Guide to Salzkammergut

Accommodations: There are few large hotels in the Salzkammergut, but smaller guest houses and numerous bed and breakfasts provide plenty of options for overnighters. Prices range from about $15 per person in a B&B; to $100 or so for a double room in the more exclusive inns. Restaurants are scattered everywhere.

What to do: The Hallstatt Salzbergwerk, or salt mine, is open during May and from mid-September to Oct. 15, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; from June 1 to Sept. 15, 9:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m. Admission for adults is about $8; for children 6 to 15 about $4, and for children 4 to 6 about $2.

The funicular railway opens a half-hour before the mine does and remains in service for 1 1/2 hours after the mine closes. The last ascent leaves one half-hour before the last mine tour. Round-trip tickets cost about $7 for adults, $3.50 for children 6 to 15. Children under 6 ride free.

Elsewhere in the Salzkammergut region, salt-mine tours are offered in Altaussee and Bad Ischl.

For more information: One of the best guidebooks to the area is the 320-page “Off the Beaten Track: Austria” (Perennial Library-Harper & Row, $12.95). Unfortunately, it does not list hotels or restaurants.

For more information about travel to the Salzkammergut or Austria in general, contact the Austrian National Tourist Office, 11601 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 2480, Los Angeles 90025, (213) 477-3332.