Hi Lyn,

Alpbach is a tiny village tucked in the middle of the mountains. It takes just 5 minutes to drive to the ski-lift of the main resort.

If you do decide to spend a day skiing, your best day would be the Saturday. The slopes are very quiet then as there are no ski-schools on that day. Friday's are very busy with the end of school races etc.

If you were to go on the Saturday, you could leave Salzburg after breakfast, arrive in Alpbach mid-morning, stay most of the skiing day and be back in Salzburg by about 5 or 6ish.

Before I forget: if you do decide to pay Alpbach a visit, try to pop in to the church there. It's breathtakingly beautiful!

Best wishes

Strawberry

I really appreciate all your help strawberry. have had a look at the Alpbach website and it looks beautiful. I think we have ruled out actually trying to have a go sking but would certainly like to have a wander around a snow covered village or maybe do a sleigh ride but had a look at the snow shuttle and they only seem to go to one resort each day. so Friday it is "Lachau" and saturday "leogang" if ive spelt them right. or am i missing something and there are more shuttles that operate . sorry if im sounding a bit stupid or confused. im trying to get a picture of salzburg and the surrounding mountain villages and im failing miserably . I cant seem to get my head around how far they are and how easy they would be to get to from the actual city

lyn

Hi
I live about a three hour drive from Salzburg and have visited the city quite often. Unfortunately snow cannot be guaranteed at any time these days, this winter it is much warmer than usual and lots of places haven't had snow as yet. Although Salzburg is not exactly situated in the Alps it is very close and the views of the snow covered mountains can be awsome.
I think your decision not to ski is correct, lots of resorts are suffering from lack of snow on the lower beginners slopes right now and as you said you can still try and get to the mountains. You mentioned Berchtesgaden, which is in Germany, it is about 45mins away on the local bus I think it is number 9540 from the Salzburg railway station, it's not a tiny place but is right in the alps and has some lovely old buildings, shops and cafes.You may also be interested in visiting St.Wolfgang which is a really pretty village on the side of a lake. The local bus takes about 1 1/2 hours again from the railway station.(though I know there are tours from Salzburg) I think your best plan is to visit the information center on your first day and they should be able to give you ideas on how to get to places on your second day.
Enjoy your trip. I was out walking with my husband this afternoon and could see miles of beautiful mountains with their snow peaks.

thanks for that Judith.I really feel that we need another full day there. then we could have 2 days around salzburg itself and then maybe go out a little futher on a third day so im considering changing our flight home. We got a really good deal with thomson going out lunchtime from gatwick but coming home in the morning (they only have one flight a day) . ryanair from stansted were a lot more expensive at the time i booked but have 3 flights a day and now (im gutted) have the evening (around 9pm) flight home for 1p + of course the taxes. it would cost us an extra £55 but it may be worth it for the extra day to go out on our thomson booking and pay for a ryanair flight home.

oh decisions decisions.

lyn

Hi Lyn,

I've only just picked up that this thread is active again! If you've only got 2 full days in Salzburg then I'd forget trying to see anything else other than the city itself. It's compact enough to get around on foot and there's more than enough to see and do to keep you occupied for 2 days. Just going to see all the locations used for the film of 'The Sound of Music' could take up a whole day and the Mozart trail likewise. Also, don't forget to go up to the Castle - spectacular views and there always used to be nice restaurant too.

As well as the Jaegar tea (Hunter's tea!) it's worth trying the Gluwein (imagine mulled wine fortified with a shot of schnapps!) or the Kaffee Trasch (coffee with a chocolate liquer to dissolve in it). For a non-alcoholic but heart attach inducing alternative then there's nothing like chocolat mit schlagober - hot chocolate with lashings of whipped cream floating on the top which is qhite often served with a stick of chocolate instead of a teaspoon to stir the cream in with! Oh, and don't forget to have a pive of Strudel to go with it!

SM

Thanks SMa. Yes i think we have now decided to enjoy the time we have available in or around the city centre to start with. there seems to be so much more avalable outside the city centre its been stressing me out worrying how we are going to fit everything in during 2 days . I want to see and do everything but we are just not going to have the time. so armed with all my new found knowledge, guide book and all the help you have all given me we will go, chill relax and take things as they come .And if we really enjoy it we will maybe go back as a family next year when we will be able to do more of the family things like trips to the ski resorts/salt mines etc.

the Hot chocolate, cream and strudel will do me fine

lyn

Hi Lyn,

Hope you had a good time in Salzburg :-)

If you're thinking of going for a family holiday it's worth bearing in mind that the Austrian railways are super efficient, super clean and tend to be more reasonably priced than here and I would suggest that you thinkl about basing yourselves in one of the nearby mountain resorts. That way you can easily do all the sporty things and yet get into Salzburg easily for a day out there. One of my favourites is Kitsbuhl and becaue it's on the main rail line to both Salzburg and Innsbruck you can always hit both for day trips really easy.

Also, it's very geared up to summer visitors with lots to do both in the village and nearby. For example, you should be able to get to the Krimml Falls easily and it's relativey easy to also visit the Lakes area from there too.

SM

thank you everyone we have just returned from a fabulous 3 night stay in salzburg. up until now our favourite city break has been prague but i really think This weekend beat it What a beautiful city and such a relaxed, chilled out feel to it. I think we more or less covered most of the sights in the old town part of the city we had wanted to over our 2 full days. We didint do anything mozart or sound of music related as that didnt interest us. We spent most of the first day up at the fortress, walked up as the lift was out of action and really pleased we did. lots of history up there which hubby loves , We were knackered by the time we got to the top but i could literally feel the spring in hubbys step as he reached the fortress, he just loved all the history up there and the views were to die for looking out over the alps . had a late lunch then did the cathedral,abbey, churchyard , residence etc which were again stunningly beautiful and so peaceful bearing in mind this is a fairly major city. Had a lovely dinner at a resturant called wasserfell near our hotel on the new town side of the river , followed by a lovely late riverside walk. Next day we again spent much of our time up on the monchsberg mountain side hubby again loving all the historic pieces of fortifications scattered around up there. stopping for hot chocolate and numerous benches with fantastic views we walked from they abbey at mulln to the old nunnery at the other end, then just followed our feet , browsed in the shops stopped at various bars for beer and hot chocolate and really just chilled. although shopping was expensive , we found eating out really reasonable and were pleasantly surprised at how little money we spent loved all the church bells and the austrian atmosphere and good fresh air. there were lots of things we would still like to do and see outside of the city and we really didnt touch the new side of the river, so we may look at doing something again next christmas with the children and to incorperate some sking for them. funnily enough my brother in laws brother runs a guest house and apartment just outside of salzburg in the lakes area (salzkamergut - ebensee on lake traunsee )so that could be another option for us but although he has sking very near to him and of course beautiful sceanery not sure what else and how easy it would be to get around. if I can find out how i will try and post some pics.

lyn

Hi Lyn,

So glad to hear that you enjoyed your trip and fell as deeply in love with Slazburg has I have over the years :-)

If I were you I'd get onto that brother of the brother-in-law immediately! The Salzkammergut is really easy to get around by public transport and the trains, buses and lake steamers usually have integrated timetables to make it easier to get around. The local tourist offices are very efficient and will have printed leaflets (in English too usually) of suggested day trip itineraries etc and you can usually buy day and week 'rover' tickets that cover all the local transport. I've been on numerous holidays throughout the Tyrol and never hired a car once because the public transport is so good. It has the added bonus that you can easily do A to B walks without having to retrace your steps to where you left the car. And don't forget that the chair and cable car lifts take all the hard work out of mountain walking!

SM

thank you SM we definately want to see more of the area

lyn im looking for another long weekend break but ellie wants to come shes 7 do you think salzburg would be suitable, i cant make up my mind where to go, we want to go around 30th may for 3-5 night price pending, ive got some good prices for salzburg although not from a local airport sadly, if there isnt enough to do for ellie any other suggestions ,also is it dear there for hotels and restaurants thanks

karen

Just returned from Salzburg on Sunday and there has been an acute shortage of snow. Most years, the runways and tarmaced areas of the airport are covered in snow, this year temps were +6degs. and sunny. So anyone hoping to see snow in the city would have been disappointed.

im so sorry Karen . only just saw your post . Have you booked something now. We loved it there but we only went on own own. But i also think our children would of enjoyed it to. Salzburg is a beautiful city with its fair share of attractions . although having said that most of these are churches and their churchyards , cathedrals, an abbey, that type of thing. there is also the fortress which is fabulous but maybe boys would get more from that than ellie would. also some great walking above the city. the beauty of salzburg tho is the many surrounding places you can visit easily from the city . there is a ski shuttle in the winter if you want to take a day or 2 sking , the lakes and many surrounding picture postcard villages.
Actually we saw many more children around than when we went to prague where we saw virtually none. plenty of shops and resturants and we actually found salzburg very reasonable. we were paying around £40-£45 for a three course evening meal with drinks which is certainly cheaper than here at home.
lyn

Hi,

Hope this is the right place for this post.

I am wanting to go to Austria and do the Sound of Music things.

I would like a hotel that is min of a 3 star and if possible one that has an outdoor pool or maybe leisure facilities at the hotel. I trust Salzburg will be the best place to stay. What we intend to do is one of the tours then have 4/5 days of going back to all the places and other place while we are there.

I have been told that Austria is expensive to eat out is this true and if so do hotels do Dinner Bed and Breakfast??

Any help on best areas to be in and hotels would be most welcome. it will most likely be either August or September time that we will be going.

Gill x

Merged with existing topic.

luci

hi gill. Yes you can do all the sound of music things from salzburg . We stayed at the hotel wolf-dietrich which you will find voted no 10 on http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk. which i can recommend but we were there in the winter and our room was very hot . It does have an indoor pool but we never used it so cant comment what it was like .

We actually found Salzburg surprisingly good value for money . We were paying around £40-45 for a three course meal for the 2 of us in the evening including drinks. :D. certainly didnt find it expensive at all. and you can get the salzburg card which you pay for per day and includes most of the major attractions in and around salzburg + the public transport.

lyn

lyn ive just noticed your reply too lol, yes we went to slovenia came back on tues , i have been to salzburg but it was about 25 years ago and cant remember much about it as i was travelling all around many countries for 18 mths, although i do remember it being lovely and asking someone about sound of music and getting a very sarky reply saying everywhere is the sound of music, funny what you remember years later although due to this comment we didnt pursuit looking any more as just assumed there wasnt any particular land marks, shame !!!