if you only had one day in salzburg, what would you do?

Personally I'd skip the "Sound of Music" tour (watch the movie when you get home) and do all of the following: 1. Ride the funicular up to the top of town and check out the castle 2. Wander the streets, poke you head into a few churches. Listen for music when you do - when I was there, I was walking the streets and heard a church organ, followed the sound into a beautiful cathedral where someone was practicing. Don't know if it he was playing Mozart (my guess was Bach - it was over the top) but it sounded magnificent - I sat there for a half hour, transfixed - my wife had to literally drag me back out into the street. 3. Walk down Getrudestrasse or whatever it's called - the crowded shopping street with all the wrought-iron signs (crowded, a bit tacky, but worth a look). 4. Just enjoy walking around the city. The old city is great, but consider a short stroll across the river to the park on the new side.
5. Poke you head into the cemetery, and peek into the "caves" or catacombs or whatever they're calling them, but they're not worth paying for or spending more than a couple minutes. When you get home and watch the movie, you can play the game where you spot the places you've seen.

Walk through the Mirabell Gardens. You could even have your kids sing DoReMi as you find all the spots from the movie. If your kids are young, there is a great playground at the park there. The old town of Salzburg is very compact, you'll be able to cover alot of area in a day.

I would just walk around town. Go see Mirabell Gardens and the castle.

We went on the Fraulein Maria's Sound of Music tour. It only took a couple hours, but by being on the bikes we covered a lot of ground and saw some terrific parts of Salzburg. We had watched SOM prior to leaving home, so we thought it was fun to see all the things we had viewed in the movie. We climbed to the top of the fortress and had apfel strudel at the restaurant at the top. The view was spectacular. If you are there for dinner, we thought it was neat to go to the Augustiner Brew House for an hour or two to eat. It's not right downtown, but just a short walk. Enjoy your trip!

I had one day in Salzburg, and I did not do a SOM tour. However, I did manage to see most of the venues from the movie that are still in Salzburg. "with the smaller than you think gazebo" The reason the gazebo at Hellbrunn is smaller than you expect is that it was only used for distant shots. The "gazebo" used in the song and dance numbers was actually a set in Hollywood where they could control the weather and lighting (did you think it just happened to start raining in the middle of the scene?). Get the DVD of SOM, the one with the commentary by producer/director Robt Wise. You'll find that most of the "venues" in SOM are either places (like Mirabelle) that you can easily see without a tour, shot in Hollywood, or temporary sets that no longer exist.

the castle and the gardens - but the old town is nice to wander - when we were there, there was a fair on, and sellers set up selling homemade goods - that was fun too, but it was mid-Sept, so don't know if it's a year round thing, or just when we were there...

I've wanted to visit Salzburg since I was 5. I took the tour, along with my best friend, who had never seen the movie, and we loved it. We got out of the town (some of the scenes were shot near the lake district) and we enjoyed it tremendously. If you love the movie, take the tour. You won't regret it.

The wedding church in Mondsee is one of the few existing venues from the movie that you cannot see by just walking around town. So I wanted to see it and took the bus there in 2009. It's a nice church but hardly worth the extra time to get to it. The start of the movie also shows a town, St. Gilgen, I believe, in the lake district, but there are as many scenes in the beginning from Berchtesgaden, and Berchtesgaden is much closer.

Looking for advice. Thinking of going to Salzburg from wengen Switzerland and saying two days then heading down to Italy. Any thoughts on this. Is it feasible, practical. Time wise are we ending to much time traveling. Thanks for your help