Austria (German: Österreich, literally "the Eastern Realm" or "Eastern Empire") is a land-locked alpine country in Central Europe bordering with Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west, Germany and Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east and Slovenia and Italy to the south. In 2006 it was home to the first European CouchSurfing Collective.

Regions

Austria is a federal republic comprised of nine federal-states:

• Burgenland, capital Eisenstadt
• Carinthia (Kärnten), capital Klagenfurt
• Lower Austria (Niederösterreich), capital St. Pölten
• Salzburg, capital Salzburg
• Styria (Steiermark), capital Graz
• Tyrol (Tirol), capital Innsbruck
• Upper Austria (Oberösterreich), capital Linz
• Vienna (Wien), capital Vienna
• Vorarlberg, capital Bregenz

map of austria

Couchsurfing in Austria

Couchsurfing has a long history in Austria. After the International Weekend in 2005, in 2006 the first European CouchSurfing Collective was held here. As of March 2008 Austria has about 4.400 wonderful CouchSurfing members. Vienna is home to one of the most active CouchSurfing communities worldwide. Daily meetings, gatherings and parties make it a great place to live or spend time at. But other cities are well worth visiting too! Other cities with larger Couchsurfing communities are Graz, Linz, Innsbruck, Salzburg and Klagenfurt. In nearly every Austrian city, town and village you will nowadays find fellow CouchSurfing members.

Links to the Austrian Couchsurfing groups:

• Austria group
• Vienna group
• Upper Austria group
• Styria group
• Salzburg group
• Tyrol group
• Carinthia group
• Vorarlberg group
• Lower Austria group
• Burgenland group

Austrian CouchSurfing Ambassadors

Travelling through Austria

There are several popular ways of getting around in Austria.

Ridesharing

aka Carpool, car sharing, lift sharing, see Carpool on Wikipedia
Get into another one's car and share costs of fuel. There are several platforms to find a trip to join from a selected origin and destination.

• http://www.fahrmit.org (for all Europe, in German and English)
• http://www.mitfahrzentrale.at (in German, English and French)
• http://www.mitfahrboerse.at Mitfahrboerse.at (in German and English)
• http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.at (also for Germany and Switzerland, only in German)
• http://www.mitfahren.at (only in German)
• http://www.drivetogether.at (only in German)
• http://www.sh-asus.tugraz.at/mitfahren (only in German)

Trains

• Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB) (in German and English)

Places

• Vienna
• Graz
• Innsbruck
• Linz
• Salzburg
• Klagenfurt

Austrian CouchSurfers

are looking forward to getting to know you!

Trivia

• CS in Austrian Media

• Austria on wikitravel
• Austria on hitchwiki

Austria in pictures

Tips

Free Wireless Lan Hotspots.
This is for the couchsurfers who like to travel with their laptops.

• Helge's list (Various Regions & Vienna) started off as a simple blog entry in 2004 but thanks to other people helping Helge add to it, has turned into a list of a very decent size. Every item includes address and website and/or a short description. Some cafes provide the possibility to plug in your laptop (recharge battery). Please let him know if you find any additional hotspots around Austria.