Salzburg
Salzburg, Austria is a beautiful city that is quaint, quiet, and very clean!
When I Went:
October 2019
Itinerary:
Salzburg (2 days)
Hallstatt (day trip)
How long:
2.5 Days
Notes:
1) German is the main language, but everyone spoke English.
2) The currency is Euros, but I don’t think we went anywhere that didn’t take credit cards.
3) They have Mozart everything there!
How I got there:
I was in Prague for work so we came from there. We had one short stop in Vienna, so the train ride took around 7 hours. We got tickets on the OBB train.
How I got around:
Salzburg is really small. We walked the whole city and then took an Uber once to go 15 minutes outside the city.
Accommodations:
We stayed at Altstadt Hotel Hofwirt. It was in a good central area close to the train station, the main part of town, and Kapuzinerberg, the large park in Salzburg. It was clean, comfy, and had a good hotel breakfast.
Activities/Sights To See:
Fortress Hohensalzburg - this is the castle sitting on top of the hill overlooking the whole city. There are 360° views around the castle and they are beautiful. You could walk up to the castle, but there is also a funicular up. An adult ticket with entrance to the castle and round trip on the funicular is around $15 USD.
There are a good amount of exhibits within the castle. If you’re hungry or thirsty, there’s a restaurant and cafe at the top.
One thing we couldn’t figure out is how to get out of the castle onto the Mönchsberg City Trail without taking the funicular. We ended up going back down to the bottom and then climbing up a bunch of steps to find the trail.
Mönchsberg City Trail - as mentioned above, there is a way to get to the trail from the castle, but we missed the turn somewhere. Check out the link for more info on directions. We walked past the Franciscan Church and took some stairs up to the trail so we had to backtrack. The trail is beautiful and you get a good view from the city with the castle in it. We took this to get to the Museum der Moderne.
Museum der Moderne - there were some interesting exhibits here. The museum is not too large so you don’t need to spend too much time here.
Kapuzinerberg - this is a large park with another good view of the castle, city, and river. I didn’t get to explore that much of it, but the part that went along the river was nice. I went up there to catch the sunset, which was decent. There were two ways up if you are trying to come from near the river, one from Linzer Gasse and the other one from Steingasse. I went up Linzer Gasse and it was a steady incline. I went down Steingasse and it looked a lot more difficult because there were so many stairs. This is a great place to read a book, take a leisurely walk, have a snack, etc.
Mirabellgarten - beautiful gardens that are free. You can see the fortress in the distance while you stroll through. You don’t need a ton of time here, but it’s very relaxing. It was also a filming location in The Sound Of Music.
Linzer Gasse - this is one of the main streets with a bunch of shops are restaurants.
Getreidegasse - one of the main streets in the city center. Including Mozart's Birthplace at Getreidegasse 9.
Salzach River - find a spot on the grass along the river and just take in the view, read a book, have a snack/drink, chat, etc. It’s really calming!
Untersbergbahn GmbH - we took an Uber to get to this cable car that was about 20-25 minutes away from Salzburg. The round trip was 25 Euros. We didn’t have a ton of time to explore before the last ride, but it looked like there were more trails to explore. It was a beautiful sunny day when we went and you could see for miles and miles.
Food:
I had a lot of good food while in Salzburg. All the restaurants were very cute and/or had a good atmosphere.
Humboldt Restaurant - I loved the vibe of this place. It was super cozy and a lot of their dishes were on the ‘healthier’ side. I had a zucchini pasta and really enjoyed that.
Zum Zirkelwirt - we went here for lunch and sat on the patio. It was very cute and the inside also looked nice. We split wiener schnitzel and spätzle; both were tasty.
Café Tomaselli - their website says they’ve been around for 150 years. We got a seat outside, but they were doing construction so it’s probably nicer during other times. I got a 'Mozart’ drink. It was milk with some type of almond nougat/marzipan thing that you dip and melt in it. The place seemed a little touristy and service was okay. Couldn’t tell if that’s cause they were maybe closing soon. We were told a cake lady would be coming by, but she never did.
Die Weisse - it was pretty busy during the weekday. They had a very large menu and a lot of standard Austrian dishes.
Cafe Wernbacher - we sat outside on a nice sunny day. I had a beer and risotto and was ready for a nap afterwards. Food and atmosphere were good. This is a little away from the city center, but close to Mirabellgarten.
Zum fidelen Affen - The “Jolly Monkey Tavern”. This place was cozy and maybe what more people think of as ‘typical’ Austrian restaurant. The staff was super friendly and the food was good. I splurged since it was our last night in Austria and I got a steak. I also had the most interesting dessert I’ve ever had, topfen - nougatknödel. They are “curd cheese dumplings coated in sweet bread crumbs, filled with nougat and served with berry sauce.” The nougat inside was chocolate and I think if it didn’t have it in there, then I don’t think I would’ve liked the dessert. Also, the desserts were listed on a rolling pin. How cute!
Enough time?
One to one and a half days in Salzburg is enough in my opinion because the city is very small. If you have a car, doing small day trips and using Salzburg as your base would be good. I’ve been told there are a lot of good lakes and hikes right outside of the city center of Salzburg.
