• The Alps constitute approximately 60% of Austria's surface area. It is one of Europe's major destinations for winter sports: skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing, sleigh rides, curling or skating are all available and with great facilities.

• Take an old 19th-century steam train and gaze at some picturesque Austrian scenery, including the famous and beautiful village of St Wolfgang in Salzkammergut.

• Once the snow has melted, walk and hike through the Alps' varied landscapes, ranging from forests and green slopes to glaciers and rocks. The Vorarlberg's alpine pastures provide gentle walks, while the Hohe Tauern National Park has more demanding trekking.

• Go to the Opera in style; besides the many opera performances in Austria's major towns and cities, for one with a difference, journey to Bregenz and the Upper City with its St Martinstrum (St Martin's Tower), the world's largest floating stage for summer opera productions.

• Climb the peaks of the Alps; for the very adventurous, combine this with a spot of hang-gliding.

• Tour through one of Austria's wine-growing regions, such as Lower Austria, Southern Styria and the Burgenland; most wines, such as the well-known Riesling wine, are white, but there also some good red wines from Baden and Burgenland.

• Relax and watch the world go by as you submit to Austria's Kaffeehaus (coffee shop) culture: cakes and puddings (such as Torte, of which there are around 60 varieties) can be eaten guilt-free, knowing that it is all in the name of upholding a national institution.

• Dance the night away with elegance at a recreation of a traditional Austrian ball, at the annual Johann Strauss Ball, which takes place in a beautiful ballroom within the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.

• Admire traditional Austrian attire at the annual Lederhosen Festival in Windischgarsten, where the wearing of the aforementioned costume is optional, but drinking good beer and chuckling at the election of ‘Miss Lederhose' is compulsory.

• Listen to classical music in the city that produced Mozart: the Salzburg Festival (website: www.salzburgfestival.at) provides a varied programme, from singers, actors, orchestras and opera, with a breathtaking baroque backdrop to boot.

• Take in a Euro 2008 football match. Austria is hosting the event jointly with Switzerland for three weeks in June 2008, with venues in Vienna, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Innsbruck. For more information, contact Uefa (website: www.uefa.com).

• Be a culture vulture and party with Linz as it stages a year-long celebration of events marking it European Capital of Culture in 2009 (website: www.linz09.at). Stay in a Pixelhotel room - the whole town is turning itself into a hotel, and rooms will be scattered across the town in locations as unique as industrial warehouses, shops and residential districts.

• Play golf (website: www.golfinfo.at) on nearly 150 courses in what is one of Europe's fastest-growing golf destinations, with settings from the grounds of historic castles to alpine valleys and terraces.

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.