We ( including 5 year old) will be staying 2 nights at NH hotel in June. Arriving Salzburg Main train station at 7 PM on Thursday and leaving for Vienna on Saturday 5 PM. I have not booked the Vienna ticket. Will there be any discount if I book now?
Can someone please suggest what we can see during this time?
Advance thanks for your help!
What have you always wanted to see in Salzburg? There must be a reason why you have made travel arrangements to go there. Something has attracted you to this city, so what ever it is, that is what you should go see.
Also, perhaps you could tell the rest of us what kind of things interest you and your family, otherwise, we may send you off to see your least favorite things. What does your partner want to see?
We took our then 3-year-old to Salzburg a few years ago. Here's what was a hit with him:
Fortress
Gardens at Mirabelle Palace
Fountain tour at Hellbrunn
He also learned who Mozart was, not by going to the Wohnhaus, but by seeing all the cardboard cutouts of him around town advertising the candy. Whatever works!
There's also a couple of great playgrounds. One is by the gardens at Mirabelle -- go up the stairs and around to the right, by the bathrooms, and it's just past the bathrooms. The other is at Hellbrunn. And your 5-year-old should be old enough to watch Sound of Music -- there's a lot of the Mirabelle gardens featured in Do Re Mi, so that can make it more fun.
Our then 2-year old loved the Fernicular -- he made us ride it at least a half dozen times.
I agree with all of the above, except the Sound of Music tour. I think it would not mean much (if anything) to a five year old, plus they would be riding around on a bus/in a van for hours. The fortress, etc. would be good though. All of the exploring would assure him/her a good night's sleep. :-) Wear them out, I say! :-)
es,
Salzburg is a wonderful destination, also for children. It is a compact city, almost everything is in walking distance. You will enjoy it very much!
http://www.salzburg.info/en/
A bit outside of Salzburg is an open air museum, your little guy might love this, my children and grandchildren sure did at his age. And it is fascinating for adults as well.
http://www.salzburg.info/en/sights/excursions/salzburg_open_air_museum.htm
We have always taken the Sound of Music Tour. Takes you outside of the city as well. Interesting tour.
Mozarts house and histroy museum within Salzburg.
And it is a lovely walking town.
Thinking of your 5 year old – all of the above are good suggestions. Hellbrunn is definitely a must, there is also space around the Hellbrunn Gardens for a child to play in and explore. I would also add the Zwergerl Garten, a little separated from the Mirabell Garten. It's paths are lined with a dozen or so marble statues of dwarves. They'd might be especially interesting if you can connect them to the tales and legends surrounding the Untersberg, the large mountain S. of Salzburg. Then there is a maze, also part of the gardens. Fun to play in, but no danger of getting lost.
In "Do Re Mi" in the Sound of Music, the children dance past one of the dwarf statues and pat him on the head! Your child might like to "find" that statue... My daughter and I did that three years ago.
Love Salzburg! Have you thought about going up into the surrrounding mountain areas with a guide? They are inexpsensive. When you come back, you can try some of the local restaurants on the outskirts of Salzburg, still viewing where you've just been.
I would think that a five year old would enjoy seeing a real castle.
After looking through the Austrian Rail website, I can see advance purchase discount tickets from Austria to other locations in Europe, outside of Austria (Venice, etc) but none within Austria, like the German Sparpreis tickets. I tried to see if you could just go across the river to Freilassing, Germany, and get a Europa-Spezial Österreich fare to Vienna, but the express trains, for which those tickets are valid, don't stop in Freilassing. You could go half an hour west to Traunstein, Germany, from which you could use a Europa-Spezial fare (€58 for two), but it would cost at least €28 to get to Traunstein (€86, total) so you might just as well stay in Salzburg from which the full fare to Vienna is €100 for two (child is free).
They are currently renovating the Salzburg Hbf and the main building is closed. To get to the tracks, you have to go around either side of the building. The ticket counter and automats are in a small building to the right side (looking from the front) of the station building. See the map here (in German).
Update: I found how you could get advance-purchase tickets from the German Rail website for Freilassing to Salzburg for €58 for two! Put in Freilassing to Wien with a via as Traunstein. They will sell you a ticket Freilassing to Traunstein by IC, Traunstein to Salzburg by regional train, and Salzburg to Vienna by RailJet (RJ). Of course that adds about 1½ hr to the trip, but you save €42 (less €2,10 pP from Salzburg to Freilassing). Freilassing is a German town across the river from Salzburg, about an 8 min ride by S-Bahn or regional train from the Salzburg Hbf.
I have heard there is a falcon/show on the grounds of a lovely castle just outside of Salzburg...does anyone know of it? And I just loved that city...kids would love the funicular and telling them about knights and the cannons every kid (especially the boys I know) would love. They get hooked on the knight thing from a toy set up they have from the Lego company I believe.
