Sound of Music Tour?

I am an avid fan of the movie, SOM. I have played the movie over and over again, and I have been to Salzburg. I have thoroughly examined every tour someone has suggested. In my opinion, they are all scams (well, over-hyped, at least). There are a lot of venues from the movie still in existence, like Maribell Palace (do-re-mi steps, arbor), the old town, the fortress above Salzburg, the Abbey, but you can visit these places on your own.

The places that these tours hype, like Leopoldskron, were not actually used in the movie. Most of the scenes from the movie (indoor scenes in the Von Trap home, singing and dancing scenes at the gazebo) were shot in sound stages in Hollywood. The gazebo at Hellbrunn was only used for distant shots.

Get the DVD of the movie, the one with commentary by director Robt. Wise, and you will understand.

The only place you can't see in Salzburg is the wedding church, the Mondsee Basilica. I saw it as a bus trip from Salzburg last August. It's not as impressive as it looked in the movie.

Since you are already out in the lakes area, you could visit Mondsee (and the church) on your own. Many of the sights in Salzburg are within walking distance. A few need to be driven to or biked to. (The front of the house, the Leopolskon which was the back of the house, and the gazebo) We did the SOM tour in 2001, and I was a little disappointed. In 2003, we had bikes and biked to most of the sites and it was a lot of fun. We did it again in 2008 when we visited with my sister and brother-in-law. My memories of the tour: The front of the house is on a bike/walking bath, so we only saw it from a distance. Our bus couldn't drive to the back of the house so we never saw that in 2001. We stopped in St Gilgen, where they encouraged us to shop in an area designed for tour buses. Many people never even made it up to the charming part of town. (We had been there before and skipped the shopping.) Then someone didn't return on time, so the rest of us sat on the bus for 30 minutes while they tried to find them (lecturing us about how this would mean we would all have less time in Mondsee) In Mondsee, our guide tried to herd us into a place for apple strudel ($$) where someone who actually knew the Van Trapps worked. We ducked out because we wanted to explore the town which didn't make our tour guide happy. The last part of the trip was all about the importance of tipping Many people love the tour, and it did give us an introduction to the sites. But I won't do it again. We didn't have a great tour guide and I think that makes a big difference. We did buy a little paper back book there about the filming of the move and the sites and have gottan our monies worth out of it. (took it back in 2003 and 2008) Have a great trip.

You really should listen to director Robt. Wise's commentary on the DVD. I think he knows what he did.

According to Wise, they couldn't get permission to use Leopoldskron for filming. The "patio" you see in the movie was a copy of the patio at Leopoldskron, a temporary set constructed elsewhere on the lake. The scene, after the boat swamping, where Von Trapp and Maria are talking, was filmed in two different locations, the lakeside patio set and the back of the Frohnburg, which is not on a lake and is the same building used for outside shots as the Von Trapp home. The Gazebo, which was only used for distant shots, was originally on the lakeside set and has since been moved to Hellbrunn, which has nothing to do with the movie. The singing and dancing scenes ("You are 16..." and "I must have done something good") were filmed in a sound stage in Hollywood where they could control the lighting and rain.

There are a lot of authentic sites in town (Mirabell Palace, old town, Nonneberg Abbey, Fortress) to see without taking an expensive tour of irrelevant sites.

We've done the tour every time we've been to Salzburg but one. If you can get the Panorama Tour with their experienced male guide (I forget his name, but he's hilarious, it's well worth the time, and $$. Just sitting on a bus full of SOM fans is an experience in itself - especially if it's a lively crowd.

My folks saw the original production on Broadway, way back when, and we go to the Sound of Music Sing-a-Long every time it comes to town. (Sometimes we even watch the movie the night before. lol)

I'd highly recommend the tours.