For the children:
1 There is a very good adventure playground in the Mirabel Gardens, including a large slide. There is also a good adventure playground at the Hellbrun Gardens as well as a good playing area for soccer, frisbees etc. Also at Hellbrun there is a Wasserspeile (trick fountains) which you go through as part of a guided tour (the reason will become obvious) which takes about 20-25 minutes. To get to Hellbrun, take bus 29 – which is about a 10-15 minutes trip. When you get there, make sure you check the timetable for return buses on the other side of the road as you may otherwise have a long wait.
Restaurants
2 An unmissable restaurant is the Stiftskeller St Peters. The restaurant claims to be one of the oldest in Europe. It is not all that easy to find, being at a foot of the rockface next to St Peters (near one of the entrances to the charming St Peters cemetery, which was the inspiration for the cemetery scene in The Sound of Music). It is moderately formal and very atmospheric. For those who care, Bill Clinton has eaten there. We attended a very entertaining Mozart concert there – it was a memorable experience.
3 Zum Mohren is a restaurant which claims to specialise in Austrian, Italian and Indian cuisine. Normally that would have me running a mile. However, this place is cheerful and provides good food (the mixed pasta for two was very good) and is child-friendly.
The Sound of Music tour
4 I agree with the comments of other contributors that Bob’s Tours seems to be the best. Even if you don’t use Bob’s, make sure you do a tour which uses a small shuttle bus, rather than one of the big coaches, as that we will enable you to take more scenic routes. Having said that, 40 years on, the part of the tour that focusses on scenes from the movie is a mild disappointment. First of all, it must be remembered that all of the inside scenes and some outside scenes (eg the cemetery and the gazebo) were in fact filmed in Hollywood. Even for the external scenes, time has taken its toll. For instance, the real gazebo has now been relocated to Hellbrun and cannot be entered; the tree-lined street where all the children were in the trees was in 2005 made into a public park and a number of the older trees were removed. However, the tour makes up for it in showcasing some wonderful Austrian countryside. The guides also give interesting information and insights about the shooting of the film (eg the song Edelweiss was in fact written for the film and is not an Austrian folk song) as well as information about the real Von Trapp family. Highly recommended.
Day trip – Salt Mines
5 Although we did not do it on this trip, I remember that the trip to the salt mines was very interesting.
Day trip – Berchtesgaden (Eagle’s Nest)
6 This is Hitler’s mountain retreat. It is where you will have no doubt seen in the archival footage of Hitler looking relaxed and playing with Eva and children in a paved area at the back of the house and also taking in the views. To get there by public transport, take bus number 840 from Mozartsteg to Berchtesgaden (8 euros return, 35 minute trip one way, departs hourly, usually at 24 minutes past the hour). At Berchtesgaden bus station, in front of you will be a stop for bus 838 which takes you up the mountain (included in the price of the return ticket from Salzburg ) to a type of base camp called Dokumentation which is the first stop on the mountain. You need to then go to the ticket office and buy a ticket for the special bus up the mountain (which runs every 25 minutes – 14 euros return). The road up the mountain is quite an engineering feat and provides some spectacular views. Having said that, the ‘Eagle’s Nest House’ is somewhat disappointing. Basically only two rooms are open to the public; the conference room with its huge fireplace (spoiled by the tacky café operating throughout the room) and the dining room (in which a rather dark restaurant now operates); there is also a picture gallery in a side passage. I noticed other subscribers talking about booking a tour, but none were on offer when we were there – perhaps a tour enables you to go into other parts of the complex. In any event, the overall experience made the trip well worthwhile; these included the trip up the mountain, the lift which goes up through the mountain for the final climb to the house, treading where Hitler did in those famous home videos, and of course the stunning scenery. They ask you to nominate the time of your bus back – they suggest allowing two hours but I suggest you don’t need more than an hour and a half. We caught the 1.05 pm bus back down which linked up very well with the local bus back to Berchtesgaden (the 838) and then with the bus back to Salzburg; however, Berchtesgaden itself had some very interesting architecture and probably would have been worth spending some time in.
Day trip- Ice Caves
7 These are apparently very good.
Overall
I think that Salzburg is, other than Paris, the most tourist-friendly/ interesting city in Western Europe and should not be missed.
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What a great, informative post. I agree about Stiftskeller St Peter. We went in last week, not to eat unfortunately, but to view all the Christmas decorations which were fabulous. I also agree about Zum Mohren. We%26#39;ve eaten there often and never been disappointed. Da Pippo, at the bottom of Altermarkt is also very good and reasonable.
For those who are energetic you can walk to Hellbrunn from the city. A tree lined, traffic-free walk takes you in a straight line down to the palace. I believe this is the way the Prince Archbishop travelled with his entourage during the 1600s. It is interesting to view the fortress from another angle. You also pass Frohnburg, a house that was featured in The Sound of Music, en route. At Hellbrunn you can explore acres of ground. The stone theatre is spectacular, set into the side of a hill. If you go to the top of the hill there are wonderful views of the Watzmann mountain. The folkmuseum is also set on the same hill. The path leads back down by the zoo and the ibex can be seen from the path.
The ice caves are spectacular and again you need to be quite energetic. There is quite a walk even from the car park and you need good shoes on. But the views on a clear day are amazing and worth the treck even if you don%26#39;t actually go into the caves. There is a wonderful restaurant up there too.
I wish more people would explore Salzburg and get off the tourist trail. The bus service is superb and with a weekly ticket you have cheap unlimited travel within the city area. We always ask locals places they recommend when we have a hire car and we found a fantastic tiny road through a gorge, popular with cyclists, that we%26#39;d never have found in the guidebooks. Austria is a fantastic country and Salzburg an excellent base to explore from.
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Thank you for all this information, we are going to Salzburg in february and would like to do the Eagle%26#39;s Nest trip as you did, are the buses etc running in February? If not is it possible to get a taxi or is it too far?
many thanks
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Maxiewaxie,
I would be reasonably sure the local buses would be running (ie getting you to Dokumentation). However you had better check whether the shuttle buses continue running up to the top of the mountain in mid winter.
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Eagles Nest is not open in winter- the road is snow covered - usually open in April- May when weather permits.
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