This section is dedicated to take away all your "I wish someone had told me that before I went!" experiences. This way, you can spend less time settling in, and more time making new friends in your chosen hostel.
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and the capital of the state Oberösterreich (Upper Austria), located about thirty kilometres south of the Czech border. While Linz does not exactly suffer from the tourist overload like Vienna, Salzburg, or Innsbruck, there are still plenty of interesting sights to check out while you are there.
Some of the most famous are Ars Electronica Center (center of electronic arts), Mariendom/Neuer Dom Linz (New Cathedral -- the largest church in Austria), Alter Dom (the largest Baroque church in the city), Schlossmuseum (Linz castle and castle museum), Hauptplatz (main square), Pöstlingbergbahn (mountain tramway that connects city centre with Pöstlingberg district), Grottenbahn (an electric train ride through a fairyland, located on the Pöstlingberg Hill), Lentos Kunstmuseum (museum of modern art), Linzer Tiergarten (zoo), and botanical garden on the Gugl. While there you might also want to visit the Mauthausen Memorial, a concentration camp memorial museum, located around twenty kilometres east of Linz.
If you are planning on visiting a couple or perhaps all of the above attractions, buying a special
Linz card might be a good idea. You can choose between a one-day or a three-day ticket, which gives you free admission to museums and exhibitions, various discounts, and free unlimited use of public transportation during the time your Linz card is valid.
Even though Linz is relatively well known and offers various interesting sights, your Linz hostel options are actually very limited. Besides a few hostels in Linz, the accommodation is predominantly hotels. Fortunately, the hostels in Linz are quite nice and not too far from the main train station and the old city centre -- not that moving around the city represents a problem, though. Linz, like all major Austrian cities has a good public transport system, consisting of buses, trams, and trolleybuses, which makes exploring the town easy and pleasant.
Written by local expertz for Linz
chaser