Site seeing and Restaurants in Saltzburg

Some Salzburg highlights: Hellbrunn (yes), Mirabell, Hohensalzburg, Stift Nonnberg, an Old Town wander, a few museums.

Day trips close by - St Gilgen and Wolfgangsee are pretty. Werfen Castle and Werfen ice caves. Herrenchiemsee Palace. Lake Königssee is beautiful, Ramsau and Berchtesgaden close by. Hallstatt, a bit more of a drive. Burghausen is a fabulous visit,often overlooked.

If you like classical music but in a more relaxed venue than a concert hall, Stiftskeller St. Peter has a combined candlelit dinner and Mozart concert. Music is presented between courses. Www.mozart-dinner-concert-Salzburg.com

There are also concerts at the Hohensalzburg fortress, with small chamber groups playing Mozart. The restaurant has great views over the city. Www.salzburghighlights.at

In addition to the above there are concerts at Mirabell and the Residenz.

It's been 4 years since I was in Salzburg last, but here are a couple places I'll suggest:

Café Tomiselli - which is just over from the Residenzplatz, has tables that sit out on the square. I enjoyed sitting there and having a drink or two with food and just watching the people walk by. If the weather's good I recommend this. I suggest a "cold plate" of sliced ham, cheese, pickles, and rolls goes very nicely with the local beer.

Just a block further down the University Strasse is the University Square; there's usually an open air market here on weekdays. They also had (when I was there) a really good "Imbiss" cart with good sausages.

I stayed in the Boutiquehotel am Dom, which I highly recommend! You cannot beat the location, the staff was amazing, and the room was excellent. (I stay in hotels 60+ days a year and this was one of the best.)

The area right around there is mostly small shops specializing in either high end antiques or tourist trinkets. Most nights I could find music being played in the public areas close by. One time the concert was a trio of Australians playing their "Abo" instruments; rather unique after the constant classical stuff one gets subjected to.

If you go up to the fortress (Hohensalzburg) there's a "Panorama" restaurant on the side of the walls looking south. It's a little more expensive than down in town, but if the weather's clear the view is amazing. The food's not bad either.

One thing I found nice about Salzburg; even though it's a bit touristy, since the University is right there in the middle of the old part of town, there are a fair number of places that cater to the students, and as such the food and drinks can be found reasonably. this is especially true if you walk around to the south side of the fortress.

We enjoyed the Augustiner Beer Garden with a big, beautiful outdoor seating area under shady trees with mostly locals.

Upon arriving, you walk up to the counter and pay for your beer, choose a ceramic stein off the shelf, rinse it in cool water (so it will be the perfect temperature for your beer) and hand it to the beer master who will fill it up directly from wooden barrels with Augustiner beer. Only one type of beer, so no need to decide what kind you want to drink. Take your beer to a table and enjoy!

Also, they have typical beer garden food available to purchase upstairs at reasonable prices.

2nd vote for Augustiner Beer Garten ... such a great way to get a taste of Salzburg & their friendly people.

On our trip in 2012, we enjoyed Cafe Tomiselli. We also went to the Mozart dinner at St. Peter's. It was too heavy on opera for our plebeian tastes, but I really loved the Mozart house that displayed his piano.