Many people speak a kind of colloquial German in Austria, less Hochdeutsch than the average German. There are different words and even some grammar is different, but when you can communicate with Germans, you won't have many problems talking to Austrians. There is a different accent, but you find very different accents even within Germany (and Austria as well).

People in cities use normally less dialect than in the countryside. You can run into major problems when meeting people with a strong accent or dialect (Swiss and West-Austrian dialects and even accents are hard to get even for native speakers), but it won't happen that often. Moreover people will try their best German when talking to foreigners.

<a href="https://www.italki.com/discussion/215058" target="_blank">https://www.italki.com/discussion/215058</a>;

Good Luck!

It depends a lot on the people and where they are from in Austria. I remember giving an IT training once in the Vienna office of my then employer for three guys from some other part of the country (I don't remember where they came from). It was a nightmare. They were perfectly able to understand me but no matter how hard they tried I only understood half of what they were saying, and I'm a native German speaker. But to be honest: There are dialects within (mainly southern) Germany where I'd run into the same problem.

Thank you for the further responses, Alex and Kaori! It sounds as though Austrian dialects and accents should not cause too many problems while traveling. I feel reassured now :)

Hallo Taras,

Don't worry about Austrian dialects in Salzburg and Vienna for traveling.

They "usually" speak clearly and also English for tourists.

One of my Austrian friends said that they know how strong accent their dialects have, so when they speak "Hochdeutsch" they pronounce very clearly.

You might need some special words about foods and especially coffee sorts.

Du kannst solche Wörter im Internet googeln, und gut vorbereiten.

Gute Reise!