Crappiest Spots:
Places You Don′t Want to Go in Austria - Part I

Fancy some cancer? Austria got some terrible places.

No doubt: There are plenty of scenic spots in Austria, areas of outstanding natural beauty as well as marvellous urban places no respectable traveller touring Europe ought to miss out on.

Austria has a lot of ugliness to offer

There are plenty of travel guides and brochures issued by the Austrian tourism mafia that will guide you to the best places. Yet, there are some spots in the country that tourists might want to avoid. Since I started this website in the spirit of providing honest information, a list of the crappiest spots of Austria just has to be included.

Here we go: Places you don′t want to see in Austria!

1.) Vienna

Let′s start with the worst - and at the same time the most popular. I have complained about Vienna quite enough in other articles here on TourMyCountry.com, so I′ll give it a break for now. Only this one: Vienna is the most self-centred, auto-affectionate dump in the World, full of sickening historicist architecture with the stink of Imperial, pompous and pathetic madness at every other corner. If you ask me, Vienna should be demolished and made a parking lot for Salzburg.

2.) Attnang-Puchheim

One of Upper Austria′s most important railway hubs, Attnang-Puchheim is not to be blamed for its own ugliness. Due to its strategic importance it was bombed to something like 50 AD in the course of WWII. Attnang-Puchheim′s claim to fame it that it was hit by the highest number of bombs per capita of any town in Austria - a trauma it never really recovered from. Today, it tries to promote itself as the "gate to the Salzkammergut". It is a gate that you want to pass quickly, though.

3.) Wiener Neustadt

Speaking of heavy bombardments during WWII, Wiener Neustadt was badly devastated, too. Similar to Attnang-Puchheim, it was also re-built in concrete during the 1950ies and 1960ies. What allied bombs and post-war concrete enthusiasm couldn′t spoil was finally messed up by heavy industries that made the place prosperous in recent decades, but hardly attractive to international visitors. If you really do want to go there, you can read on the few sights in the appropriate Wiener Neustadt article on this website.

4.) Wels & Surroundings

Surely, there are a few sights worth a visit in Wels; however, this is another one that was hit hard by industrialisation, bombs and more industrialisation. Today, Wels is an economic powerhouse of Upper Austria, but at best a stop-over destination for visitors. Attractions are concentrated in the historic town centre - beyond that, Wels has great potential to act as a tourist repellent for the entire region.

5.) Fucking

Let′s stay in Upper Austria. Despite of the somewhat misleading name, Fucking in Austria isn′t all that great. More a hamlet rather than a village, town or leisure, it attracts a significant number of visitors who want to get their picture taken next to the village′s name plate. Beyond that, there is absolutely nothing to see or do in Fucking.

6.) Podersdorf

The only place by the enormously large Lake Neusiedler See with direct access to the shore (elsewhere, reed segregates the crowds from the water) is utterly ugly. Water sport facilities and a vast camping lot ensure Podersdorf of a constant stream of Vienna′s "worst of working class" visitors. I shall refer British readers to the term "chaves" to draw a precise picture of the kind of people to expect in Podersdorf; readers from other parts of the World should just trust my suggestion to avoid Podersdof, the Burgenland′s tackiest beach resort.

Continue with "Crappiest Spots - Part II"


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Further Reading

Tourist Traps: Things NOT to do in Austria

Disgusted by Vienna: Why I dislike the Capital

Things I like, things I dislike about Austria

Lifestyle & Culture of Austria



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