Please sign in to post.

What’s the best way to see as much as we can of Salzburg on the RS Best of Europe 21-day tour?

Posted by on

We are going on the Best of Europe 21-day tour in October and will have a little over a day in Salzburg. About half of that is free time - the rest of it is the tour guide showing us around town. For the free time, we’re torn between going on a Sound of Music tour, seeing a marionette show, walking to the fortress, going to a concert, doing a river cruise, seeing more of the town - and so on - there is just so much that looks tempting to do!

Though we are SOM fans, we mainly want to see some beautiful Austrian countryside and locales. It sounds like the SOM tours do take you to some beautiful places that we wouldn’t otherwise see. If we do go on that tour, would we have enough time to see much else? Or would it be more beneficial for us to see more of the town and skip the tour? I know we probably can’t go wrong given all that is there to do, but just wanted to see what folks think - especially those of you who have been on this particular tour before. Where do the guides take you during the first part of that day and the night before? Thanks!

Posted by
1090 posts

Our first RS tour was Germany, Salzburg and Vienna, but we generally had the same amount of time as you did with many overlapping activities in Salzburg. Though I realize everything may be different, and it's a very different tour, but here was our experience. Salzburg is small. On our way to Salzburg our guide decided not to take us to the cathedral in Mondsee; (her usual stop where the movie wedding takes place) she took us alpine sledding instead. Fun! When we arrived in Salzburg before arriving at our hotel our guide took to the original gazebo from the movie which is at the entrance of Schloss Hellbrun. (This was not a walking distance location.) Nobody pays attention to it except Americans. Then after checking into our hotel, we did a walking tour which included Mirabell Gardens and more than once during our stay to get to/fro we walked through the courtyard where Residence Fountain is. "I have confidence" you'll encounter it as well!

Keep in mind it was August and over 90F degrees; HOT! We had the same experience with our afternoon free after our guided morning and cooking lesson in a cool (literally and figuratively) cave like kitchen. We decided to skip the SOM tour and just walk around and explore including the fortress; and we walked up the hill to the actual mostly abandoned looking abbey (not in the movie) called Nonnberg Abbey. (Doubt that is on the tour). I was determined to figure out how to get to Schloss Leopoldskron (a hotel) which was the Von Trapp residence; it was too far to walk, but there was no uber back then and no taxi to be seen and we were about to have heat stroke, so alas no. That evening we went to a dinner/concert. It was different, entertaining and part of our tour. It was one of those "when is Salzburg" experiences.

I would assume you would need to choose; SOM or explore the city; based on the itinerary that is posted for your tour. And you are correct, there is no wrong answer. We were happy with our choice. And I love the Sound of Music.

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.