SALZBURG - 3 DAYS UNDER 170 EUROS (Part Two - Sound of Music tour & Hallein Salt Mine tour)

Hello all! This post will be about the 2 major tours that we took in Salzburg - "Sound of Music" tour and the "Hallein Salt Mine" tour.

SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR

Sound of Music was my family's old favorite show and we watched it quite a few times since I was a kid. So I was really excited to visit all the actual filming sites of the movie in the beautiful Salzburg! And true enough, all the sites seemed so magical and I was in awe. Many tourists in Salzburg pay to go for the Sound of Music (SOM) tour, but in actual fact, you can do it yourself for FREE!! Yes free, you heard me right.

Here is our recommended route in the order of:
1. Mirabell Palace and Mirabell Garden
2. Pegasus Fountain
3. Gnome Park
4. Hedge Maze
5. Winkler Terrace: lift is covered by Salzburg card but we didn't have enough time to go there. It is near the Fortress
6. Saint Peter's Church and Cemetery: it is located just one minute walk away from the Fortress entrance.
7. Sound of Music Pavilion 

We didn't managed to cover the full list of SOM attractions as we didn't have enough time, but these were the major sites! :) We re-watched the whole SOM movie before visiting these sites because Joshua never watched the movie before lol. And after watching, we really could appreciate the sites better!

1. Mirabell Palace and Mirabell Garden

From Mozart's Birthplace/Mozart Museum, cross to the other side of the river and you will arrive at Mirabell Palace and Mirabell Garden in about 10 minutes. Together with the Mirabell Palace and Garden, you will find the Pegasus Fountain, Gnome Park as well as Hedge Maze all within the same location here. These were the locations where Maria and the kids sang the famous song "Do Re Mi". That song is very addictive and we kept singing it here lol.

2. Pegasus Fountain

3. Gnome Garden

4. Hedge Maze





5. Horse Bath


The Horse Bath was just a 5 minutes short walk from our hotel.

6. St Peter's Church, Catacomb, Cemetery 

View from the catacomb, overlooking St Peter's Cemetery.

7. Pavilion


This attraction was slightly out of the way. You have to take bus 25 to the stop SchloB Hellbrunn and walk towards the entrance of the Hellbrunn palace. The Pavilion is right outside the entrance, you don't have to pay to enter the palace to view it!

Intially, Joshua was saying that this was just a pavilion like any pavilion and we nearly gave this attraction up. Buttttt I wanted to go...hahaha. Because if you watched the movie, this was the pavilion that many touching romantic moments happened, and where the song "I am 16 going on 17" was sung and they danced cute dances in the pavilion LOL. Ok shit I sound like a loser. But really, no regrets visiting this site!! It was really beautiful :')

HALLEIN SALT MINE TOUR

We paid 24.60 euros each for the entrance ticket + return train ticket + return bus ticket. This package can help you to save a few euros as compared to booking everything separately. To get to the saltmine, you will have to take a train from Salzburg to Hallein station, then transfer to bus to the Bad Durrnberg stop.

We enjoyed the salt mine tour very very much. It was super fun!! It started with the train ride which brings you deep into the salt mine. After entering the salt mine, you watch a few video clips along the way to learn about the history of the salt mine. But the most exciting parts were sliding down the salt mine slides!! It was going fast and quite steep, super fun!! There was also a boat ride which passes through a valley of salt water in the mine which is really cool too. Upon exit, you get a small souvenir and duh, they give salt haha.

Overall, we really enjoyed the Hallein Salt Mine tour as it was very interactive (the guide spoke good English) and there were many activities within the salt mine too. The slides were the BEST haha. 

It was the end of our short 3 days trip in Salzburg and we really enjoyed every part of Salzburg. It was such a beautiful city with rich music culture (mostly Mozart haha) and it was an affordable city too unlike Switzerland which killed our pockets lol. So, VISIT SALZBURG TODAY!! :D

SALZBURG - 3 DAYS UNDER 170 EUROS (Part One - Salzburg card attractions & Food!)

Heyheyhey, we're back! :)

We just had a 3 days long weekend trip to Salzburg in Austria and WE LOVED IT!! Salzburg is by far one of our favorite cities now because it was so pretty, cultured, safe and affordable! We kept our budget to 200 euros per person, inclusive of hotel, transport, attractions, food and all things Mozart haha. In this post, we will cover our recommended accommodation, good food in Salzburg, as well as the attractions that you can visit for free with the amazing Salzburg card! In the next post that is coming up soon, we will be covering the ever famous "Sound of Music" tour and the "Hallein Salt Mine" tour.

Expenditure Breakdown:

Accommodation: 55 euros per person for 2 nights

Salzburg Card: 32 euros for a 48 hours card (SUPER USEFUL AND WORTH IT, A MUST-GET!)

Hallein Salt Mine package: 24.60 euros (inclusive of return transport tickets and entrance ticket)

Food: 45 euros

Miscellaneous: 13 euros (on Mozart chocolates, Mozart liquor, Mozart everything!!) 

TOTAL: 170 euros per person

ACCOMMODATION - AM NEUTOR HOTEL SALZBURG ZENTRUM

Address: Neutorstraße 8, Altstadt, Salzburg, 5020, Austria

Price: 55 euros per room/night

Review: Highly recommended! As we only had 3 short days in Salzburg, we didn't get an airbnb but instead wanted somewhere more in the city centre. So we found this hotel that was very centrally located and close to all the major attraction sites (within walking distance!). This saved us a lot of time! And the best part is that the price is very affordable too :) Hotel room was clean and comfortable. 

Directions: From the Salzburg train station, take bus 1 and alight at the stop right after you cross a tunnel. It takes about 15 minutes. 

SALZBURG CARD

You can easily get the Salzburg card right at the Salzburg tourist centre which is at the Salzburg train station. There are brochures there which shows you the attractions that you can enter for free with the Salzburg card, as well as events that have reduced prices with the card. We didn't cover all the free attractions, but covered most of them. Also, public transport within Salzburg is free to with the card! THIS CARD IS AMAZEBALLZ.

With the Salzburg card, we entered the following attractions for FREE.

1. Cable Car Untersberg (Austrian Alps) - 22 euros

2. DomQuartier Salzburg - 12 euros

3. Hohensalzburg Fortress with cable railway up - 11.30 euros

4. Mozart's Birthplace - 10 euros

5. Mozart's Residence - 10 euros

6. Museum of Natural History - 8 euros

7. Salzburg Zoo - 10.50 euros
8. Panorama Museum - 3 euros
9. Catacombs - 2 euros

Total savings with the Salzburg Card: 56.80 EUROS!!

SALZBURG CARD ATTRACTIONS

1. Untersberg, Austrian Alps

Take Bus 25 from Salzburg train station to the last station and you'll arrive at "Untersbergbahn". We took a cable car up the Alps in hope to catch a magnificent view. However, we encountered bad weather conditions and it was so foggy that when we reached the peak of the Alps, all we could see was WHITE SPACE. Like really just white everywhere. That made it very hard for us to explore the Alps as we were very scared that our next step would be a step off the cliff. There were no safety barriers or whatsoever and with the reduced visibility due to the fog, we gave up exploring haha. It was a pity because I really wanted to see the magnificent cross at the peak of the Alps!!

2. DomQuartier

This was a very beautiful cathedral. Stepping into the cathedral simply makes you go "wowwww" and takes your breath away. But Joshua just went in to find a toilet to shit and left lol.

3. Hohensalzburg Fortress

We took a cable railway up to the top of the fortress. I don't know if it's because we were tired, or we are lazy, or we are just not cultured, but we didn't enjoy this place haha. There were so many uphills while walking around the fortress that we got so tired, plus we walked for 7 hours straight that day and were really dying. But the top of the fortress was quite empty and we thought that it was boring haha. We recommend those going to go for the Fortress Tour, so that you can really get to know the history of the place and it will definitely be more interesting! But we were just too tired that day to walk any further haha. The view from above was nice though :)

4/5. Mozart's Birthplace & Mozart Residence

At Mozartplatz where Mozart is buried at, how cool is that!! Ok it was cool to me only (Joshua was bored...) because I used to be musical lol, learnt piano since the age of 3 okay. So visiting Mozart's Birthplace and Residence was really amazing because all I did in the past was read about it, but experiencing it live was super cool!

I couldn't help it but buy this cute little Mozart liquor (2 euros). White chocolate flavor tasted kinda like Bailey's and it was warm and nice in the cold weather hehe.

Entrance of Mozart's Birthplace.

Just look at the array of Mozart products!! I couldn't help it again but to get the super cute Mozart chocolates. Falling into the tourist traps over and over again sigh.

Mozart was only 150cm tall say whut?! SO COOL.

6. Museum of Natural History

Both Joshua and I are not museum people...but this museum attracted us a lot!! :) There were soooo many exhibitions of all the different kinds of animals from dinosaurs, mammals, reptiles (I hate this couldn't enter this section lol), birds, insects etc etc and even bringing us to the space, human biology and many more!! A super fun museum to learn some cool facts about the world!

7. Salzburg Zoo

Take Bus 25 from Salzburg train station and alight at the stop "Anif Zoo Salzburg". Alternatively, what we did was to alight at "SchloB Hellbrunn" where the Sound of Music Pavillion and Hellbrunn Palace were at. It was just a short walk about 5-10 minutes from the Pavillion to the Zoo.

The Salzburg Zoo is the oldest zoo in Salzburg, and yes it really looked old. Even the animals looked old haha. Compared to Singapore Zoo, we really felt that it is not worth it to visit the Salzburg Zoo. There were quite few animals and the whole zoo just felt kinda dead. Other than the lammas which were cute!! 

At the exit of the Salzburg Zoo, you'll get a superb view of the Untersberg!

FOOD

There are a lot of affordable food places around Salzburg city. Here are some of our recommendations, and all of them (except the last one) are conveniently located in the city centre and within walking distance from the main attractions around Salzburg. 

Johanneskeller

Richard Mayr-Gasse 1, Salzburg 5020, Austria

We both ordered their signature Roast Pork with Bread Dumpling (11.90 euros each). The roast pork was really good, soft and tender! However, the bread dumpling didn't really appeal to us as it tasted kinda like a weird ball of flour...maybe it's just we don't know how to appreciate German food lol.

Hans W

Gstattengasse 1 | 5020 Salzburg

Although the menu is in German, the staff was very nice and patient in explaining to us the different hot dogs available. The hot dogs here were really AWESOME!! The bread was crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside. The hot dogs were super savory and it was just perfect with the sauces!!

Chicken Hot dog (5.80 euros), with chilli mayo sauce, tomato pesto and salad.

Ol Beef Picante (5.80 euros), with curry sauce, onions and salad.

Rosti (2.30 euros). THIS WAS THE BOMBZ. It was so good that we ordered one more after our hot dogs. I do not know how they did it, but it's really the best rosti I have had so far!

Saran Essbar

Judengasse 10, 5020 Salzburg

We decided to eat here because of the 9.90 promo, which was really a steal! 

Wiener Schnitzel (9.90 euros). This was really good. The meat was tender and accompanied with the crispy texture on the outside, it was perfect!!

Apple Strudel (6.90 euros). We ordered this as it stated that it was the "Best Apple Strudel in Salzburg", and I wonder why we foolishly believed so... This apple strudel didn't meet our expectations at all. The skin wasn't crsipy but instead more to the soggy side. It was more of sour rather than sweet overall. I do not know if this is how German apple strudels are supposed to be but, this is not recommended haha.

 Bistro at Hallein Salt Mine

After touring the Hallein Salt Mine, there is a bistro located very conveniently within the building. The food was affordable (see menu price below) and it was really good too!!

Currywurst BBQ Sausage (6.50 euros). The curry sauce was good, and portions were really big! The two of us shared this and were actually full.

In the following post, we will be posting about our own "Sound of Music" tour as well as the "Hallein Salt Mine" tour. You can save a lot of money by doing the SOM tour by yourself, and getting the package deal for the Hallein Salt Mine tour!! Await our next post! :D