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Salzburg and day trips ..input please

We will be in Salzburg for five nights in July. I'll have my husband and two teens sons with me.

Tuesday - we land in Munich in the morning and will take the train to Salzburg. Plan is to do Rick's walking tour to keep everyone awake for the afternoon.

Wednesday - 0930 SOM bicycle tour. Lunch. Hellbrunn. Finish the walking tour if we didn't get to everything. Well probably go up to the fortress on this day.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be day trips. Right now I'm leaning towards Lake Wolfgangsee, Lake Konigsee, and Werfen for the ice caves. Thoughts on this? Too much lake time?

Friday night - marionette show at 7pm

Sunday - breakfast at Heart of Joy before taking the train back to Munich.

Thanks for any input!

Posted by
2568 posts

You will love Hellbrunn and its trick fountains, very entertaining! I had a leisurely, delicious lunch on their patio on a lovely afternoon in September. Be sure to allow enough time to really enjoy this place, I would suggest 3 hours. The gazebo was used in the filming of The Sound of Music. I’m envious you have tickets to the marionette show! They were not performing when I was there.
I don’t have advice about the lakes you mentioned.

Posted by
105 posts

Judy B - the marionette show has numerous offerings while we are there and hardly any tickets have been sold. I haven't purchased them yet but I did check availability yesterday. I want to see the SOM one

Posted by
2461 posts

...you have an option as day trip from Salzburg that I highly reccomend!

A day trip to Hallstatt by public transport is about €35 per person. The organized day trip is about €300 per person, an offer targeted at tourists who are scared to deal with the unknown (public transport).

Posted by
105 posts

Wmt1 - I saw that price of over $300 per person and immediately discounted the tour. For a family of four, that gets very expensive, very quickly. We don't mind using trains and buses to get around.

Posted by
3 posts

This might not quite be what you are looking for, but we recently spent a few days in Salzburg and did a day trip to the Mauthausen memorial. It was very doable by public transport and we felt it was extremely worthwhile. We did see some school groups of teenagers there; their website recommends that they be at least 14 to attend since it is a sensitive site.

Posted by
4219 posts

I would expect the ice caves at Werfen to be a big hit with teen guys. On arrival at the Werfen train station, you can take the scheduled public bus service from the train (a few times a day) or walk a short distance to a private shuttle that runs more frequently. The shuttle historically has been cash only. I used the shuttle service, and I thought it was very good.

Königssee is great. If you haven't seen the recommendation here, a great day can be had at Königssee by catching the boat all the way across the lake to the Salet stop. Walk around 15 minutes to Obersee (a small, gorgeous lake in and of itself). Then hike along the right side of the lake to its opposite side, ascend to a very nice alpine meadow surrounded on three sides by granite peaks, and then hike on to Röthbach Waterfall. It's an easy high hike with a big pay off. The part that consists of ascending and hiking on to the waterfall is accompanied by cows who are grazing in the mountains for the summer. There is a snack hut at the opposite side of the lake that includes fresh milk among other things.

I have not been to Wolfgangsee, so I can't comment on it.

The marionette shows are great.

One SOM site not included in tours is the Felsenreitschule -- the location of the von Trapp family's final performance in Salzburg in the movie. The venue is now enclosed with a retractable roof and is one of the venues for the Salzburger Festspiele. The way to see it is a tour of the Festspielhaus (Festival performance house). It's a 50-minute tour that gives a bit of history on the festival but also on the city's history. I thought it was excellent. https://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/guided-tours

Posted by
105 posts

Dave, your Konigssee plan is exactly what I want to do. Very excited for it. I hope my family enjoys it. I do all the planning and they just come along for the trip with no idea what we are going to do.

Thanks for the info on the music hall tour. I don't see dates posted yet but I will check back.

Posted by
438 posts

I was in Salzburg April 2025 and Hallstatt
as one of the must-see places on my 5-week visit through Europe. Yes it was about 36 euros, you take the bus to Bad Ischal, the train to Halstatt and then the ferry across to the town itself. It's an all-day visit but delightful and there are salt mines in town that the whole family might enjoy.

Posted by
13 posts

We will be in Salzburg with the Rick Steves: ALW062525 tour. Is anyone else in this group interested in going to the ice caves in Werfen? We are hoping to go on Thursday, the 26th of June. The train leaves hourly, and it is a 40-minute train ride. If you sign up for the ice caves tour and cable car ride online, it is a little cheaper. If others are interested, then it would be nice to coordinate and go together. We are also hoping to do the salt mine tour, on Wednesday morning, probably with https://www.panoramatours.com/en/salzburg/tour/salt-mine-tour-tour-3a/ I am very excited to meet everyone and to try a My Way Rick Steves tour. We hope to do the marionette show but we have not bought tickets yet. I was in Salzburg last year and we took the funicular up to the fortress and then walked to the art museum. This year to stay awake we hope to do the same thing only this time we plan to walk back down from the fortress instead of taking the elevator.

Posted by
1718 posts

I'm on record as not liking Hallstatt at all. What I saw of the Traunsee was, to my eyes, much prettier than the Hallstatter See, and the towns along its shoreline such as Traunkirchen are far less touristed. But each to one's own.