During Salzburg’s princely heyday, the sale of salt filled its coffers. Today, at Austria’s biggest show mine, you can slip into a boiler suit and descend to the bowels of the earth. The tour aboard a rickety train passes through a maze of claustrophobic passageways, over the border to Germany and down a 27m slide – don’t brake, lift your legs and ask the guide to wax the slide for extra speed!
After crossing a salt lake on a wooden raft, a 42m slide brings you to the lowest point (210m underground) and back to good old Austria. Guided 70-minute tours depart every half-hour. Bus 41 runs from Hallein train station hourly on weekdays, less often at weekends.