Sound of Music tours

Many posters here say they liked Bob's Tours for the Sound of Music tour because of the smaller van size and, they felt, a more personal experience.

If going place to place on mini-bus sounds appealing, many people do have good reviews of BOB's. However, we were intrigued by the idea of doing it on bike (and the fact that it was half the price of Bob's) and so we chose Maria's SOM bicycle tour. We had a great time. The biking was easy (only one hill which most of us walked our bikes up) and it was a great way to go casual and see a bit of off-the-beaten-path Salzburg.

I had a friend who bookeda private tour through viator and said it was fantastic. She said that you don't just get history of the sound of music but history of the city and surrounding area. She said to be sure to book the private tour and not the regular tour, which you will be tempted to do because of the cost difference. She finally convienced me it was worth the money. My husband and I will be there mid May and will be taking that tour

I'm planning to do the SOM tour when I get to Salzburg in early June. I read the descriptions in the RS Germany guidebook, and decided I'd try the biking tour. Randy, nice to read that you enjoyed the biking tour. I'm looking forward to it.

Before you do any Sound of Music tour, get the DVD of the movie that has the commentary by Producer/Director Robt Wise. You'll find that there is very little authentic in any tour. Although some of the movie was shot in Salzburg, those venues you can see by yourself, just walking around. A great deal of the movie was shot in sound stages in Hollywood. The gazebo they show you was a small one only used for distant shots; where they did the singing and dancing was a set in Hollywood (did you really believe the rain just happened to happen?). They'll show you Leopoldskron and tell you the lakeside scenes were shot there, but they were not. They couldn't get permission to shoot at Leopoldskron, so they built a temporary set that looked a lot like it somewhere else on the lake and shot there. That set was torn down. The famous scene where the Captain and Marie are talking after the boat swamping was actually shot at two places, the lakeside set and the back of Frohnburg, which isn't even on a lake. So, you might as well ride around in a van in Hollywood singing "Do, a deer" with a bunch of other clueless Americans, but if that is how you want to spend your money, and you are in Salzburg, do it. As for Neuschwanstein and Dachau, do them on your own. No one has ever been able to establish that those tours are any better than what you get from the sites themselves. All they do is hold your hand and take you out, and charge you a lot for the service.

I took a Bob's SOM tour and enjoyed it. They were pretty honest about where the movie was really filmed, what was authentic and what wasn't. They said at the beginning you might be disappointed to find some of this out if you didn't already know it, but I did already know it. I really enjoyed this tour because it got you into the mountains outside of Salzburg. We stopped for cake at a beautiful place overlooking a lake (there is a shot of his place in the very beginning of the movie,) and we visited the place where the church was at that was used in the film. There are many SOM sites in the old part of Salzburg that the tour cannot get to, but you can walk to on your own. Bob's tour van picked us up right at our hotel, which was very nice. If you take it, make sure you are prepared-they don't drop you off at the end back at your hotel. They leave you at Mirabell Gardens.

"They were pretty honest about where the movie was really filmed". Really. This is a quote from their website, "...a stop at the magnificent Palace of Leopoldskron - one of two mansions used as the Von Trapp Home and the place where the children famously fell into the lake." Like I said, get the DVD and listen to Robert Wise. You will know that Leopoldskron was not not used in the movie. We went to Salzburg one cold morning in January and walked around the town. We saw everything in Salzburg that was actually in the movie (overall shots of Salzburg, Residenz, do-re-mi steps, arbor, Nonnenberg Abbey) except the riding academy and the Frohnburg (only used for outside scenes), and the small gazebo (used only for distant shots). We went into the chapel at the Abbey and I was surprised that it didn't look like the one in the movie (a set). We didn't see the church at Mondsee that day (but I've been there since). You can get there by bus from the Salzburg Hbf.

If you are a fan of the movie, you will still be happy to see the places that LOOK like the places in the movie, even if they weren't actually filmed there. The gazebo is not even in the original location where it was built for the movie, behind the Meierhof (next to Schloss Leopoldskron), but it's still from the movie, so why should it matter? Many, many people have posted here that, although it might not be an "authentic" experience, it was still fun. And as an earlier poster said, it also takes you to the areas outside of Salzburg, such as Mondsee, that are in the movie.

We used Bobs to do the SOM. I was great because it was the 5 of us and just 2 others in a van which was a small and comfortable size. Just like the RS book says even if you are not a big movie fan, the ride to the Austrian countryside was spectacular. We also did Neuschwanstein and Dachau, but on our own. Neuschwanstein and the other castle were easy(we stayed in Fessen) as the tickets included guided tours of the castle. The same at Dachau, once there, we just found the english speaking guide and followed him around. Dachau wasn't fun but our family thought it was a must see and we were glad we did. Have an awesome time.

I second the advice to do the Fraulein Maria's Sound of Music bike tour. We took our two teens, and all of us enjoyed it a lot!

When I took the Bob's SOM tour the guide was very explicit about the home and that only exterior shots were taken. I enjoyed the way the tour not only got us around Salzburg, but also took us to the church where the wedding was filmed. I got the DVD later and enjoyed it even more having been to some of the places.

Thanks for all the help. I think we're going to go the Bob route since he offers SOM with a trip to Halstatt. I appreciate all the advice.