Salzburg
Salzburg is the city you sleep in to reach the lakes, and it earns its nights on its own. A fortress never taken, Mozart's birthplace and five summer weeks of festival opera.
Salzburg in a nutshell
Salzburg: what to expect
Every number below comes from 82,000+ planned stops in Austria on Stippl.
Salzburg holds most travellers for 2 nights on Stippl, and the old town fills them without effort. The Altstadt sits between the Salzach and the Mönchsberg and you cross it in twenty minutes: Getreidegasse with its wrought-iron guild signs and Mozart's birthplace, the cathedral squares, and the funicular up to Hohensalzburg. Across one bridge are the Mirabell gardens, free and the most photographed spot in the city.
The trip Salzburg belongs to is the lakes, not Vienna. Hallstatt is the place Salzburg is most often planned with on Stippl, more than twice as often as chance would give, with Zell am See and Innsbruck behind it. Vienna, two hours twenty away on an hourly train, is the one big Austrian stop that Salzburg trips carry less often than chance. For most travellers the two cities are different holidays.
So give it two nights, and a third if you want a lake. Spend the first day on the old town and the fortress and the second at Hellbrunn's trick fountains or out in the Salzkammergut, and buy the Salzburg Card for the day that has the fortress, a Mozart museum and Hellbrunn in it. Book around the festival, because from mid-July to the end of August every room in the city is priced for it. Skip Salzburg if you want a big city to disappear into; the old town is about a kilometre across and full in summer.
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Classical music lovers
Mozart's birthplace and his family's residence, concerts in the fortress and the palaces all year, and five summer weeks of the biggest festival of its kind.
Short-break travellers
The old town is small enough to do properly in a day and rich enough for two, and most travellers give Salzburg 2 nights on Stippl.
Lake-district explorers
Hallstatt, the Salzkammergut and Berchtesgaden are all day trips, and Hallstatt is the place Salzburg is most often planned with on Stippl.
Sound of Music fans
Mirabell's Pegasus fountain from the Do-Re-Mi scene, the film locations around Leopoldskron and Hellbrunn, and the tours that link them all.
Families with children
Short walking distances, a funicular up to a real fortress, and Hellbrunn's trick fountains, which soak visitors on purpose from April to October.
Maybe not for you: anyone who wants a big city to disappear into, since the old town is about a kilometre across; and anyone coming in July or August without festival plans, when the city is full and priced for the festival.
The best time to visit Salzburg
Shoulder
May, June and September
Warm, fully open and outside both the festival and the markets. September is the strongest month of the year, once the festival crowds have left.
Festival
Mid July to the end of August
Opera, drama and concerts fill the city, and rooms everywhere are priced for them. Come for the festival, or plan the trip around it.
Markets
Late November to Christmas
The Christmas markets fill the cathedral square and Residenzplatz. It is cold and busy at weekends, and the second reason to come in the dark half of the year.
Quiet
January to March, and November
Cheap, cold and empty, with the fortress in snow. Hellbrunn is shut until April, which takes a day out of a winter visit.
- The Salzburg Festival fills the city from mid-July to the end of August. Opera, drama and concerts have run since 1920, and rooms across the whole city are priced against them, including hotels with no link to the festival, so book early or come in June or September.
- The Whitsun Festival is the short spring edition. It is a four-day programme over the Whitsun weekend in late May, run by the same organisation as the summer festival, and it is the one May weekend to check before booking.
- Hellbrunn is open from April to October only. The palace and the trick fountains close for the winter, which removes a whole day from a cold-season visit; the old town, the fortress and the markets carry a winter trip instead.
- Most Austria trips on Stippl are planned about 80 days out, and a festival summer needs longer. Salzburg in July and August books up across every price band, so fix the rooms before the trains when the dates fall inside the festival.
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Things to do in Salzburg
Hohensalzburg fortress
Ride the funicular up, or walk it in about twenty minutes, then follow the ramparts for the view over the Baroque roofs to the mountains. The fortress ticket includes the funicular.
Getreidegasse and its guild signs
The shopping street still advertises in wrought-iron pictures, and Mozart was born in the yellow house at number 9. Eat a block off it; the street's restaurants are priced for the street.
Mirabell Gardens
The formal gardens across the river are free and the most photographed spot in Salzburg, with the Pegasus fountain from the Do-Re-Mi scene and the old town across the water.
Hellbrunn's trick fountains
A prince-archbishop's practical joke from 1615 that still soaks visitors in the palace gardens. Bus 25 gets there in about twenty minutes, and it is open from April to October only.
St Peter's cemetery and catacombs
Arcaded graves stand against the cliff, with chapels cut into the Mönchsberg rock above them. The cemetery is free and the catacombs charge a small entry fee.
An evening at the Augustiner Bräustübl
A monastery beer hall in Mülln with a food market inside and a chestnut garden outside. Take a stoneware mug from the shelf, rinse it, have it filled from the barrel and pay in cash.
The neighbourhoods of Salzburg
Altstadt
Baroque lanes under the fortress
The UNESCO old town on the left bank: Getreidegasse, the cathedral, the squares and the funicular to the fortress. For first visits and anyone who wants to walk everywhere.
Everything within ten minutes on foot, and the highest room prices in Salzburg.
Neustadt and Mirabell
Palace gardens and shopping streets
The right bank around the Mirabell palace and gardens, Mozart's family residence and the shopping streets, one bridge from the old town. For first-timers and families who want value.
The old town and the classic view of it across the river, and a bridge to cross each time.
Elisabeth-Vorstadt
Plain, busy station quarter
The station district north of the centre: clean, convenient and unlovely, with the cheapest beds in the city. For budget travellers and anyone catching an early train.
Every departure on the doorstep, and a plain quarter with little to see.
Steingasse and Kapuzinerberg
Medieval lane under a wooded hill
A narrow medieval lane on the right bank below the Kapuzinerberg, the oldest street in Salzburg, with the path up the hill behind it. For second visits and anyone who wants quiet.
The best view of the old town, and a steep climb to earn it.
Mülln
Hillside village with abbey beer
A hillside village inside the city on the left bank, around the abbey and the Augustiner Bräustübl beer hall. For budget travellers and anyone who wants evenings among locals.
The least touristy room in Salzburg, and a fifteen-minute walk to the centre.
Nonntal
Quiet green streets, fortress above
Residential streets on the south side of the fortress hill, quiet and green, about ten minutes on foot from the old town. For families and anyone on a longer stay.
Quiet nights with the fortress overhead, but a walk in for every sight.
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Where to stay in Salzburg
Stay in the Altstadt or across the river around Mirabell for a first visit: the two banks are one bridge apart and the whole city is walked. Most travellers give Salzburg 2 nights on Stippl, one for the old town and one for a lake. Book against the festival, not the season: from mid-July to the end of August rooms across the city are priced for it.
Altstadt
€160–350
Hotels and guesthouses in the old buildings, from €160 to €350 for a double, at their highest in festival weeks.
Neustadt and Mirabell
€110–240
Mid-range hotels and apartments near the gardens, from €110 to €240, the value choice for a first visit.
Elisabeth-Vorstadt
€70–150
Hostels and simple hotels near the station, from €70 to €150 for a double, the city's real hostel layer.
Steingasse and Kapuzinerberg
€120–260
Small hotels and guesthouses in old houses on the right bank, from €120 to €260 a night.
Mülln
€100–200
Guesthouses and small hotels near the beer hall, from €100 to €200, with the river a few minutes downhill.
Nonntal
€100–210
Apartments and family rooms on residential streets, from €100 to €210 a night, with space to spread out.
What to eat in Salzburg
A giant baked sweet soufflé in three peaks, meant for two people
Pistachio marzipan and nougat in chocolate; the handmade original is a different object from the foil-wrapped one
A grilled sausage in a spiced onion and curry roll, a Salzburg street invention
Brewed by monks and served from wooden barrels into stoneware
Cheese dumplings with fried onion, the alpine everyday dish
The two Austrian sweets a mountain lunch ends with
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Salzburg customs and what not to do
Dress up for the festival
Evening dress is normal at the festival's opera and drama, and the city dresses for it in a way that surprises first-time visitors.
The guild signs are protected
The old town is a working UNESCO site, so rooflines and signs are protected, which is why even the chain shops on Getreidegasse hang hand-made signs.
The cathedral closes for Mass
Salzburg Cathedral is off-limits to visitors during Mass and the noon organ recitals, so plan a visit around the service times.
Rinse your own beer mug
At the Augustiner Bräustübl you take a mug from the shelf, rinse it yourself, have it filled and find a seat; that is the system, not neglect.
Do
- Reserve restaurant tables, above all at weekends and for brunch.
- Carry cash for the Augustiner Bräustübl and the markets.
- Start the Salzburg Card on the morning of your busiest day, since it counts hours from first use.
- Keep phones and cameras dry at Hellbrunn's trick fountains.
Don't
- Eat on Getreidegasse; the restaurants a block away cost less.
- Walk the fortress path back down after dinner; it is steep and unlit.
- Swim in the Salzach; it is a fast, cold alpine river.
- Order a Salzburger Nockerl each; one is made for two.
What a Salzburg trip costs
Backpacker
€55–95
A hostel or budget bed near the station, self-catering and the old town on foot, before the Salzburg Card.
Mid-range
€130–210
A double in the old town or on the right bank, the Salzburg Card for the fortress and a Mozart museum, and one restaurant meal.
High-end
€300–500+
A four- or five-star hotel with a spa, a Mozart dinner concert and private guiding.
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Fun facts about Salzburg
Hohensalzburg was begun in 1077 and has never been taken. It is among the largest fully preserved medieval fortresses in central Europe, and you can see it from nearly everywhere in the city.
The Salzburg Festival has run since 1920. It is the largest event of its kind in the German-speaking world, with opera, drama and concerts across five summer weeks.
Salzburg's wealth came from salt shipped down the Salzach. The prince-archbishops taxed the trade, and the Baroque old town is what that money built.
The Augustiner Bräustübl seats well over a thousand drinkers. The beer is brewed by monks and poured from wooden barrels into stoneware mugs that you rinse yourself.
Nonnberg Abbey was founded between 712 and 715. It is the oldest Benedictine nunnery in the German-speaking world, and the real Maria von Trapp was a novice there.
The Mirabell Dwarf Garden holds 17 dwarves in white Untersberg marble. They are covered over every winter to protect the stone from ice.
Local tips for Salzburg
Start the card deliberately
The Salzburg Card counts its 24, 48 or 72 hours from first use, not by calendar day, so switch it on the morning of the fortress, a Mozart museum and Hellbrunn.
The funicular is in the ticket
The fortress ticket includes the FestungsBahn, so there is no separate fare to buy, and the free walk up takes about twenty minutes by day.
Fly into the city, or Munich
Salzburg's airport is inside the city, twenty minutes from the centre on bus 2 or 10, and Munich is about ninety minutes away by train when its fares are cheaper.
How long to stay
Most people give Salzburg 2 nights on Stippl: one day for the old town and the fortress, one for Hellbrunn or a lake, and a third if Berchtesgaden is on the list.
Berchtesgaden is a bus away
Bus 840 crosses into Germany in about fifty minutes for the Königssee and the Eagle's Nest, a different country's mountains from the same hotel.
Mind your bag on Getreidegasse
Salzburg is a very safe small city, but the guild-sign street and the Christmas markets are its two most crowded places, and that is where pickpockets work.
Salzburg questions, answered
Yes, and take the lakes as day trips rather than moving hotels. Most travellers give Salzburg 2 nights on Stippl, so lay those days out in Stippl and check how the train and boat times to Hallstatt fit around them. Then put the plan in front of people who have been, in subreddits like r/austria, and say how you like to travel when you ask.
Hallstatt, far ahead of anywhere else. Of everyone who plans Salzburg on Stippl, the lake village is the strongest pairing, and Vienna is the one big Austrian stop that Salzburg trips carry less often than chance. Only 22.34% of the Salzburg stops planned on Stippl run to three nights or more, so the lakes are usually a day out rather than a second base.
Two nights. 37.35% of the Salzburg stops planned on Stippl are a single night, more than in Vienna, because Salzburg sits on the rail route between Vienna, the lakes and Innsbruck. One night covers the old town at a run; the fortress, Hellbrunn and a lake need the second.
You can, at two hours twenty each way on the hourly train, but an overnight is much better, because the old town is at its best in the evening and early morning. Salzburg trips on Stippl carry Vienna less often than chance would give, so the city usually works better as the start of a lakes and mountains trip than as a side trip from Vienna.
On a day that includes the fortress, a Mozart museum and Hellbrunn. The Salzburg Card covers entry to all three plus the fortress funicular, the Mönchsberg lift and the city buses, and it counts its hours from first use rather than by calendar day, so start it on the morning of your busiest day.
No. The FestungsBahn funicular is included in the Hohensalzburg ticket and takes about a minute from the old town. The walk up is free, takes about twenty minutes and is fine by day, but the path is steep and unlit, so take the funicular back down after an evening concert in the fortress.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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