HI there: Hope this message find you well. I will be going to Salzburg, St.Wolfgang, Hallstatt, and Vienna with my family for the first time. Any comment / recommendation to any of my following questions is very welcome & greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
I did some research online from this forum (past posts) & other reviews from other forum, I have gathered the following information, but I need your help to confirm if those information are correct & please advise how to plan better in terms of a tight schedule, time allocation, transportation & cost-wise. Please see my following pre-matured itinerary.
Day 1 - Arriving at the Vienna airport around 4pm, plans to take a train to Salzburg
Day 2 - Salzburg city tour (We want to visit as many attractions as possible in one day: Hohensalzburg Castle, Mirabell Gardens, Hellbrunn Palace, St Peter's Abbey, Salzburg Cathedral, Schloss Leopoldskron, shopping lanes of the Old Town, Old Market Square, Hohensalzburg (cable car), Nonnenberg Abbey, Mozart dinner show
Day 3 - Salzburg > Lake District Area - St Gilgen > St Wolfgang (Salzkammergut) > Hallstatt > back to Salzburg
Day 4 - Spend the most half day in Salzburg for any leftover attractions from Day 2 before taking a train back to Vienna & we will spend 2 extra days in Vienna before we take the train to Prague
(1). Frankly, we prefer not to take train from Vienna to Salzburg on Day 1, & from Salzburg back to Vienna on Day 4. We prefer to take train directly from Salzburg to Prague, however, we found out it would cost a lot more from Salzburg to Prague on the train ride than Vienna to Prague, even though we go back & forth between Vienna & Salzburg, but the time is about the same either way. Would that be harder to train & ferry from Vienna to Hallstatt. Ferry closed at night?
(2). For Salzburg city tour, we won't join any local tour, but plans to take trains or by foot as we are hoping to visit as many attractions as possible in 1.5 day on Day 2 & half day in Day 4. Based on the attractions listed above, do you think it is too ambitious & would it be possible to make it happen, if we start out around 11am - 12noon & can travel as late as midnight on Day 2 & we will probably have a few hours left on Day 4. Please advise.
(3). On Day 3 - We will start out around 10am from Salzburg >> Lake District Area - St Gilgen > St Wolfgang (Salzkammergut) > Hallstatt > back to Salzburg.
We are considering to stay at St Wolfgang for about 2-3 hours & walk around the shops & take the cable car up the Zwölferhorn mountain after taking the boat ride from St Gilgen to St Wolfgang. We will then be going from St Wolfgang to Hallstatt for about 2-3 hours & hopefully to get a chance to visit a salt mine or if not, we will simply just take some pics, walk around & have a dinner before we take the train back to Salzburg. Do you think it is too ambitious & would it be possible? As much as we want to spare more time on these small villages, we have a very tight schedule. Any advice?
(4) Is that right to take bus from Salzburg HBF to St Wolfgang by Bus 150 to Strobl bus station & get off at Strobl & transfer to Bus 546 to St Wolfgang?
(5). Would you suggest to take Bus #150 from Salzburg HBF to St Gilgen & take a boat ride from St Gilgen to St Wolfgang across Wolfgangsee? Which bus stop (#150) at St Gilgen is closer to the dock for boat ride to St Wolfgang?
(6). Is that right to take the Bus #546 to Bad Ischl & then take train to Hallstatt station & ferry across the lake to the village? Any easier way?
(7). From Hallstatt to Salzburg, should we take ferry from the Hallstatt Market across the lake to the Hallstatt Station & get off at Attnang-Puchheim station to Salzburg? We are considering to take train back to Salzburg at night because we tried to save time & there is nothing much to see at that time. What's the last train back to Salzburg? Any website?
(8). Should we get a Salzburg card in our case?
Thank you so much.