Day Trip Munich to Salzburg

Hi Annemarie

Please don't waste your money on Bob's SOM tour unless you really don't like the Sound of Music or you don't want to see much of Salzburg. We took the tour last summer and basically it was a complete waste of time (and money). Alot of the information that they will give you is incomplete and incorrect, they will take you for a luge ride (has alot to do with sound of music, huh?), and breeze past (at about 50mph) much of the real SOM sights you would want to see.

Honestly a day trip probably doesn't do Salzburg justice. But if you're going to try, enjoy the city without the tour which will eat up 1/2 a day. Most of the main sights in the city are within walking distance. Sights like the Fortress, both of Mozart's residences, Mirabell Gardens (lot's of SOM sights there), Nonnberg Abbey, St Peters Cemetery, and the Salzburg Cathedral to name a few. Also you could see the Hellbrunn Palace where the gazebo is (a short ride away). Start with a horse and buggy ride for a quaint overview of the city. You can find them near the Horse Fountain (yes, the one from the movie) at the Residenzplatz.

Also, Rick has a great walking tour!

Yes, you'd miss the spectacular Salzkammergut Lake region, but time is short. Also, you might miss the church at Mondsee (where the wedding was), but again, time is against you.

Now if you spent a night there........ How about hitting those 2 sights and enjoying an evening of music and one of many Mozart concerts.

Annemarie,

I agree with Gary. Spend a night in Salzburg. Stay in the Old Town so you can walk everywhere. (Check out the Best Western Hotel Elefant.) You don't need a tour, just bring a good guidebook and stroll around and you'll find plenty to see and do. Salzburg is great.

We took a Radius tour to Dachau and had such a great experience so we decided to do their tour to Salzburg. We enjoyed Salzburg, but in my opinion we could have done the same thing ourselves for less money and on our own timetable. I think you can get a very good feel for Salzburg on a daytrip if you don't have time to spend the night there.

thanks so much for replying.I didn't mention that we will be in Munich 4 days,Gimmelwald 2 days, Lucerne 1 day,Beaune 2 days and Paris for 8 days so adding another hotel move is really out of the question.We are in no way married to the SOM experience -simply thought that might be the best way to make the most of the short time in Salzburg. It appears though, that wandering around with the RS self guided walk will be the best option.A special thanks for the train info -that is the aspect of travel planning that confounds me the most (especially in Switzerland) Happy trails to all! Annemarie

Regional trains from Munich to Salzburg take only ½ hour longer than the fastest express train, so use the €28 Bayern-Ticket and a regional train.

If you are going on a workday and want to leave before 9 AM, the last train leaving before 9 is is the 8:48 and it gets to the Grafing Bhf just after 9, still in the MVV, so you can use a local MVV ticket to Grafing (single trip €7,20 pP, Partner Tageskarte €18,80) and then the Bayern-Ticket for the rest of the day (the Bayern-Ticket will also cover all of your transportation, U-/S-Bahn, trams, buses, in the MVV).

There is also something called a Freizeit-Ticket (free time ticket) that you can purchase at an automat for €30 pP (€5 more at a counter). The Freizeit ticket gets you round-trip from Munich to Salzburg in one day (as long as you are back by 3 AM the following morning); Friday are excepted. You must use an express train (IC or EC) in 2nd class. You can leave for Salzburg as early as you want and the ticket is not for a specific train; just get on the one you want.

This is a great area to rent a car Annemarie - especially if your returning back to Munich. You can avoid the tours (though I liked the SOM tours I've never done Bob's). Gives you a chance to drive around to the Konigsee, Eagle's Nest, the Cable Car, etc, etc.

It's well worth it. Parking is not hard to find as there are garages and street parking.

It would definitely save you time over tours, etc and would not be much more than a train (and would be cheaper than train +tour).

Most of the authentic things from SOM (Maribell, the old town, Nonnenberg Abbey, the Residenz, the Fortress, are readily visitable from the town.

Most of the things they do on the tour is fabricated just to get your money. Hellbrunn was not in the movie. The building, Frohnburg, used as the Von Trapp home, was only used for outside scenes; the inside scenes were on a sound stage in Hollywood. It was not on a lake. Leopoldskon was not used in the movie. They did copy the lakeside patio to a temporary set somewhere on the lake and used that set for the boat scene. The gazebo was only used for distant shots. Again, the scenes of them dancing and singing in the gazebo on was a Hollywood set.

You can take a bus from the platz in front of the Bahnhof to Mondsee, to the wedding church (I did).

We saw everything authentic (except the gazebo) in one day walking around the town and saved a lot of money.

Before you spend money on a tour, get the SOM DVD, the one with commentary by director Robt. Wise, and see where the movie was really made.