Here are the available villas for rental in Austria.

Healthy Austria - it's a gas

There's one corner of Europe so impossibly clean-living, you have to go there to believe it.

Bad Hofgastein is in Austria, a 90-minute drive from Salzburg in a lovely green valley with churning streams and orderly waterfalls that cascade prettily from the mountains. The air is so sharp, even in summer, that it stings the nose and inhaling it gives you a wonderful energy boost.
The town is ideal for singles, couples and families who want an outdoor holiday fairly close to home in a quiet, unspoilt setting.
As a 32-year-old, arriving was like stepping onto the set of the '80s movie Cocoon, which stars a community of near-death OAPs who suddenly grow perky after discovering a miracle cure for ageing. Few people in sight, barring shop and hotel staff, were under 50 and most were far older.
In winter it is a low-key ski resort. In summer seniors go there for their health, and in this corner of they take "wellness" very seriously indeed.
There are no midnight revellers shouting outside rowdy bars and no blaring music. It is a quiet place where the entire population, visitors and all, appears to go to bed by 10pm, and that takes into account going out for dinner and drinks.
By day, the Gastein valley in Salzburg province is a sweet shop of choice for health junkies of all abilities.
From Dorfgastein take a cable car to Fulseck where there's an invigorating three-hour trek across snow-topped hills that gives you a Zen-like feeling of balance.
The views on a clear day are gorgeous, patchwork hills and wooden chalets, and you honestly do sense the energy flow.
Mountain bikes are free to use for guests at four-star Hotel Osterreichischer Hof in Bad Hofgastein. The valley is largely flat with barely any traffic to negotiate. In two hours, a leafy route along the town's river passes a farm selling milk fresh from the udder, muddy pink pigs, fields of munching cows and banks of wild flowers.
Nothing in life, unless perhaps you were a miner, prepares you for the oddity that is Badgastein's main attraction.
The is a "curative" tunnel that by some quirk of nature contains pockets of apparently safe radon gas and caverns warmed by the subterranean flow of the valley's thermal spring.
A thriving health clinic has grown up around it. After a heart and blood pressure check by a very young doctor in a T-shirt, you brave the tunnel.
Wearing a swimsuit (or in the case of the Austrians, nothing) under a towel robe and slippers issued on arrival, you enter the tunnel in a yellow train driven by a man wearing tight swimming shorts and nothing else.
Passengers include the terminally ill and sprightly-looking pensioners taking a GP-approved course of radon exposure.
The 2.5km ride into the belly of the mountain is hot and oppressive, but sweating buckets for an hour while you lie alone, light-headed, on a wooden bench in a dark and musty cavern while a kindly doctor in teeny trunks periodically checks your pulse is plain weird. Throughout the entire experience talking is banned. The end is a blessed relief.
Your reward for all that discomfort is a sleep-inducing recuperative lie down on starched white sheets in a silent dormitory, with mesmerising views of waterfalls, empty green hills and clean sky. ... more

Take the high and winding road

It took five years to build, it costs 26 euros to use and it can take far too much energy to get up, but it is one of the world's most impressive passes.
The Grossglockner Road winds up through some of Austria's most stunning scenery and peaks at its tallest mountain.
You can walk, you can cycle, you can drive or be driven, but if you want to be king of the road, this has got to be one of the best places in the world.
Since Roman times, traders have traversed the eastern Alps - Austria's highest mountain range - to buy and sell goods in neighbouring Italy.
In 1930, work began to build an Alpine highway. It took 3,200 workers five years to complete the Hochalpenstrasse.
Today, more than a million people a year experience the drive up the Grossglockner Road, making it Austria's second-largest tourist attraction.
Driving up the Glockner highway's 48 hairpin bends can leave you feeling slightly nauseous in a coach.
That queasy feeling is transformed into a gnawing guilt when you watch the swarms of cyclists you're overtaking.
It's an arduous climb, but one undertaken by thousands of cyclists and motorcyclists each year on their way to the stunning views of the Grossglockner mountain and the Pasterze glacier.
If you haven't exercised to get up the Grossglocker Road, there's still quite a climb at the top to the Kaiser Franz Josefs Hohe museum. Or take the rickety steps down to the base of the glacier - a walk that gets further each year as the glacier recedes. ... more

The hills are alive

From the Daily Mail

The windows of the hotel were thrown open so that we could hear and see - how kind! - the band march past in the little Austrian Alpine town of Lofer, 30 miles south west of Salzburg.
There they went, down the main street, decked out in blue stockings, red garters, little brown coats and tall, brimmed hats - as if Ken Dodd had released his Diddymen into the mountains.
Evening brass band concerts are what pass for entertainment in these parts, though if you've spent all day hiking through the Alpine meadows, you may be too tired to put up much resistance.
Salzburgerland - the province of Salzburg - is an increasingly popular holiday destination for the British, now helped by direct flights with Ryanair from London Stansted.
Numbers are fairly evenly split between those who come in winter for the skiing, and the summer visitors who are here to enjoy the great outdoors.
They're all in good company, too, since the British Olympic Association has established a permanent training camp just outside Lofer.
Visitors can enjoy the stunning scenery while avoiding much of the hard work, thanks to a seven-day 'hiking without luggage' tour in the Saalach Valley, one of the nicest hiking areas in the Alps. ... more

Lots to do all year around

Sitting in the wide valley of the river Traun, this small town is surrounded by great mountains.
The small Muhlbach stream winds through the town with its many wooden piers, great for doing the odd spot of wading in the hot summer days.
There always seems to be something going on: mostly traditionaly Austrian folk festivals.
There are many good and cheap places to eat - all local delicacies too.
In winter the brilliant ski area of Dachstein-West is just a 15 minute drive away, starting from the village of Gosau.

Summer snow and part-time pros

From Teletext
If your mates aren't offering you the snowboarding competition you crave, maybe it's time to hang with the pros.
Every May an eclectic mix of pro boarders, industry journalists and distributors meet on a glacier in the Alps to assess what's hot and what's not for the coming winter.
The organisers are now hoping to lure a limited number of amateurs to the event so they too can offer their verdicts.
The summer snowboarding test is held on the Hintertux Glacier, Austria, and is organized by Document Snowboard magazine.
Hitting the slopes in the summer may sound optimistic but the glacier is a popular skiing resort 365 days a year.
The snow is surprisingly good, although it can get slushy later in the day. Heavy fresh falls are not uncommon over the summer, just don't count on them.
The number of runs on the glacier is limited but normally hits two figures, with intermediate ones the most common.
For the more experienced or ambitious boarder, the glacier also offers a snow fun park, with two half-pipes where you can perfect a few freestyle moves.
There are more than a hundred boards and plenty of bindings to choose from at the event. Take your pick, mix and match, then head up the slopes.
In return for the right to ride a bewildering variety of boards, from jibbers to swallow tails, you are expected to jot down a few comments about the equipment on a review card. The range of boots is more limited, so you might want to take your own. ... more