related to your holidays in Austria, please feel free to ask us anytime at !