09Spring: Austria-Lodging

Vienna - Hotel Altantis - USD85/night via Hotels.com
Pros: 10mins walk from Train West Station - "Wien Westbahnhof"; a block away from subway which you can travel to city center in 5 mins (buy the 24-hr pass, you don't want to walk all day anyway, so away from the center is not an issue); clean; a true 3-star hotel quality & service; next door to a mall which has a nice Supermarket. Recommend.
Cons: Quite hard to find it from the Westbahnhof, we passed it coz it was on a side street. Um...look for "Luna City"...anyway sth like that..it's a 24-hr or late night place to hang out...nothing dangerous over there. Besides this, the only drawback is no decent restaurants within walking distance (but I bet you will have dinner in the city center, so that won't be an issue). Breakfast is not included, so tell them you don't want it when you check-in.

Hallstatt - GuestHouse Simony - €55 Double/night + Breakfast
Pros: Next to the lake, nearby the pier, generous breakfast buffet (plenty of cheese, ham, fruits to choose even just a handful of guests).
Cons: Guesthouse is a little bit old, but has nice characters. Mingle with locals or get a room has the lake view will make your stay more joyful.

Salzburg - Pension Elisabeth - €48 Double/night
Pros: Can't think of any, but glad that we have this replacement.
Cons: It's very hard to find for the bridge that take you to the other side of the train station. We spent 20mins to figure out that the bridge is not at the building or outside of the train station. Actually, the bridge is on the train platform (where the train comes and goes)! I think it will be easier if we arrive Salzburg by train rather by bus. Dragging bags up a steep steel staircase was not interesting and spending more than 30mins to find the pension (with the direction provided by the pension) drove me crazy. Pension is very far from the city center, you will have to take the (only one!) hourly bus to go to the center and come back. Not fun at all unless you have plenty of time to spent in Salzburg. I would pay $20 more to stay at the center or the nice and modern Ramada at the bus/train station.

For "Haus Lechner" at Salzburg - No! They messed up our booking and has no room for us! After making couple International phone calls with Lechner and still no resolution. They didn't even help us to find a replacement, so irresponsible! End up we found a room at Pension Elisabeth which is a block away.