Salzburg Highlights in Two Days

The Salzburg card covers many admissions and we enjoyed a half day tour to Hitler’s Eagle Nest.

Salzburg is one of my favorite towns in Europe. It needs a few days on it's own. Def walk around. The cathedral has a concert daily around 12noon - double check the time on this.

We liked Eagles Nest a lot and the Salt Mine is so fun . . . 2 HUGE slides down into the mine, a train ride, a boat ride.

You might check the AT A GLANCE section here and see what appeals:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/austria/salzburg

We will be there in about a week! The last time we were there, I loved sliding down the bannisters at the salt mine. This time I want to visit the fortress. I'm thinking of doing a "Sound of Music" tour, too.

We were there in 2 days and had a blast. We visited Hellbrunn Palace, Mirabell Gardens, the fortress, Augustiner Biergarten… we also did a DIY tour of some of the Sound of Music sites, and went to a marionette show at the little theatre.

Mozart is Salzburg’s favourite son, so take some time to visit his childhood home and see, and maybe hear, his piano. Shop for the incredible Mozart chocolates. See a show at the Marionette Theatre. I saw a production of the Magic Flute there many years ago and it is one of my favourite memories…stunning and magical and you forget you are watching puppets. They also do The Sound of Music and Peter and the Wolf.

We left Salzburg about a week ago. Highly recommend the Salzburg card for the convenience alone. It covers the bus to almost everything and pays for most of the highlights. Not sure if it’s a good deal, but not having to stand in line anywhere was great! We also did the salt mine tour in Berchtesgaden and it was so fun!

If you have any interest in music, you must see the piano that Mozart's hands actually touched!

I wouldn't bother to take a SOM tour. It's mostly contrived; a lot of places you are taken to don't appear in the movie.

A lot of SOM was filmed in Hollywood, but I think most, if not all, of the Hollywood sets (the interior of the Von Trapp house, inside the convent, the cemetery, and the gazebo) were long ago demolished.

The producer wanted to use Schloß Leopoldskron, which is on a lake, for the Von Trapp home, but it was being used as an international school at the time, and the school did not want the distraction.

Although Leopoldskron is included on the SOM tours, Leopoldskron never appeared in the movie. The building used as the exterior of the Von Trapp home is Schloß Frohnburg. It's not on a lake.

The patio of the Von Trapp house was a temporary set on the same lake as Schloß Leopoldskron, but the patio in the movie was not the one at Leopoldskron. They built a copy of the Leopoldskron patio nearby on the same lake. The scenes like the swamping of the rowboat were filmed in two locations and spiced together.

The gazebo at Hellbrunn was not used for the song and dance scenes. It was too small. They used a sound stage set in Hollywood. (How did you think they got it to start raining at the end of "You are sixteen"?) The gazebo at Hellbrunn was on the patio set, but in the movie you only see it briefly in the distance.

I did go to Mirabell Palace and see the Pegasus statue and the do-re-mi steps. It's in town and open to the public; you don't need a tour to see it. I also went around the hill to see the convent. The convent itself is not open, but their chapel is. I was surprised that the chapel doesn't look like the one in the movie.

Before taking the tour, get the DVD of SOM, the one with the commentary by director Robt. Wise, and hear him tell about the making of the movie. Then, if you still want to ride around Salzburg with a bunch of other clueless Americans singing "Dō, a deer", have at it.

BTW, I would prefer to stay in Berchtesgaden and do the Eagles Nest and/or cruise on Königssee, and take a one day trip by bus or train (via Freilassing) to Salzburg. I spent one day in Salzburg, mostly seeing SOM sites on my own, but I've been to Berchtesgaden four times, albeit once just to start my trip on the Alpenstraße.

We very much enjoyed our SOM tour with Bob’s Special Tours. It was on a mini bus with 6 customers and the driver/tour guide. The tour we took went out to the countryside and included the wedding church in Mondsee. If you don’t have a chance to go outside of Salzburg otherwise I highly recommend this as a way to see something out of the city. We head back to Salzburg for 4 nights next month and can’t wait!

https://www.bobstours.com/main.php

In about 2010 I came into Salzburg by train and took a bus (140) from the bus plaza in front of the Hbf to Mondsee, where I saw the Basilica (wedding church from SOM). From there I went by bus to Bad Ischl on my way to Hallstatt. The bus fare to Mondsee today is 7,80€ one way, 15,60€ round trip (which is also the price of a Tageskarte).

In 2012 I went by train down to Werfen (20,- € round trip), where I toured Hohenwerfen castle, the castle that's on the hill behind Maria and the children when she teaches them how to sing.

So I have seen a few things (SOM "sites") out of the city. It's really not that hard to DIY.

Like Andrea, we loved our SOM tour with Bob's Special Tours. Our guide was wonderful with sharing what parts of the movie were real and what were not, and giving us the actual story of it all. It was not cheesy by any means.

Another thing we loved was a cooking class with Edelweiss. We took the strudel class which was so much fun, and they they had a goulash already prepared for us for lunch.

We ended up passing on the SOM tour and just spent much of the day at the fortress. But, I still think it would have enjoyed the SOM. We just didn't have time to do both.