An afternoon in Salzburg

https://www.salzburg.info/en/hotels-offers/guided-tours/hop-on-hop-off This is the link to the Hop On, Hop Off (aka HoHo) bus for Salzburg--I responded to your other topic and if your time is short and you want to see locations outside the main and Old Town area it's very helpful. Check out the stops the bus makes to see if it suits your needs, or, if you are a Sound of Music fan you might consider a tour that focuses solely on that, with music and trivia to put you in the mood.

thank you for your prompt reply. Unfortunately We only get to salzburg by noon. can we still do the hop on hop off? will it still be worth it? thank you

Nonnberg is on the same "hill" with the fortress in Salzburg. There is a footpath, "Festungsgasse" that goes along the side of the hill part way up from the Altstadt to the Fortress. It starts in the Altstadt near the incline that goes up to the Fortress. At one point it splits with the upper branch, Mönchsberg, going up to the drawbridge entrance to the castle. Stay on the lower branch and go around the left end of the mountain to Nonnberg.

It's the path that Maria walk along in SOM on her way from the abbey to catch the bus to the Von Trapp home.

It's only a little over a half km walk from the start by the incline to Nonnberg.

You can see the whole thing on Google Maps.

All of these sites sit in a relatively compact area, not much bigger than a large shopping mall. I don't think adding vehicular transport between them will make anything easier, especially considering that most of this area is restricted to vehicular traffic.

I was in Salzburg for 7 hours, and really only used the HoHo bus to get out to Hellbrunn as I wanted to tour the gardens, but also wanted to see the whole area of Salzburg and that I couldn't have done on foot. I ended my HoHo part at Old Town around 1 and spent my last 4 hours there, catching a bus back to the train station. As mentioned by Tom, your specific must-sees could be done on foot.

thank you all so much

Almost every bus from the train staion goes down Rainierstrasse past Mirabell. You might want to take a bus that far, see Mirabell, then walk the rest of the way.

I'd also recommend taking one of the Hop On / Hop Off bus tours, as that will give you a good overview of the historic sights of Salzburg, and best of all someone else does the driving. As I recall, the bus stop for one of the HO/HO buses is right outside Mirabell Gardens, so it would be easy to do the bus and tour the gardens.