Salzburg travel ideas for two nights

You'd be okay doing bicycle tours around Salzburg. But it's quite mountainous south--around Berchesgarten.
My favorite Summer afternoon in Salzburg is spent at the Augustiner beer hall in the gardens. It's one of the really popular stops for nectar of the gods with The Brothers.
The central city is very quaint and easy to walk through. The people of Salzburg are especially cordial with most acting like they're a tour guide.
If you're into WWII sites, Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp is very good, and it's 85 miles east. You can go by train in 1 hr. 45 minutes--right to the camp for a great day trip.

1. Eagles nest is wonderful if it is a clear day. The best part about it is the views.

2. Another vote for Augustiner.

3. My favorite way to see the SOM city sites are by renting a bike and visiting them on my own. We went to the gazebo, the front of the house (which is on the lane where I Have Confidence was sung) and the back of the house on the lake. When we did the bus tour, we could barely see the front of the house since vehicles are not allowed on the lane and they skipped the back of the house completely. You can also walk to a lot of the sites in the downtown area. (Mirabell gardens, etc).

4. I have been to Salzburg 3 times and have yet to see Mozart birthplace so cannot comment.

5 Hallstatt is too far to be enjoyable as a day trip. You don't say if you will have a car. If you do, then a drive out to Mondsee (which has the SOM wedding church) and St. Gilgen could give you a chance to see the Lakes area. They are much closer to Salzburg. If you don't have a car, there are bus tours that can take you out there too. (At least there was last time I was there) The SOM tours stop at both these towns too.

1. You will not have any problem finding places to shop.

Two days is not a lot of time, but with good planning, you can fit a lot in. Have fun.

P.S. In my opinion, Mauthausen is a little far for a day trip. If you are going on to Vienna, it is on the way. Of course, if Munich is part of the Germany segment of your trip, then Dachua is probably on your agenda (as it should be).

I don't know why my comment on shopping has a 1 instead of a 6 . When I go to edit, it shows it correctly. I even redid it and it showed correctly on my entry but shows up wrong on the board. Frustrating.

You can SOM DIY as many of the sites are in plain view.

I would spend one day visiting the fortress, Hellbrunn palace (ride a bike down there) and dinner at Augustiner. I would spend the second day in B'gaden. If you had a third day, I would do Hallstatt/Gosausee with a rental car.

I enjoyed a half-day wandering the Freilichtmuseum (outdoor museum). It's about a 45 minute bus ride from the city.

We enjoyed the Eagle's Nest; we used the tour recommended in RS Guide book (David and Christine Harper). I highly recommend using that tour; I think if we were not on the tour, we would not have appreciated the history as much. It takes most of the day as we took the local but up there, took a short hike along the river where we stopped and ate a picnic lunch, took the tour, and then caught the 6:00 p.m. but back into Salzburg.

I say split up so you can do the SOM tour and enjoy it while your husband can spend his time visiting something else. My sister and I took the tour while our husbands visited the Hohensalzburg Fortress. And while my sister and I were both raised listening to and playing Mozart, we did not visit his birthplace.

We visited Hallstatt as we were on the RS Alpine My Way tour, but otherwise, I think you should spend your time in Salzburg.

Enjoy wherever you visit and don't forget to enjoy some pastries along the way!

Buy the Salzburg card and you get free transport and a choice of every tourist
site in the city...you can see as much as you want and save a lot of euros. You'll
see plenty of outdoor restaurants in the Old Town.

I also love WWII history. My first trip to Eagle's Nest was in 2014 on a big bus tour from Salzburg that included a salt mine tour and Königssee. It was hurried and covered the history on a shallow level. It left me thinking, "Gee, nice view. Eagle's Nest is a good place to go on a clear day."

I recently had my second encounter with Eagle's Nest. I stayed near Berchtesgaden and took a private tour with David Harper of Eagle's Nest Historical Tours (mentioned by padams above). I took the 8-hour "History Buff" tour, but David's company also offers a 4-hour tour that covers what's covered on the large-group historical tour plus a little more. Either a private tour or group tour with Eagle's Nest Historical Tours will make your trip to the site so much more meaningful. Thanks to David, my second encounter with Eagle's Nest resulted in an excellent understanding of the Obersalzberg complex and a recognition that Eagle's Nest is a great place to visit regardless of the number of clouds in the sky.