Best base city to explore Salzburg/Berchtesgaden area

Posted by tk1000 on 08/04/14 08:35 AM

I will be in Salzburg area for around 5 days and am not sure which city to make my base.

My plan is to explore Salzburg city (along with SOM tour), Hallstatt, Wefern Ice Caves, Hohenwerfen castle, Berchtesgaden, maybe Konigsse lake and Hallein (Alpine Luge).

I will have a car and will be arriving here from Lienz. Also, I am open to splitting my stay in Salzburg area between 2 different cities if that will work out better. I was thinking of staying in Berchtesgaden since most of my interest areas seem nearby but not sure if Salzburg will be equally good. I am not sure if Berchtesgaden will be a lively place when compared to Salzburg.

Thanks!

Posted by Susan E

Prince George, BC, Canada

08/04/14 10:43 PM

444 posts

We're staying just outside Salzburg for 7 nights in October. We looked at B+B's/apartments in Anif, Grodig and the Moosstrasse area of Salzburg, as we also wanted to stay just outside of Salzburg proper. We ended up booking an apartment on Moosstrasse, but there are a number of great choices in either Anif or Grodig. We will also have a car and want to do a combination of Salzburg and area touring. Most of the locations on your list are also of interest to us. The great thing about all of these areas is that they are easily accessible to Salzburg by bus and has easy access to the autobahn.

Posted by Paul

NYC area

08/05/14 11:10 PM

3003 posts

Hi tusekey,

We've based in the Berchtesgaden area 5 times (18 nights total) for trips including most things on your list. Salzburg is an easy, less than 30 min. drive away. We visited Hallstatt as a day trip from here. Spent the day in Hallstatt, had dinner in Salzburg and back to our room in the Berchtesgaden area. Pretty simple. Konigsee is just a few minutes away. Jennerbahn cable car is right next to Konigsee. The Rossfeld Panorama Road is a nice drive above Berchtesgaden. You can also get to Hallein the "scenic" way by going by the Rossfeld. There's another alpine luge (Sommerrodelbahn) just above Berchtesgaden.

http://www.hochlenzer.de/rodelbahn.html

I wouldn't think it's necessary to split locations. Hallstatt is the furthest at just 1:30 drive away.
Our favorite places to stay in the Berchtesgaden area:

www.mayringerlehen.de

www.friedwiese.de/enska/isl.htm

Paul

Posted by Kevin

Rick Steves' Europe

08/07/14 10:31 PM

154 posts

I feel Berchtesgaden or Salzburg will be your best bets. If you wanted to be in a smaller town I would go with Berchtesgaden area and that is an easy place to have a car. If you wanted more options offered by a city then Salzburg would be better but I would try to stay a bit on the outskirts since it might be easier to park your car when you leave. If your lodging comes with parking then you don't need to worry about that aspect. Since everything is so close I wouldn't stay in two locations. With 5 days you may even want to look into vacation rental options too.