Sound of Music - Bob's Special Tours

As others explained in your previous post, Hallstatt is incredibly crowded during the day, so staying there overnight to enjoy it early or late is really your only hope of an enjoyable experience.

Have done both.....and I think I would do them as separate tours. Years ago we signed up as you did for both tours in one day.....and there were not enough people interested in seeing Hallstatt that day so they canceled that part of our day........so glad they did! We did the SOM tour then and loved seeing the actual movie sites where certain shots were made. Salzburg is a delightful town and it was fun to see as much of it as we did on this tour. We also loved being taken to the beautiful church where the SOM wedding was shot. Just last spring, May 2019, we did an Eastern Europe trip....after spending 3 nights in Salzburg again we drove to Hallstatt and spent 2 nights there. We splurged and got a room looking out over the lake.......took the funicular up to the observation point looking out over the lake........WOW....and enjoyed a day or so of walking through the town and watching the ferry boat bring the visitors in from the train that stops across the lake on a regular basis. It will always be a very special memory for us! Our hotel was Seehotel Gruner Baum.....delicious meals and worth every penny for the balcony views!

We did the BST of SOM/Halstatt. It was fun. Small vehicle - we had 6 in our party. We stopped for lunch in a small restaurant with a lot of goat dishes. YMMV on goat dishes. I enjoyed mine, but not sure I'll order much goat in the near future (partly due to the lack of goat options in the upper Midwest anyway). We visited Hallstatt. We enjoyed it, although we visited in the midst of a downpour.

We did the Bob’s Tour of the SOM sites only. There were 6 people and the driver and I was happy to not be on a big bus tour. We enjoyed it very much. Even my husband did, who only went to humor me. I agree that the church where the wedding was held and the town were charming, and we enjoyed seeing the countryside. We were in the Salzburg area for a week and had a car, so we drove to Hallstatt a different day. I expected it to be more crowded in late May, but it was rainy. Maybe that kept the people away. If I hadn’t cancelled my trip this year I would be currently staying in Strobl, on the Wolfgangsee. I was really looking forward to spending more time in that beautiful area.

I don't know when you are going but I've visited Hallstatt twice (around late September) and neither time was overly crowded during the day. Last time 2013?? You can make a day of it - village, ferry, close by are an observation deck, salt mines, a sky walk.

Our tour (the combined all day tour) allotted about 3 hours in Hallstatt in the afternoon, which included time for lunch. We made several Sound of Music stops in the morning and also stopped at a fun little toboggan slide (sorry, I don’t know the name of it) as an extra. Made a last stop at the Mondsee church on the way back to Salzburg after Hallstatt. It was a nice day. Would more time have been good? Absolutely. Was it a nice taste? Absolutely. It was not one of the big bus tours where everyone sings all the SoM songs going down the road but our driver knew all of that plus a lot of history more easily shared in a small group while driving.