Austria Food & Wine Tours
Austria pairs a grand café-and-pastry culture with a serious, modern wine scene: the coffee houses and Sachertorte of Vienna, the Grüner Veltliner and Riesling of the Wachau, the pumpkin-seed oil and Sauvignon Blanc of Styria, the beer halls of Salzburg and the Alpine food of Tyrol. This is our Austria hub. Choose a destination below, compare the top-rated experiences, and read our notes.
Top-rated food and wine experiences in Austria
Why Austria? Because it is one of Europe’s most underrated food-and-wine countries — a UNESCO coffee-house tradition, a white-wine scene to rival any, wine taverns you can walk to from the city, and a rich Alpine table.
Where to go: Vienna for food, coffee houses and city vineyards; the Wachau for Grüner Veltliner and Riesling; Salzburg for beer and Mozartkugel; Styria for pumpkin-seed oil and Sauvignon Blanc; and Tyrol for Alpine food.
What to taste: Wiener Schnitzel and Tafelspitz, Sachertorte and apple strudel, Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, Styrian pumpkin-seed oil, Salzburg beer, Tiroler Gröstl and speck.
Coffee, pastry and the Viennese table
Vienna is the heart of it: the coffee house, a UNESCO-listed institution where you linger for hours over a Melange and a slice of cake; the Sachertorte and apple strudel; the Würstelstand sausage stands; and the Wiener Schnitzel and Tafelspitz of the old imperial kitchen. Vienna is also the only major capital with real vineyards inside the city, tasted in its Heuriger wine taverns.
A great white-wine country
Austria makes some of the world’s finest dry whites. The Wachau, a UNESCO stretch of the Danube, grows Grüner Veltliner and Riesling on steep terraces; Styria in the south is Sauvignon Blanc country, the “Styrian Tuscany”, and the home of dark, nutty pumpkin-seed oil; and Burgenland, by the Neusiedlersee, makes the country’s best reds and sweet wines. Grüner Veltliner, peppery and fresh, is the national grape.
Beer, the Alps and when to go
The west turns to beer and mountain food: Salzburg‘s monastery beer halls and Mozartkugel, and the Alpine kitchen of Tyrol — speck, cheese dumplings and Kaiserschmarrn. Late spring to autumn is best for the wine and the terraces; the harvest is September–October, and autumn brings the new-wine Heuriger season. Winter adds the famous Christmas markets and their Glühwein.
Frequently asked questions
What wine is Austria known for?
Grüner Veltliner above all — fresh, peppery, food-friendly — plus world-class Riesling from the Wachau and Sauvignon Blanc from Styria, and good reds from Burgenland.
What is a Heuriger?
A Viennese wine tavern serving the grower’s own new wine with a cold buffet, in the vineyard villages on the edge of the city. See our Vienna wine page.
What should I eat in Austria?
Wiener Schnitzel and Tafelspitz, Sachertorte and apple strudel in Vienna; pumpkin-seed oil in Styria; and Tiroler Gröstl and speck in the Alps.
How we choose
We list only experiences with a strong rating over a meaningful number of reviews and free cancellation where available, and we favour small-group and family-run hosts. FindEatLocal earns a commission when you book through GetYourGuide or Viator links on this page; it doesn’t change the price you pay. More about how we choose.