One of the most beautiful towns I've ever visited. Halstatt is as picturesque as they come, though…read morethe town itself has very little to offer. The salt cave and the skywalk may be worth it if you have a full day in Halstatt.

This town square is quite small but what it lacks in size it makes up for in history. Dating back…read moreseveral centuries, you'll see that the statue in the center was donated by local salt miners to celebrate the city's past and the plagues that have passed through the community. You'll find two restaurants on the square, a few shops and windows overflowing with flowers. In either direction of the square you'll find the iconic church overlooking the water, ferry entrance, and several more restaurants and shops. Don't leave Halstatt without picking up some natural salt- be it for baths or cooking! Short and sweet review for a small but darling square.

We took the funicular up and walked around the different museums in the fortress. The views of the…read morecity and the mountains were beautiful. Some of the major highlights of Fortress Hohensalzburg are the magnificent Princes' Rooms, the Magic Theater on the High Level, the Great Armory in the castle courtyard, the various museums (like the marionette museum, the tower and the historical museum) were all very interesting and detailed. Go up for the breathtaking views over the rooftops of the city. It was really interesting to learn how this fortress had evolved over a period of almost 500 years. If you want to do all, it would take 3-5 hours...it's huge.....

High on a Hill there's a lovely Fortress. Funicular up in 30 seconds as opposed to a 35 minute…read morewalk. The view from the Observation Tower is spectacular, an alp or two is always good eye candy. We spend about 2 hours wandering around, through the museum and courtyard. Look through every window you find and you can see why this Fortress was impenetrable. Also have a go with the bells on way out and if you have time come back to the bell area at 11.00am to hear the original mechanism working. A final drink and snack in the restaurant will afford those great views once more. We arrived early with few people around. Yes there are a lot of steps but they are well designed and shallow. The way down from the tower is separate to the way up so you don't get blockages. The rest rooms are fantastic just at the end of the Museum.

During our recent visit to Salzburg, we HAD to tour a salt mine. Salzburg means "City of salt" and…read morethere are several mines in the vicinity. We settled on the Hallein Salt Mine, one of three mines operated by Salzwelten. It was the closest to Salzburg and could be easily reached by public transportation. I'd visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine outside Kraków, Poland and found it fascinating so we wanted our family to have a similar experience. For this tour, guests are required to don miners' attire, possibly to protect their own clothes but just as possibly to facilitate an easy glide down two miners' slides that we'd encounter during the tour. Once we'd pulled the white uniforms over our street clothes, we were off to the mine. Our guide, Florian, was an excellent host. He told interesting stories and was quite approachable, but still strict about keeping our hands and feet in the car at all times - important because we'd soon be hurtling through very small tunnels cut into the rock and he didn't want anyone losing a cell phone - or worse. After a short movie about the history of salt and this particular salt mine, we were taken to the mine train. Straddling the large beam used for seating, we were soon descending into the mine. Markers on the wall and ceiling showed us how deep below the surface we'd descended. Visitors walk through even smaller tunnels after the train ride is concluded. Videos that were projected onto the rock walls of the mine at various points provided more background on this 2,600-year-old facility, and explained the various processes for extracting salt from the rock. We were invited to taste the brine that resulted from one of the extraction techniques, the vacuum evaporation method. In this method, water is pumped down one well, the salt below is dissolved, and the resulting brine is forced to the surface through another well. The resulting brine, we were told, was about three times saltier than sea water. That brine would then be pumped into underground lakes where it would evaporate, leaving salt crystals behind. Along the way, we saw a shrine that the miners had erected in the underground tunnels, as well as several drawings and carvings on the walls. Shortly into the tour, we came upon our first miners' slide. Florian gave a short briefing, stressing the importance of keeping our feet off the ground and off the rails until we'd reached the bottom, and then we were off. As the tour continued, we walked through the narrow tunnels and uneven floors of the mine and remarked how it would have been helpful to bring a flashlight along, as the lighting was not especially great. A second slide took us close to an underground salt lake, which was one of the evaporation ponds. Climbing onto a small barge, we were taken about 80 meters to the other shore. Even though we were underground, international boundaries were still observed. At one point, the tour passed from Austria into neighboring Germany, and the crossing was marked by a sign similar to one we would see when we crossed back into Austria. Near the end of the tour, we were shown a tree branch encrusted with salt crystals. Toward the end of the winter season, the miners would through leafless boughs into one of the abandoned pools. The twigs become encrusted with salt crystals and are quite dazzling, especially when the sun is shining. Called Salzburg Boughs, these became gifts salt miners would give to visitors to the mine. Despite both being "salt mines," there are some significant differences between the Hallein mine and the Wieliczka mine. The salt in the Hallein mine is embedded in the rocky soil and must be extracted through a variety of techniques while the Wieliczka miners primarily dealt with "salt domes" of more or less solid rock salt. As a result, Polish miners carved out a number of underground chapels, the largest of which is often rented out as an event venue today. They also replicated famous works of art by carving into the rock salt walls, including da Vinci's Last Supper. Both mine tours offer fascinating insights into the importance of salt, both centuries ago when it was used as currency and was vital for food preservation, and its much more humble place in today's society. Either tour is well worth the time; taking both tours will provide an excellent opportunity to "compare and contrast."

First time here with a tour group! I can't say nothing but an amazing experience!! So interactive…read moreand fun to experience a half day of being a miner. Great staffs, clean museum and very well setups for everyone. Definitely highly recommended.

My wife said it was her favorite museum we visited today. It's included in the Salzburg card.read more

Great little museum! Do yourself a favor and get the Salzburg City Card so that you get into this…read moreand several other museums for free. It's a small museum but lots of nice exhibits. Worth your time if you're a Christmas nut like me.

We selected the hang gliding over Königsee and the Berchtesgaden National Park. The ride was…read morefantastic in every respect. Wolfgang and Tony were the conscientious and terrific pilots who put us at ease and helped us to enjoy every second. May be the most fun and exciting single experience in our travels. Strongly recommend this outing and these pilots.

As the names suggests it focuses on Salzburg's creative history. It spans multiple centuries, and…read moreas time progressed with the exhibitions it was not as interesting. The exhibition rooms felt disjointed in flow and in concept. I might have felt differently if it wasn't my last museum for the day and if I had an audio guide. I am not even sure if they have the later, but none of the staff offered unlike other places.

A wonderful museum featuring the history of Saulsburg and many other exhibits. Housed in a baroque…read moreresident palace this main museum takes you on a fascinating romp through Salzburgs past and present. Ornate rooms showcase everything from Roman exclamations to Royal portraits.They were free guided tour is at 6 PM every Thursday. The museum also has a café. A gift shop and lockers where you can store your stuff. You can take a stroller into the museum because there is ever elevators that take you to each floor. At the time the feature exhibit was "what role did the Salzburg museum play during the Nazi regime" It was quite a eye-opener. An interesting perspective for sure. It is a great place to go in the middle of the city. Not just for rainy days

The biggest draw for us was the trick fountains versus the palace or the gazebo featured in the…read moreSound of Music. We took the bus to Hellbrunn and the stop was around 10 minutes walk to Hellbrunn. The bus was free since we had the Salzburg Pass. We obtained our timed entry tickets from the gift shop. Timed tickets were needed for the trick fountains versus the palace which could be entered anytime. We spent one hour for the walk through all the trick fountains and half an hour inside the palace. One caveat about the trick fountains, the first entry timeslot required waiting around the first fountain until enough other visitors arrived. The grounds team would then man the control boxes/valves and manually turn them on to control the fountains and the tricks. This repeated at each stop on the map. No automation just old school, hundreds of years old tech. Definitely take the time linger at each stop as some were elaborately designed fountains, grottoes, gardens, statues or water powered mechanical figures. The staff definitely caught us and many others with surprise squirts of water from hidden spouts in the ground, walls or ceiling (especially in the Neptune Grotto). The floating crown was another must experience grotto. The mechanical theatre, with its three stories of moving townsfolk figures (all powered by water), was the ending highlight of the walk. The Palace itself was well maintained and contained exhibits about the palace, fountains and the original owner the Prince Archbishop. The stuffed "unicorn" will catch your attention. Well worth taking the bus ride from Salzburg.

The honest draw here is the Sound of Music gazebo, and it does deliver, though it's worth knowing…read moreupfront that the pavilion was actually relocated to make it easier for the public to visit. So it's not technically where they filmed the scene, but it's the real gazebo on very beautiful grounds, and standing in front of it in Salzburg still feels cool The palace and park themselves are a bigger win: a 17th-century pleasure palace with enormous, well-maintained grounds that are genuinely gorgeous to wander on a good day. The trick fountains are a legitimate reason to come, although they were off on the day of our visit which was a bummer. If you're in Salzburg and have any interest at all in the film or just want an afternoon outside the old town, this is worth the trip.

While in Salzburg, we opted to go to the Mozart Dinner Concert and I'm glad we did…read more The venue itself was beautiful and the restaurant decor downstairs was filled with intricate details that give this establishment its charm. What you need to know: *The show and dinner is a total of 3 hours. *The show starts off with music and during each mini break, you are served your starter, dinner and dessert. *Arrive on time because the show will start whether you are there or not. *The food was just okay. I wasn't keen on the vegetarian option because it consisted of all carbs. Keep in mind that you are mainly paying for the entertainment and not the food, so don't expect it to be Michelin quality. *Alcohol isn't included in the dinner package. You will pay separately at the end of the show. * For the most part, people dressed up for this dinner concert. Although, I did see some people dressed rather casual. To be on the safe side, I would dress on the nicer side. If you are visiting Salzburg, this dinner concert is a great way to end your trip.

This will be a short review. When in Salzburg you MUST do this excursion. Great music, great food…read moreand an exceptional wine list where we found an excellent Chardonnay that would make California Chards tremble in their Schuhe's. The service was fantastic.