Flying into Salzburg or Munich

It will be much cheaper to fly into Munich. Salzburg does not have direct flights to North America either. Munich does, many of them.

What Emily said. Munich is much easier, and is but a short train ride from Salzburg.

Besides Iceland Air, you might consider Condor Air---a new partner with Alaska Airlines ( so you can book award seats with Alaska miles, or earn Alaska miles on paid tickets). Condor price for next June July is $1100 in Economy to Munich for a RT ticket. They do not fly every day, and the flights have one stop in Manchester. The plane is a Thomas Cook "Air Tanker" aka A330.

Another option, for the same price or a bit less, would be the direct flight on Condor to Frankfurt, and train from there. This flight does go every day, and is on a Boeing 767. Economy plus is available on this flight for a bit more ($200).

Take a direct flight to Munich. That way there is no concern about missing a flight connection on the way. Once you get to Munich, it's a little over a 2 hour train trip to Salzburg. With a Bayern-Ticket is will cost you 31€ for two people, 49€ for five. How many people in your party, and what are the ages of the children.

If you arrive on a weekday, the first S-Bahn you can take from the airport using a Bayern-Ticket is the S8 at 9:04. With that S-Bahn, you will have a 29 minute change to the 10:04 Meiridian train at Ostbahnhof. Then the entire trip from the airport S-Bahn station to Salzburg will take you 2H37min. If you take the 9:24 S8, you'll have a 9 minute change at Ost and the trip will take 2H17min. There is another S8 at 9:44, with a 49 min change at Ost, but you will have to take the 11:04 train to Salzburg.

So on average, the train connection to Salzburg adds about 2½ hours to the flight time plus time for deplaning, immigration, and luggage retrival. In my experience, immigration (passport check) in Munich has always been a pretty quick process, checked luggage retrival not so much. After immigration, everyone is routed through luggage claim. I had only carryon, so I didn't have to wait. There is an ATM in luggage claim. I stopped to get cash, and when i was ready to walk out, people from my flight were still waiting for their luggage. If you fly United, you'll also have a ½ km, 6 minute walk (Google Maps) from their gates at the far end of the concourse to immigration.

I do not see any direct flights from Seattle to Munich next June/July. Both Condor and Lufthansa fly direct to FRA from Seattle, but not to MUC.

Munich Airport, Salzburg would be a connection and there aren't that many during summer. Train time to central Salzburg is just over 2 hours with a change of trains at Munich Ostbahnhof, very simple. And now the best bit. After 9AM (anytime weekends) you buy a BayernTicket day pass at the airport which covers you all the way to Salzburg main station (they class it as the tarif border). 2017 price at a machine , €25 first person, €6 (six!) each for up to 4 more. Kids/grandkids of paying adults go free until they are 15. Service runs hourly. Not valid on the long distance EC trains but they are no faster between Munich and Salzburg so no loss!

Same deal covers Salzburg- Fuessen and Fuessen-Munich.

A word about the Bayern-Ticket:

The Bayern-Ticket can be used in one of two ways - 1) up to five people of any age, or 2) one or two people (25€ or 31€) and all of one person's children/grandchildren under 15. If any child(ren) is over 14, you cannot include them on a ticket with two parents and all the children. A single parent could take along all of their children plus one of their children over 14, or even an unrelated adult, on a two person Bayern-Ticket, but a couple can't take an over 14 child and still take all of their under 15 children for free.

When I am in the area, I find it so much more satisfying to rent a car and make a circle East out of Munich to Salzburg. Then east and south to Hallstadt. Then back to Salzburg and southwest to The Innsbruck/Tirol region. Then you can come into Fussen for the.south and back into Munich. When you have such incredible mountain scenery, trains just don't go to the best places.

Thank you all, I will start looking for flights in and out of Munich.

Just for comparison's sake--IF you wanted to fly into Salzburg, British Airways will do that from Seattle for $2700 per person, round trip. The flight involves two changes in each direction, an overall flight time of 24+ hours, and may include a leg on Air Berlin---which is currently in bankruptcy.

So you can see why Munich is the better choice.

Use https://www.kayak.com/flights to find the best flight offer, it is the most sophisticated search engine for flights.
There are no direct flights between Seattle and Munich as of now. Icelandair seems to be the cheapest offer (about $900 round-trip) with one stop-over in Iceland's capital.

What about Linz? If there is a flight from the west coast to Munich but you cannot connect to Salzburg, what about connecting to Linz, if that is possible, then take the Westbahn to Salzburg. Does Linz have more connecting possibilities than Salzburg from Munich?

Thanks All, I decided to go with Iceland Air to Munich around $900. We flew with Iceland Air before to Paris, not the greatest since they are budget, but it took us there.

Thanks All, I decided to go with Iceland Air to Munich around $900. We flew with Iceland Air before to Paris, not the greatest since they are budget, but it took us there.

If you're cool with the rules of the Autobahn and driving after a red eye flight, Munich to Salzburg is a pretty straightforward trip. Just remember to get your Austrian vignette autobahn sticker from one of the 200 gas stations you'll see before you hit the border. The sticker is cheap for a 7-10 day option; the fine for not having one is very expensive, and the Austrian cops to spot checks at on & off ramps. (And if you apply gently, you can peel it off the rental car windshield at the end and have a nice souvenir.) And while mass transit is very comprehensive in the region, there's something to be said for having your own wheels and being able to really set your own schedule.

My concern would be parking in Salzburg, which can be tough and/or expensive depending on hotel selection.