Five Awesome Days In Salzburg, Austria

🎵Salzburg: A Tapestry of History, Melody, and Alpine Vistas

In 2025, my wife, teenage son, and I took an awesome summer vacation to Central Europe. We spent the middle part of our trip in Salzburg, Austria, a captivating city nestled on the edge of the Alps near the German border. Salzburg isn’t just one thing; it’s a city of four big features, and many others:

• The UNESCO World Heritage Old City, a time capsule of history where you can wander through well-preserved buildings. In particular, many of the buildings are from the baroque period, as Salzburg experienced a boom in the 17th century.
• The birthplace of Mozart and a mecca for classical music, with frequent concerts echoing through its streets.
• The real-life set of the iconic film, The Sound of Music, where you can follow in the footsteps of the Von Trapp family and visit famous movie locations.
• The breathtaking surrounding Alps, easily accessible for day trips to immerse yourself in majestic scenery.

Even five days felt like a whirlwind, not nearly enough time to soak it all in. In the coming paragraphs, I’ll take you through our five-day adventure.

🚅How We Got Here

Prague was the first part of our vacation, read all about it in Five Awesome Days In Prague! We booked a driver through Viator to take us from Prague to Salzburg, with a stop in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. Many other tour operators run similar trips to Salzburg, in particular from Munich and Vienna. Salzburg’s train station is well connected making it easy to come here by train as well. There is also an airport that’s well connected to the rest of Europe.

🎻Day 1 – Arrival and Mirabell Palace concert

🌹Mirabell Palace: Timeless Gardens and Salzburg’s Scenic Charm

We arrived in Salzburg around 4PM, checked into our hotel, and grabbed some dinner to settle in. Afterward, we took a walk over to the gardens at Mirabell Palace. If you’ve seen The Sound of Music, you might recognize them from the Do Re Mi scene – they’re just as picturesque in person. I’m not really into musicals, and I only watched The Sound of Music a few weeks before our trip so I’d have some idea of what people were talking about. So the connection didn’t mean much to me personally. But if you’re a fan of the movie, Salzburg definitely has a lot to offer—it’s easy to see why it’s such a favorite for fans.

Mirabell Palace, built in the 1600s, is impressively well preserved and surrounded by beautifully manicured gardens that feel like something out of a storybook. From the edge of the gardens, you get a postcard-perfect view of Hohensalzburg Fortress perched on the hill – our destination for tomorrow.

One of the nice things about Salzburg is how compact it is. Most of the main sights are within easy walking distance, which makes exploring super convenient. That said, we hopped on the bus from our hotel for a quick one-stop ride, because, why not. The public transit here is excellent – buses run frequently and connect all the key spots. Our hotel gave us a free transit pass, so we could jump on and off whenever we liked, using Google Maps to check schedules. Simple, smooth, and surprisingly efficient.

🎻 Mozart in Marble: An Unforgettable Evening at Mirabell Palace

We headed to Mirabell Palace that evening for a string concert in the Marble Hall, performed by the Salzburger Mozart Consort. I’d booked tickets in advance and we were really looking forward to it – Mozart actually composed and performed here with his family, which made the setting feel even more special.

The hall itself was stunning, with gleaming marble and elegant details that set the mood perfectly. But the concert was the real standout. I’m not usually into classical music, but I was completely drawn in. The musicians were incredible, and guest cellist Matthias Michael Beckmann was unforgettable. He shredded on a custom five-string cello with no sheet music, delivering solos that felt spontaneous and full of energy. It was easily one of the most memorable experiences of the whole trip, and something that I’ll remember the rest of my life.

🥣Day 2 – Salzburg sightseeing and cooking class

Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

We planned today to be our day to see the old city of Salzburg, and we did get to see a lot! But rain did hamper our plans a little bit. Before I get in to the specifics, I want to mention the Salzburg Card. You can buy a 24, 48, or 72 hour digital card, and get discounts or free admission to many of the best sights in Salzburg. This was well worth the money, even though we didn’t even come close to seeing everything you have access to. Just buy it, and keep the PDF handy on your phone, and you can just scan it at the places that take it. If you don’t get a transit pass from your hotel, that is also included in this.

🏰Hohensalzburg Fortress: A Morning Above Salzburg

So now on to what we did. We started the morning heading to the Hohensalzburg Fortress – the big fortress overlooking the city. Getting here was pretty easy – take the bus a few stops from the hotel, and then walk to the funicular to take up to the fortress. The short funicular ride is free if you have the Salzburg card.

Once we got up to the fortress, we walked around a bit and took a free guided tour (it’s free once you have the admissions ticket, which is included with the Salzburg card). We were the only ones on the tour, I guess because it was first thing in the morning. The views up here are so great – north view of town, and south view of the alps. The views alone are worth the trip.

Once the guided tour was over, we explored some of the interior which was included with the guided tour. The Prince’s rooms in particular were pretty cool to see, there is so much detail on the walls and ceilings.

After coming back down the funicular to the old city, we walked to St. Peter’s Abbey, and then on to Salzburg Cathedral for a 12:00 pipe organ concert. St. Peter’s Abbey is included in the Salzburg card, and we got to walk around Salzburg Cathedral with the pipe organ concert ticket which I had purchased online. St. Peter’s Abbey was pretty interesting, and since it’s included in the Salzburg Card it’s a nice quick place to see since everything is so close together. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it.

🎶 A Midday Pipe Organ Concert in the Cathedral

Salzburg Cathedral on the other hand is definitely worth a visit. It’s huge – the pictures don’t do it justice. The pipe organ concert is something you must experience! They do it every day at noon (except Sundays). It’s pretty short, just 30 minutes, but was pretty awesome. There are actually several different pipe organs, that the organists go between, but the highlight is the big pipe organ in the back at the end. Between this and the string concert the night before, this was a perfect 24 hours for my music loving son.

🏃DomQuartier Dash

With some time to spare after the pipe organ concert, we headed to the DomQuartier museum, conveniently located right next to the cathedral. It’s not just one museum—it’s a series of connected exhibits spread across several historic buildings, and there’s a lot to take in.

I didn’t quite plan the timing right, though. Since the museum follows a set route through all the sections, we had to rush to make it through before our next activity – a cooking class. If we’d had more time in Salzburg, I definitely would’ve come back to explore it properly.

One of the coolest parts? The museum connects directly to the back of Salzburg Cathedral, higher up, and you walk right past the pipe organ with a stunning overhead view of the entire space. It felt like perfect timing, having just experienced the concert earlier that day.

🥣Trying Our Hand at Austrian Classics

After our visit to the DomQuartier, we made a quick walk over to Edelweiss Cooking School for an afternoon class I’d booked. The building is built right into the cliff, which gave it a unique, cozy feel.
The class was a group setup – about six tables with small teams of 3-4, guided by a few helpful instructors. We made apple strudel and Salzburger Nockerl. We’d never made strudel before, and had never even heard of Nockerl, so it was a fun way to try something different.

While everything baked, they served goulash soup, which was a nice touch. Overall, it was a great experience – laid-back, hands-on, and a chance to cook and taste dishes we’d never had before.

I had planned to do some more after the cooking class, since it was only 3:30. But rain and thunderstorms were coming, so we got back to the hotel as fast as we could on a bus. That was it for today – it rained the rest of the afternoon and evening.

📋Day 3 – Laundry, Car pickup, Hellbrun Palace, Salzburg Festival

Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

🗑️I was determined to pack light for our two-week trip through Prague, Salzburg, and Grindelwald – but packing light for that long only works if you plan to do laundry. So we did. Originally, I considered using our hotel’s laundry service, which offered a full-bag option at a decent price. But since it was Friday, we likely wouldn’t get our clothes back before Monday – just as we’d be heading to our next destination, Switzerland.

Instead, we walked a few blocks to Norge Exquisit, the service our hotel uses, with dirty laundry in hand. They charge a fixed price per load and wash, dry, and fold everything the same day. We combined our laundry into one large load to save money, dropped it off, and picked it up clean and folded by 4:00. Doing laundry mid-trip was absolutely worth it despite limiting our plans for the day. The three of us packed just a week’s worth of clothes and fit everything into three carry-ons, a duffel, and a backpack. It made traveling between cities so much easier than hauling around oversized luggage.

🚗Getting a rental car

After dropping off our laundry in the morning, we tackled one more piece of trip logistics: picking up our rental car. Salzburg’s bus system is great for getting around the city, but if you want to explore the surrounding mountains and lakes, public transit gets trickier – especially with limited schedules.

So early in the planning, I decided to rent a car after our first day in Salzburg. I had a short list of must-see spots outside of Salzburg: Hallstatt, the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, Königssee, and Schafberg. Thanks to the car, we actually got to visit all of them—something that wouldn’t have been possible in just a few days without the flexibility of driving. Plus, I’ve always wanted to do a road trip through the Alps, and this was the perfect chance.

We picked up the car from Europcar at the Salzburg airport, which I had booked in advance. Getting there was pretty easy – a 20 minute bus ride from our hotel.

🏰Hellbrunn Palace

I had originally planned to drive to Lake Königssee in Germany today, but we ran behind picking up the rental car, and by the time we were ready, it was too late to see it, and be back for our laundry. So we pivoted and headed to Hellbrunn Palace instead.

Just a 15-minute drive from Salzburg, Hellbrunn is a beautifully preserved 17th-century palace known for its playful trick fountains and expansive gardens. You can wander the grounds and admire the architecture for free, but the real highlight – the fountains – requires a ticket that you can buy on site.

After picking up the car at the airport, we drove straight there and started with a walk around the palace exterior. And for Sound of Music fans, there’s a fun bonus: the famous glass gazebo from the movie is tucked away on the grounds and free to visit.

We didn’t do a tour inside of the palace, but we did do the trick fountains. This is a really fun, very different thing to do. There are a whole bunch of really weird and unique fountains and water powered figures here that you can walk around to see. But the “trick” part is the best though – there are fountains strategically placed so you don’t see them, and the employees here turn on to get you wet when least expect! On a hot day (90 degrees) this was definitely fun. To see the trick fountains – you need to buy a ticket in the gift shop, and it’s for a specific time. They take a group of people in at once, but after that you can essentially go at your own pace. They give you audio guides that explain each fountain.

The surprise water happens so quickly I didn’t get a good video of that, unfortunately.

🎶City Festival and a Music Lover’s Detour

After the trick fountains, we ate a late lunch here at Hellbrun Palace, and headed back to the hotel, and then after a bit, picked up our laundry. There was more we wanted to see in Salzburg, and there was the start of the Stadtfest Salzburg (City Festival Salzburg) starting today, so we took the bus 2 stops and walked. First up is the historic music sheet store Mayrische Musikalienhandlung. This has been a music shop since 1592! My son really wanted to see this so we made sure to go here and buy some sheet music. There’s so much here, organized by instrument, so this is another must visit place if you play music. But if you don’t play music, there’s not really anything here for you. The store is really close to the famous Linzer Gasse – a long street full of old buildings and shops. This was cool to walk around at, and if you like shopping there are plenty of interesting stores.

Today, and this whole weekend, there was a festival going on – the Stadtfest Salzburg. This is not the “Salzburg festival” which is a famous over month long festival of music and art that happens in July and August. The Stadtfest Salzburg is a long weekend festival where much of the old city of Salzburg is set up for live music, drinking, and food. We didn’t know this was happening until we got to Salzburg. There was a lot going on and it covered a large area.

Many restaurants had outside areas set up to get drinks, and covered seats around. In particular along Linzer Gasse. We stopped for a drink at one of them under an umbrella covered table, when it was raining, which was a nice way to relax. But it was quite crowded, in particular anywhere near the Salzach river and bridges in old city. This wasn’t really our kind of thing so we didn’t spent too long here before going back to the hotel and getting dinner nearby. Not to mention, it was raining on and off. But there was definitely some, uh, interesting live music. Some traditional – we saw a Bavarian band playing. And some like this one…

It rained pretty hard from about 5:30 on, so we’re glad we got to the hotel around then. We got dinner near the hotel and called it a day.

⛰️Day 4 – Hallstatt and Grossglockner alpine road trip

This is the day I was looking forward to the most on our whole vacation – a long day of driving through the Alps with sightseeing. And it did not disappoint. This was one of the best days of the whole trip.

🏞️Hallstatt at Dawn: A Postcard Come to Life

We got up VERY early to arrive at Hallstatt at 7AM. Hallstatt is a small scenic town about 75 minutes east of Salzburg along the Hallstatter See lake. Salt mining has been going on here for 7,000 years and is one of the oldest salt mines in the world. But, the real reason to come here is the scenery. The narrow town hugs right up against the lake with iconic views. You’ve probably seen Hallstatt featured in movies, TV, anything else that shows a picture perfect lake town in the Alps. We only came here for the views and the walk through town, but there is more to do like boat rides, and visiting the salt mines, that with more time we would have liked to do. But even on a compact schedule it was still amazing. The morning clouds over the mountains surrounding the lake, with the town in the background, was so memorable. It’s a very famous Instagram selfie spot.

Now if you’ve read anything about Hallstatt, you’ll know that everywhere says how crowded it is. That wasn’t the case for us though! We got here bright and early at around 7AM on a late June morning, and had the town almost to ourselves. Even the iconic Instagram shot place only had a few people there. And by the time we left at 9:00 or so, there weren’t many people here either. Early morning is definitely the time to come here. From what I’ve read, 10:00 or so is when the tour buses start coming so that’s when it gets packed. So get here early. Being able to come very early is another advantage of having a car.

We parked in the P2 lot which was nearly empty at 7AM and a quick walk to town. Almost all businesses were closed that early, but we did find one bakery open with pastries near town entrance, Cafe Backerei Konditirei Maislinger.

🏔️Mountains, Glaciers, and a Road You’ll Never Forget

Now it’s on to the Grossglockner HIgh Alpine Road. I’ve done a lot of scenic drives in my life, from many mountain roads in Colorado, to the entire Pacific Coast Highway, and this has to rank up there as one of if not the most scenic drives in my life. The views and scenery along this road is astounding, and the view at the end of Grossglockner mountain and the glaciers and lake are jaw dropping. There are places to stop all along the way to take pictures, let me share a few:

The end of the road is a huge complex and parking garage called Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe – the road ends here overlooking the tallest mountain in Austria and the largest glacier in the Eastern Alps. This is a viewpoint like no other – you’re at eye level to the glacier, and the glacial lake is below you. The colors here on a day with blue sky and some clouds are so varied – green, teal, blue, white, gray, and more. You can park at this 5 level garage, and walk out to see amazing sights. There is also a cafeteria style restaurant with good food (we got lunch here), some exhibits, and more. You can also walk up to a cool glass observation tower above the garage for even better views, Wilhelm Swarovski Observatory.

Wow, huh? As cool as this is, it’s a little sad of how much the glacier has retreated. This road was first built in 1935, and back then the glacier was not far from the parking lot. Now it’s very far down.

The tallest mountain here is Grossglockner, and is a top climbing spot as it’s the highest point in Austria. The end of the road is 7,772 feet above sea level, and Grossglockner is 12,461 feet above sea level. At the observatory, there is a spotting scope so you can take a look at the peak of Grossglocker, and if you’re lucky, see climbers. I was really lucky and saw some almost at the peak:

If you have a car, I definitely recommend the Grossglockner high alpine road – this is one of the most scenic drives you can ever do in your life, and is an engineering marvel. It’s worth renting a car just to see this. It took a little over 3 hours to get here from Hallstatt, with maybe half of that being on the mountain road. Just put Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe in Google Maps to get directions. There is just a little bit of a toll, 45 Euros (as of 2025). But it’s worth it. The road is smooth and well maintained, and while there are a lot of curves, I didn’t think it was scary or anything. Watch out for bicyclists though – there were a crazy amount of them on this road for most of the drive. And there were some stoppages from construction where the road was down to one lane. So don’t just assume that what Google Maps says as the time is how long it will take, be sure to give yourself plenty of time.

🛣️Back to Salzburg, with a Few Scenic Stops

After taking in the views at Grossglockner, we headed back to Salzburg via the same High Alpine Road. Still just as scenic on the way out – those mountain landscapes never get old. We made a couple of casual stops in Zell am See and Saalfelden. Nothing specific planned, just a chance to walk around and get a feel for the towns. Zell am See had great views of the lake, but felt like a rich resort town. Saalfelden was a laid back old European town. Both were pleasant and worth the time – quiet streets in Saalfelden, nice scenery, and a good way to break up the drive.

Coming back to Salzburg, we stopped just a bit outside of town for dinner, and walked to the lake behind Leopoldskron Palace – which is the von Trapp household from A Sound Of Music. We ate dinner at a restaurant right by here, but if you just want to see the lake, there is a public lot nearby. You can’t go in the house as it’s a hotel, but you can walk around the lake and get a good view of the back of the house.

I packed a lot in today – a lot of driving and amazing scenery. This was one of the best days of the trip.

🏞️Day 5 – Königssee, Schafberg, Augustiner Brau

Parking garage to walk to Schafberg cog railway

Today is our last full day in Austria. There was so much more I wanted to see in Salzburg and in the Austrian Alps, but only have one day. I still had the car, to drop off at the end of the day, so I decided to see two places with amazing mountain scenery – Schafberg and Königssee.

🛥️Serenity at Königssee

In the morning we headed for Königssee in Germany for a 8:30AM boat ride. Königssee is an absolutely beautiful lake in the southeast corner of Germany nestled between mountains. There is a boat tour operation that takes you on electric boats from one end of the lake to the other, about 40 minutes each way. This was such a great experience. The electric boat is so quiet and it’s so relaxing just riding the boat, soaking in the amazing scenery. A really cool thing the boat guide does in the middle is to cut the engines off, and blow a trumpet which echos off of the mountain sides. It’s so cool!

You can stop at the church pictured – there is somewhere to eat there, but we did not to save some time.

When you get off at the end, there is a short 15 minute walk to another lake, Obersee, nestled even tighter between mountains, for a fantastic photo opportunity. Königssee and Obersee are in the opening scene of A Sound Of Music from above. The view when you get to Obersee is can’t miss. There are amazing views along the way on this walk, and cows with bells! You can also walk around Obersee, but we didn’t do that – we just soaked in the view, and then turned around to go back to the docks.

The views here were amazing and so memorable. I really liked the morning colors with an early boat ride. It wasn’t too crowded for us, although the 8:30 boat was pretty full – I think it was the very first boat of the day. I’ve read it can get quite crowded, and when we got back to the main docks to go back to the car, there were a lot of people. So I probably would recommend early morning, although maybe not the very first boat. But I think any time would be a good experience.

📋This was an easy 40 minute drive from Salzburg to the big parking lot. From there it’s a short walk down to the docks. For the boat ride, basically you can buy tickets in advance for a specific time online (which we did), and then show up at the dock at around the time. The ticket will have a departure (fahrt) number on it, just go to the dock when it shows your number, scan your ticket, and get on the boat. Salet is the end that goes to Obersee, and I recommend going straight there and not stopping at the church. If you do want to stop at the church, do that after you come back from Obersee. When you’re done at Salet just wait for the next boat.

⛰️Schafberg’s Summit: A Window to Austria’s Lakes

After gliding back across Königssee, we returned to the car and set off for our next stop: the lakeside town of Saint Wolfgang im Salzkammergut. Our goal? The Schafberg cog railway, a steep climb to one of the most breathtaking viewpoints in Austria.

We parked a short walk from the station and wandered through Saint Wolfgang – a charming town perched on the edge of Wolfgangsee lake. The cog railway winds its way up to Schafberg mountain, where the summit opens up to a panorama of crystal-clear lakes, jagged cliffs, green meadows, and distant peaks. It’s a view that feels almost surreal.

The drive from Königssee took about an hour and a half; from Salzburg, it’s closer to one hour. When I saw pictures from Schafberg while planning the trip, I knew I had to go there. The scenery here is completely different from yesterday’s glacier-lined valleys. Schafberg sits at 5,850 feet, perfectly placed on the edge of the Alps, with 360 degree views of many lakes and mountains.

🚂Climbing Schafberg

To ride the cog rail, you need to get a ticket at the ticket booth. Everything is timed – so you have to get a timed ticket both to go up and come back down. We got there mid day, and all of the trains going up were pretty open with plenty of seats, so we could pick a time. But, all of the trains coming back down except the last two for the day were full. So we booked the second to last of the day. This gave us more time at Schafberg, and it gave us time to get lunch in town. You can also book the ticket online, but since we didn’t know exactly when we’d get here we bought it at the ticket booth.

After getting lunch down the street (there are plenty of restaurants near the cog rail station), we took the cog ride up to Schafberg. It’s about 35 minutes and goes up about 4,000 feet of elevation gain. It’s pretty cool how it works, and you are at a pretty steep angle most of the way up. Once you get about half way up the views are amazing, but they’re even better at the top, so you don’t need to try to get pictures all along the ride up.

Stepping off the train at the summit, you’re instantly greeted by jaw-dropping panoramic views – but the best viewpoint lies just a short walk uphill. At the very edge of the cliff sits a mountaintop hotel, complete with a restaurant and gift shop, perched like a lookout over the world below. From here, the scenery is nothing short of surreal. What makes Schafberg truly unforgettable is the unbroken 360-degree views. Lakes shimmer in every direction, framed by rolling hills and distant peaks, with nothing to block your gaze.

The pictures don’t do it justice but these panoramas hopefully will put it in perspective.

The hotel has an outside bar that you can get drinks at and sit enjoying the view looking south, so we hung out here for a while before coming back down.

After coming back down, we drove back to Salzburg, took the car back to the rental company to drop off, and took a taxi back to the hotel.

🍺Raise a Stein in Salzburg’s Legendary Beer Garden

There was one more place that I had to see in Salzburg – the Augustiner Brau Beer Garden. This is a big brewery with a huge outdoor beer garden, and indoor food hall and seating. They’ve been brewing here since 1621! This place is enormous – total capacity for outside and inside is 2,400 people.

There’s a very efficient system here to get your beer. First, there was only one beer when I was here that I could tell. No big list of 20 beers and 6 IPAs to choose from – just one good beer. This keeps things moving smoothly. The ultimate beer experience in Salzburg explains a lot of how it works, but I’ll summarize. You get in line at the cashier, pay for either a 500mL or 1L stein, grab one after paying, get in line at the tap, wash out your mug in the fountain, and hand your ticket to the bartender. He’ll fill up your mug and pass it back. There was just one cashier and bartender when we were there, for hundreds and hundreds of people, yet the system worked fine, I didn’t have to wait long to get a beer.

If you go inside and upstairs from the garden, there is a food hall with plenty of vendors selling great food. Most places have pictures of the food, and they do speak English so it’s pretty easy to order. But the number of choices, and seeing lots of kinds of meat you’ve probably never heard of did make it a little overwhelming.

My son and I got a big chunk of ham with mustard, and some potato pancakes. It was definitely the best ham I’ve ever had in my life. You can’t go wrong with the food here. I thought the beer was quite good – one of the best I’ve had in Austria.

Now since I mentioned my son – it’s very kid friendly here. When you get beer you can also buy a few different kinds of non-alcoholic drinks, they have a few sodas and lemonade. There weren’t a lot of kids here but you won’t feel out of place with children.

Since it was a perfect, warm summer evening, almost everyone was outside in the garden. As you can see the garden has trees everywhere so many of the tables are shaded. And the views at the end of the garden are great. Inside, there are a bunch of different big rooms with indoor seating. These were mostly empty, but I’m sure in cooler weather these fill up. The vibe here is so cool – it was mostly locals with some tourists just casually enjoying beers outside. If you’re in to beer at all this is definitely a must, and even if you’re not in to beer this is still a cool experience.

Augustiner Brau is about a block west of the Salzach river, a little outside of the old city. To get here we took the bus one stop and walked about a third of a mile, and to get back to the hotel we took an Uber. There is a pretty big parking lot right here too.

So that was it for today, and it for Austria, since tomorrow we leave for Switzerland in the morning!

🚅(partial) Day 6 – train to Switzerland

We left early this morning for Grindelwald, Switzerland. You can read all about that in my post Four Awesome Days in Grindelwald, Switzerland! To get to Grindelwald, we took the train, walking to the train station in Salzburg to depart. The trip was 3 segments. I’ll post a few pictures from the first segment – Salzburg to Zurich. My son and I were happy that the train passed through Liechtenstein, so we can say we’ve been to yet another new country!

See the Getting Around section for more info on booking/getting on the train.

🍽️Restaurants

The food throughout Salzburg and Austria was so delicious. Just about everywhere we went had great food, and there was so much variety in the food. These are a few of the best restaurants we ate at while in Austria:

• furo – Being in the same building as our hotel, on a rainy evening, helped us pick here. But we’re glad we did. It’s all vegetarian, a modern tapas style menu with small-medium size plates. The food was delicious and very different.
• Heart Of Joy – we weren’t specifically looking for vegetarian restaurants, we’re definitely not vegetarian. But Heart Of Joy was delicious for breakfast.
• Dorf-alm restaurant St. Wolfgang – We got lunch here in St. Wolfgang before the Schafberg cog railway. Great traditional Austrian food.

💡Austria Tips and Impressions as a Tourist

Visiting Salzburg and the surrounding Alps in Austria (and Germany) was such a fantastic trip. There is so much to see and do, and I wish we had more time to see even more. Everywhere was so authentic – we didn’t really feel like tourists. It’s really hard to pick whether we liked Austria, Switzerland, or the Czech Republic best on our vacation. I’m not sure I would recommend Salzburg for families with young children, as there’s not necessarily much to do here for them, but for older kids and teenagers interested in music and culture, it’s perfect. While there are tours that you can book, I think Salzburg is better if you like taking your own path and planning things yourself, like me. Here are my specific tips and impressions, as a family of American tourists:

• The old city and surrounding area is so compact – you can easily walk between the sights. It’s really unlike anything in the US – both from the architecture perspective, and also how compact everything is. Much of the old city is only for walking – no cars on the narrow streets, which is so nice as a tourist.
• The architecture in Salzburg is different than even other areas of Austria. The buildings look more gray and white than what you might traditionally think of from the area, and are mostly from the 1600’s and 1700’s.
• It does get quite crowded later in the day in the old city though, be prepared for crowds.
• Driving to the areas outside of the city was so easy, and everything is very accessible. However, you should rent a small car. The streets in and around Salzburg are quite narrow, and my upgraded Volvo was a little tough to drive on a few streets.
• ☀️Temperature – We were here in near record heat through Europe. It was 90 degrees for several days. Even the mornings were hot. This was quite unusual – the usual high in June is only 76. But heat waves keep happening in the summer throughout Europe, so, if you come in the summer you can’t assume it won’t get hot. So pack for all weather – shorts for the heat, but also bring pants and a rain jacket. Coming from the eastern United States, it wasn’t bad at all for us, and was nicer than at home because the humidity is relatively low compared to home. But, air conditioning is not typical here (fortunately our hotel had AC, although it was disabled at night!).
• 💧Water – unlike in the US they do not automatically bring water to you at restaurants. And almost no one carries around water bottles. Europeans definitely do not get enough water! If you want water before your food – you have to ask for it, but make sure to ask for tap water. If you just ask for water, they’ll bring a fancy bottle of mineral water and charge you for it. I didn’t realize you could ask for tap water until the end of the whole trip. Is this like an American tourist tax?
• 💰Money – Austria uses the Euro, and things are priced like a relatively expensive US city. I’d say prices were maybe comparable to visiting Washington DC, maybe a little less expensive, when you take tipping in to consideration. Speaking of tipping…
• Tipping at restaurants – Tipping is different here and in Europe than in the US. There’s no definite right or wrong answer on what to tip, or whether to tip. But the wait staff all make livable wages, so they are not dependent on tips to live like the the US. I’m not going to say exactly how much to tip. From what I’ve generally read, it’s considered courteous to tip 5-10% but isn’t always expected. When they bring your bill, if you pay with credit card, you’ll pay right there with the card with a mobile reader. It’s best to “round up” the bill – so tell them how much you want them to charge. Everywhere says to round up to an even bill, but that doesn’t really matter for credit cards. So if your bill was €55, telling them you’ll pay €60 would give a 9% tip which is very generous. There’s not a separate line item for the tip or anything. It’s best not to leave the tip as cash on the table when you leave, give it when the server comes, so that’s different than in the US.
• 💳Cash or card? Almost everywhere took Mastercard and Visa, so we paid for most things this way. But cash is appreciated since there is no service fee. There are plenty of ATMs to get Euros around.
• Language – German is the native language in Austria, but, everyone in service industries speaks English well. There was never a situation where we had any language issue with anyone, so don’t worry about this along as you speak English.

🚗Getting Around

• 🚗Car – Getting around by car was very easy. The hotel we stayed at has a parking garage under the hotel so that made it easier to have a car. For the most part as, long as you can drive in the United States you shouldn’t have any trouble in Austria. A few things to know though:
  • As of this writing (2025) you need to get an international drivers permit before you go. Some countries in Europe don’t require this but Austria does. The process was pretty easy – go to the link online and go through the process. There are a lot of steps, and you have to pay, but it worked smoothly for me. After I filled out everything it took I think 3 weeks for it to show up in the mail. So definitely be sure you do this well in advance of your trip. It’s valid for 1 year after the start date (which you set when you fill out the forms)
  • There are a lot more bikes on the road in Austria than the United States, pretty much everywhere. It’s expected that you as the driver will check for bikes before turning right or left. So check your mirrors before turning.
  • Speed limits change very frequently so be sure to always be watching for speed limits
  • To drive on Austria’s major roads you need a vignette. Our car rental company (Europcar) had one for the car but make sure to ask the rental company
  • As long as your rental company is OK with it you can drive in Germany without any issues (which I did)
• 🚌Bus – The bus system is so good in Salzburg city. There are a lot of stops and the buses come pretty frequently. Google maps is pretty good with having the right stops and lines and directions, so just look up directions there. Our hotel gave us a transit pass for our whole stay, and it’s also included with the Salzburg card. But, unlike much of the United States, you can just get on and off, there’s no need to show your card or anything when you get on.
• Uber – We used Uber once, from Augustiner Brau to the hotel. There were a lot of Uber drivers around, so this is a good option if you need to get somewhere quick. But the buses are so good, I’d use those first.
• 🚕Taxi – we took a taxi once, from the airport to our hotel. I probably would use Uber though.
• 🚅Rail – We only took the train when leaving Salzburg. We had pre-booked our tickets to Grindelwald through Rail Europe. One problem with this is, I got a PDF ticket to scan but couldn’t check anything live, or pull up the ticket in an app. It was a little confusing figuring out exactly where to go in Zurich for our connection. So I’d probably recommend booking directly with ÖBB using the ÖBB mobile app. ÖBB is the Austrian Federal Railway, and Rail Europe booked it through ÖBB anyway. So just book directly through ÖBB so you can use the app. I would recommend paying a little more for first class – the seats are bigger and more comfortable, and it doesn’t cost much more. For a long rail ride, on vacation when we were already splurging on a lot, it made sense. However I wouldn’t recommend trying to get breakfast on the train. It took forever for someone to come around to take our order, and then it took a really long time to bring the food back. Just get food in the train station.

🔗More links

These sites and videos helped me plan the trip.

• Ten Things To Do In Salzburg video
• Salzburg Itinerary for Music Lovers

❓Questions or thoughts?

Have questions for me, or thoughts on our trip? Click the social media links and interact with me there! I probably won’t check that often, but that’s the best way to get in touch with me. And check out About Me to learn more about me.