Salzburg, worth the trip twice over.
The old town on foot, Mozart after dark, the Sound of Music lakes and the long day out to Hallstatt. What each tour is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven bookings you won’t regret.
First visit or fifth, these carry the trip. The film-location coach out to the lakes, a candlelit Mozart concert in the fortress, the strudel class that ends in lunch, and the day the whole family remembers.
Original Sound of Music Tour
A half-day Salzburg Sound of Music tour with movie filming locations, live guide in English, and songs from the original soundtrack.
From $88 per person
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★ 4.6Safe betSalzburg Cathedral: Organ Concert at MiddayFrom $102,007 reviews
★ 4.5Books out fastBest of Mozart Fortress Concert and DinnerFrom $931,424 reviews
★ 4.5A local favouriteSkip-the-Line: Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden Tour from SalzburgFrom $1261,212 reviews
★ 4.7Worth the fareAmphibious Splash Tour on Land & on WaterFrom $491,097 reviews
★ 4.5Easy winHallstatt Half-Day Tour from SalzburgFrom $1021,033 reviews
★ 4.2Traveller favouriteSalzburg 2.5-Hour Walking Tour: Mozart, Old Town & MoreFrom $53987 reviews
The hills really are alive.
Mirabell Gardens where they sang the scales, the gazebo from Sixteen Going on Seventeen, Leopoldskron mirrored in its lake, then out through the Salzkammergut to Mondsee church. Sixty years on, the coach still fills every morning, and a good guide knows every note of it.
You have one free day. Where does it go?
Salzburg is small, and the region around it is not. Three very different days out, each an easy morning from the old town. Pick the one that sounds like your trip, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
The postcard one
Hallstatt on the lake
5h 30m · from $100 · 3,596 reviews
The village every camera roll ends up chasing: pastel houses stacked above a mirror lake, the skywalk above the salt mine, swans on the water below the church. Ninety minutes each way, so a half day leaves time to actually wander it. Go early, before the afternoon coaches arrive.
See the Hallstatt days →
History and heights
The Eagle’s Nest
4h 30m · from $123 · 1,455 reviews
Over the German border into Berchtesgaden: the Kehlsteinhaus perched on its ridge, the sobering Obersalzberg documentation centre below it, and the emerald Konigssee threading between cliffs. A day that carries real weight, told properly by guides who know the whole story.
See the Berchtesgaden days →
The scenic drive
The lake district
12 hours · from $151 · 126 reviews
The gentler day out. Wolfgangsee and Fuschlsee strung along the valley, St Gilgen where Mozart’s mother was born, a lake steamer and a mountain cog railway if the weather holds. Less march, more meander, with a coffee stop worth the seat by the window.
See the Salzkammergut days →
Salzburg saved its best for the evening.
This is a city that plays after dark. A Mozart quartet by candlelight in the Mirabell marble hall, a five-course dinner concert inside the fortress walls, the Magic Flute told by marionettes on strings a century old. Book the seat; the acoustics do the rest.
Learn to make the sweet stuff.
Salzburg’s kitchens send you home able to cook it: apple strudel stretched paper-thin, the cloud of a Salzburger Nockerl, an afternoon of beer, schnapps and mountain cheese. Roll up your sleeves, then sit down and eat the results.
The ones you tell people about.
Deep into the mountain in a miner’s suit and down the wooden slides, an opera sung by marionettes on a lamplit stage, the Salzach slipping past the old town from a low boat. Small, strange and completely Salzburg.
Nine hundred years on the rock.
Ride the funicular up to Hohensalzburg, one of the largest fortresses in Europe and never once taken. Down in the old town, the cathedral’s gilt dome, the frescoed DomQuartier and the courtyards Mozart knew are all a short walk apart. A good guide joins the dots the map leaves out.
A whole city inside the old walls.
Salzburg rewards walking. The fortress on its rock for the view. Getreidegasse for the wrought-iron signs. The cathedral square for the baroque. The Salzach for the light on the water at dusk.
Know what you’re after?
Twelve ways into Salzburg and the mountains around it. Pick the kind of day that sounds like yours, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
The mountains start at the city gates.
An hour in any direction changes the day completely. A lake village, a salt mine, an ice cave inside a cliff, an alpine eyrie over the German border. Most of it fits between breakfast and dinner, with a seat back to Salzburg thrown in.
Three days, done right.
Salzburg is walkable, so three days go a long way: one for the old town, one for the film and the lakes, one for the big trip out. This is the order we’d hand a friend arriving tomorrow.
Day 1
The old town on foot
Getreidegasse and Mozart’s birthplace in the morning, the cathedral and DomQuartier after lunch, the funicular up to the fortress for the view as the light goes gold.
Plan day one →
Day 2
The film and the lakes
Mirabell Gardens first thing, then the Sound of Music coach out through the Salzkammergut to Mondsee and St Gilgen. Back in time for a Mozart concert once the lamps come on.
Plan day two →
Day 3
The big day out
Save a full day for Hallstatt on its lake, or cross into Berchtesgaden for the Eagle’s Nest. Book the earlier departure and you beat the afternoon coaches to the good light.
Plan day three →
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