Advent Concert in Salzburg, Sound of Music Tour

A friend and I attended the Advent Concert last year at the Fortress and enjoyed it. In 2014, we did the Panorama Sound of Music tour and enjoyed it, too. For Panorama, there is no need to book in advance. I can't comment on whether it's worthwhile to book in advance for other companies. For reference, "we" = one male and one female in our 40's who have season tickets to our local philharmonic.

We did SoM with "Bob's tour". Small van, with 6. We stopped for lunch in a mountain restaurant on the way to Hallstadt. We didn't go into the Palace - perhaps the bigger tours did. We went also to Hallstadt, which is small but quirky - the Museum of Bones is not to be missed. It was raining, so we sat in a restaurant and had a coffee (most stops in Europe for my wife and I include that specific phrase). Nice small town - not enough for an over night stay for sure.

As to music, we booked an evening concert in town at the Music hall. It was really pleasant, and not expensive.

For the SOM tour, do a morning one since an afternoon one can end in the dark. The one ( Panorama ) we took was completely full. I would make a reservation

Forget any 3rd party SOM tour. Do it yourself and save big bucks. A lot of the SOM venues were actually sound stage sets in Hollywood. Those that weren't (Mirabelle palace, Mozartsteg, old town) are easily seen on your own in Salzburg. You can take a public bus out to Mondsee, but you'll spend more time getting there than actually seeing the church. The 3rd party tours add places that have little or nothing to do with the movie (Leopoldskron never appeared in the movie. The gazebo at Hellbrunn was only used for brief, distant shots in the movie; the song and dance routines were on a sound stage set.)