Hello all,
I will be in Salzburg 2 short days..Arriving by rail on 9/11/17 approx 8pm,so I will have the full next day and till noon on 9/13/17 b4 heading to Vienna.I am looking for suggestions on the best SOM tour to take my wife on.Not sure else what we will be doing while we are there.. maybe the Mozart tour of just wandering around old town. Also looking for suggestions on a small boutique hotel to stay at and any good restaurant suggestions.Thank You.
Not sure if it's the best tour, but my friends and I are signed up to take the tour with Viator on Sept 15th. Looks like we're missing you folks by just a day or two! We're going to be in Munich for Oktoberfest and are taking a quick daytrip to Salzburg before it starts. We bought a combo ticket that includes a walking tour of Salzburg followed by the SOM tour. We figured that would give us a nice overview of the city, since we only have the one day. This tour does have great reviews. We picked Viator just because we've booked through them before, enjoyed our tours with them and they have great customer service if there's a problem. The tickets (for the 6hr combo) were around 65. Can't recommend a hotel or restaurant. Our thoughts were to see what catches our eyes (and noses) during the tour and then go there afterwards to cap off our day before catching the train back to Munich.
Whatever you choose- have a great time!
Lisa
Both Panorama Tours and Bob's SOM Tours get excellent reviews. We took Bob's tour and enjoyed it a lot but I'm sure the others are comparable. The main difference I have heard is that Panorama Tours uses big buses and Bob's uses minivans for a smaller group tour. The itineraries are pretty much identical so probably best to just compare times, prices, and mode of transport before deciding.
Took the big bus, was kinda fun to singalong with bigger group so there were more extroverts aboard, but probably a smaller vehicle would have been more enjoyable.
My sister and I took the Panorama (big bus) option and had fun. We grew up singing all the songs (and have sung in choirs most of our lives) so we looked forward to singing with a busload. Well, we seemed to be among the few that knew all the songs. Everyone sang on Do-Re-Mi, but didn't seem to know the words on the other songs. But it was fun nonetheless.
I have taken Panorama tour three times over the years. Always enjoyable
We stayed at the Altstadthotel Weisse Taube (The White Dove) during our last visit to Salzburg - excellent location and friendly staff. We usually take local transportation to the hotel, but it was easier to pay 10E for the taxi ride from the train station to the hotel.
We used Bob's SOM tour, and it was fun. 6 in the van, stop in a small mountain restaurant for lunch (I had the goat roast), and very nice and friendly. Big tours are less personal. As to doing stuff in Salzburg, we always walk around. We walked to the castle, which was a little strenuous, but 1/2 way up there is a restaurant where you can sit on the balcony and view the city below. Very nice. Don't miss the famous cemetary which is supposedly the place where they hid out from the Nazis - when you are there, the idea of hiding out is kind of ridiculous. Definitely do the Mozart Birthplace tour - very interesting. There is also a nice beerhall on the edge of town that we enjoyed having dinner at. Why go on multiple tours? Follow the RS tour and keep your eyes open.
The graveyard is the one they supposedly used as inspiration for the set they built in Hollywood.
We really enjoyed Fraulein Maria's SOM Bicycle Tour. Great way to see the city; not at all a strenuous ride & you aren't cooped up on a bus! http://mariasbicycletours.com/index.php?view=sysBicycleTour.navDesign&lng=en
Can also recommend Hotel Wolf Dietrich, but book a room in the Residenz portion which is across the street from the main hotel. Modern, spacious rooms and they are air conditioned, which is not the case in the main hotel. Great breakfast and friendly staff.
https://www.salzburg-hotel.at/en/
Thank you everyone!
Don
