What is there in Salzburg ?
Salzburg is MOZART city because Mozart was born and raised in this city. Apart from this fact, Salzburg is a beautiful city set between Austrian Alps. It is also famous for one the biggest fortress -Hohensalzburg and also for its salt mines (Salz- Salt , burg- Castle).
Berchtesgaden is a small town in Germany but only 20 mins away from Salzburg. It is mainly visited by tourist because of Kings Lake (Konigsee lake) and Eagles Nest (Kjhlensteinhaus- One of Hitler’s Houses). Both the lake and Eagle’s Nest are spectacular and if you are in Salzburg then you should not miss visiting these two places.
How to reach Salzburg?
Salzburg is easily accessible by train and bus from Vienna, Prague, Innsbruck and other cities. We traveled by train from Innsbruck to Salzburg (2hrs) in 14 euro as we got the sparschiene tickets ( sparschiene tickets are the most cheap tickets available but unlike normal train tickets they are not valid for all whole day but only for the particular train timing that you have booked for – available on OBB ).
How to reach Berchtesgaden, Kings Lake & Eagle’s Nest?
A 30min bus ride in bus number 840 from Salzburg should be taken to reach Berchtesgaden. Earliest bus is at 6:35 am and after that from 8:15am it runs every 1hr till 18:15pm. Bus can be boarded from Main train Station, Mirabellplatz and Mozartsteg. This same bus would also take you to the salt mine. Bus ticket can be bought in the bus itself. Salzburg city card is not valid in this bus.
And from Berchtesgaden bus number 841/842 should be taken (takes aprrox – 15 mins) to reach the Kognisee lake. A whole trip to and fro from Salzburg to Kognisee would cost around 9.9 euro and this ticket is valid throughout the day.
For Eagle’s nest 838 bus should be taken from Berchtesgaden. Eagle’s nest is closed during winter season and opens somewhere in Mid-May.
Note : Salzburg Card is not valid on this route.
Which places to visit in Salzburg/ Berchtesgaden?
2 places we loved in Salzburg :
- Hohensalzburg : It is situated on a small hill and there is good walking path to reach the fortress. There is also a funnicular (a small distance tram kind of thing) which takes you the fortress. The thing with the entry fee is that you need a ticket to enter the fortress and the ticket includes the funnicular ride (to and fro), so even if you walk to the fortress you will have to pay for the funnicular for going down( entry fee is around 10 euro). So better is to buy the ticket from the funnicular station itself. This ticket also includes voice guided tours within the fortress. Even if you are not interested much in the history, the view from the top is definitely worth it. There are few restaurants within the fortress, so you can easily spend whole day in the fortress.
view from the castle Hill Walk : Just opposite to the fortress across the river there is a small hill from which Hohensalzurg can be seen. For exact location please ask the locals. But this hill walk is a must in Salzburg as you can see the whole city.
Hohensalzburg from Hill top
Mirabell Garden, Mozart residence and other Mozart related buildings : We hardly spent 10mins in these locations as we are not big fans of Mozart.
There are also many tour companies which take you around the city and specially focus on ‘The Sound of Music’ and Mozart. We were not much interested in both so we skipped the tours.
Places near Salzburg :
- Salt Mine : There are quite a few salt mines near Salzburg but we have heard the one on the way to Berchtesgaden is good. Visiting a salt mine near Berchtesgaden would take almost a day as the drive from Salzburg is around 45mins and then the mine tour is another 3-4 hrs. For tickets check – https://www.salzbergwerk.de/en/your-visit/entrance-fees. We didnt have the time to visit the sale mine.
View from the hill opposite to Castle - Kings Lake : I would highly recommend this place and if you want to enjoy this place to the fullest then take the earliest bus to lake. From the lake you can take a boat ride to St. Bartholoma and Salet. Though the boat ride (1-1.5hr) is pretty boring (it is slow – mainly because these ferry runs on battery) but St. Bathloma and Salet are must visit places. You can either buy tickets till the end (Salet and back ) or just till St. Bartholoma. Ferry ride ticket is around 17 euros per person. There are many small walking trails in both these locations and the one in Salet is definitely worth it. In Salet you can hike to the highest falls of Germany (Rothbach Falls- takes around 1.25hrs one way). Also, the last boat from Salet leaves around 5pm but if you are planing to go back to Salzburg then better leave around 3pm as the last bus from Berchtesgaden to Salzburg leaves around 6pm , so plan accordingly.
Throwing stones in King’s lake: Best pastime since time immemorial - Cable Ride (JennerBahn) : From Kings lake there is a cable ride to the Mr Jenner from where you can get a great view of the lake and also many hiking routes start from here. There are few more cable car rides to other mountains in Berchtesgaden National Park. Check http://www.berchtesgadener-land.com/en/home for more information.
- Eagle’s Nest : From Berchtesgaden you can also go to Eagle’s Nest. And to enjoy this place to the fullest I would say a day would be good. We were not able to visit this place as it was closed because of snow.
How many days should be spend in Salzburg ?
To just visit the main sites within the city 2 days are more than enough but if you wish to visit Kognisee lake, Eagle’s Nest and salt mine then atleast 4 days are required. To visit Kings lake and Eagle’s Nest, it would be best to stay in Berchtesgaden.
We were in the city for only 2.5 days and thats why we had to miss a lot of things specially the small trails near Kings Lake.
How to travel in Salzburg?
Salzburg has well connected bus system and just like Vienna, in Salzburg also you can buy single way ticket or a day pass or Salzburg Pass. One way ticket is around 2.5 euro.
We didn’t feel the need to get any pass and specially Salzburg card as we walked to must of the places within the city and also skipped on the museums. But for reference: http://www.salzburg.info/en/sights/salzburg_card
Do visit Salzburg information centre which is present both in the city and at Railway Station.
Where to stay in Salzburg?
We stayed in Meininger City centre in Salzburg: http://www.meininger-hotels.com/en/hotels/salzburg/
Meininger has chain of hotels in Europe and the one in Salzburg was about 3km away from the Salzch river and around 5km from the main train station. But it is well connected by the bus.
We loved our stay in Meininger mainly because it had a guest kitchen, was close to grocery stores but more importantly the hotel staff was very helpful. They had all the information about how and where to travel (they also had cycles available on rent).
Some Tips while Traveling in Salzburg
- Do visit the information center to get the Salzburg Map. (Our Hotel also had one)
- Stay in Berchtesgaden if you wish to visit Kings Lake and Eagles Nest and start your day early.
- Walk around the old city and the river at night.
Our Experience.
We were actually planning to skip Salzburg thinking that the city is all about Mozart but luckily we didn’t. Well the city literally sells Mozart but then there are so many nice things to do in and around the city. We loved the city and specially long walks on the street at night.
We really loved the day we spent around Kings lake. I would let the photos do the talking. The only regret is that we didn’t have more days to spend in Salzburg.
Fledgling Travelers 