Austria's romantic infrastructure is arguably the finest in Europe. Vienna's opera ball season, the Christmas markets around the Rathaus, and a private evening sleigh ride through the Vienna Woods are the capital's romantic contributions. But the Salzkammergut lake district — Hallstatt above its lake at dawn, the Wolfgangsee by boat, and the village inns that serve venison and local Riesling in rooms with lake views — is where Austrian romantic travel reaches its peak. A spa weekend at a Viennese Grandhotel, followed by a Staatsoper performance and a carriage ride home, is the Austrian honeymoon format that the country has been perfecting since the Habsburg era. A proposal in the formal gardens of Schönbrunn at the golden hour is a setting of unusual grandeur. That's where the magic happens.