Austria | 3/4 days itinerary | Salzburg and Hallstatt
Salzburg
Salzburg is made from two words, salz is German word for Salt, and Burg means Castle. From over 2600 years, salt mining has been taking place in Salzburg, which made it a very important place in the history of Austria.
Day 1 - Salzburg
We will start our first day with Buying the Salzburg Card. This card allows us to visit 30 attractions for free. And if you visit more than 3/4 of them, then the card is almost free. In addition to the attractions, the salzburg card also gives you access to the public transport system. Since we will be here for 2 days, we recommend buying 48 hours pass. This pass will cost 36 euros.
For us a good day needs a good coffee, and it doesn't hurt if we have some nice breakfast with it as well. So we will start our day one, by visiting one of the most famous cafes in Salzburg, Cafe Tomasselli. This is an old cafe, and if the weather is good, we recommend sitting outside and enjoying the view of the residentplatz. They have amazing cakes as well, and we definitely recommend them.
After we are done with Breakfast, we will head to maybe the most important Landmark of Salzburg.
Mozart Birth house is a nice museum where you can see details about Mozarts Life and family. You can also read about his earlier work, and how we became the famous musician that he did.
If you are not into music or history, then you might find the museum okish. However, we recommend visiting the place, for one room, where they play one of the Mozarts symphonies all the time. That music gave us goosebumps. It was magical.
The cost of this is 13.50 euros. It's covered as part of the Salzburg card.
After visiting the Mozart birth house, we will head to Resident platz. Resident platz is a cute little platz with great views of the Museum, Cathedral and Dom quarters. Spend some time here and soak in some views.
From the Resident platz, you should visit Salzburg cathedral. The cathedral is very beautiful from both outside and inside. Everyday at 12 PM, they've a musical organ concert, and it was amazing. You can either buy it from getyourguide, or can buy it right at the entry of the Cathedral. The cost of the concert is 9 euros (it's not covered in Salzburg card, however, with the card, you might get some discount). We bought the ticket online, and hence weren't able to check if the Salzburg card gives discount here or not.
After covering the cathedral, we will visit Dom quarters. Dom quarters are a Unesco heritage site, and provides a lot of details on the history as well as art. The quarters also displays fantastic baroque architecture.
The entry cost of Dom Quarters is 13 euros. It's covered as part of the Salzburg Card.
It took us 2/3 hours to cover the Dom quarters, so we recommend planning this activity properly.
From the Dom quarters, you also get two panorama views, one over the Dom Platz having the cathedral and Fortress at the distance, and one of the Resident platz.
After Dom quarters, we will head towards the Hohensalbzurg Fortress. On the way we will cross the Kapitelplatz.
On Kapitelplatz, you will see the golden globe as as well as Open chess. A lot of kids and adults enjoy this area, while trying to play the open chess.
To visit the fortress from here, you can either take the funicular train or do the hike. Cost without the funicular is 10.80 and with funicular is 14-17 euros. The fortress and Funicular is covered as part of Salzburg card. For all access, you might need to pay more.
We recommend visiting the fortress close to sunset time, so that you can catch the sunset from the top.
The fortress provides breathtaking views of the city. Do not miss the points near the armoury, and also hike up the keep for the best views.
To end the day, we recommend visiting one of the Oldest restaurants (803 AD) in Europe.
The food in the restaurant was great, and they have vegan friendly options as well.
Our recommendations here are Pumpkin soup, and the lentil Croquettes. You should also order one of their cheese plates. They have quiet a collection.
The decor of the restaurant was very good, and felt a bit bold. It has huge sitting areas and a lot of artwork. We recommend booking a table before hand.
After finishing our dinner, we will make our way to our hotel, strolling through the narrow but gorgeous streets of Salzburg.
Day 2
We will start the second day by visiting the cultural heritage monument of Mirabell palace. The palace has amazing gardens, fountains, as well as administrative buildings. The mirabell palace gardens are one of the most beautiful gardens that you will be able to visit.
The gardens are maintained in a way that they form their own tapestry and the entire garden areas feels like a huge carpet.
You will also get a good view of the fortress from the Gardens.
Note: The Gardens might not be visible in Winter months due to snow. So if you want to visit the gardens, you should focus on visiting from April to October.
Salzach beach is a small area near the Marko feingold bridge, where you can sit during warmer weather's and soak in the beauty of this majestic city.
From the beach area, you will see the amazing river, the love lock bridge as well as have great views of the fortress. If you have some time, we recommend sitting here and soaking in the views.
The Lock love bridge of Salzburg. On this bridge you will see countless love locks which are locked on the railing by the tourists. The bridge also gives spectacular views of the fortress and the gorgeous river.
After the bridge, we will head to the Cafe Mozart. This is a very colourful cafe and is known for their desserts. We recommend trying the Apple strudel here. You can also opt for Cheese cake strudel. The coffee was good as well.
We also ordered tofus with Roasted vegetables (Vegan) and Spaghetti pomodro as main courses. Both of these dishes were good as well.
After visiting Austria, we also started trying a different type of coffee, Melange. Melange is like cappuccino, but with less foam and more coffee.
After the cafe, we will start exploring the famoure getreidgasse. The old and beautiful streets houses a lot of branded and local shops. The most interesting thing about this place was the signs on the streets.
Each shop had their own symbol which is used. And all of these symbols add to the beauty of the street.
From Getreidegasse we will make way towards the University square. Here you will see farmers markets, as well as the biggest brezel we have ever seen. The university building and other colourful buildings add a lot of charm to this small city square.
After covering these areas, we just kept walking in the city and enjoyed the views.
After coving the streets, visit the Confiserie Furst, to try the authentic Mozart Kugel.
From here, we will head to the Monchsberg elevator. This elevator takes us to various museums. But more importantly, it takes you to the top of the Monchsberg hill from where you get beautiful views of the city.
We initially thought we will spend only half hr or so on the top, however, we ended up being on the hill for 2+ hours. The views of the city we get from here are absolutely fantastic, and we didn't want to come down.
With this our trip to salzburg comes to an end. Now head to the hotel, and sleep, tomorrow morning we will start for Hallstatt.
Where to stay in Salzburg
We stayed at Numa Mozart is Salzburg, and really liked staying there. It was a very nice hotel, and had good connectivity.
If you would like to live near the Old Stadt, then you can also check the other offering by Numa.
One more day in Salzburg
If you've one more day in Salzburg, then these are the other things that you should cover:
Visit the Hellbrunn palace. The palace has a lot of Museums, Gardens and also zoo. The palace is not fully operational in winters, so plan your trip accordingly. This palace is covered as part of Salzburg card.
Also covered by Salzburg card.
Hallstatt
The little town of Hallstatt is right out of a fairy tale. Most of the times, when we see pictures of a city, the city looks good, but in reality, we get underwhelmed. For hallstatt it's exactly opposite.
Hallstatt is everything you've seen in pictures and much more. The photos that you see cannot do justice to the beauty of this small town. This was our dream town from the moment we saw its photos, and we can still say, it's one of the most beautiful places we have visited.
How to reach
To reach Hallstatt by public transport, we need to take 3 different buses:
Bus 150: Bus 150 goes from Salzburg to Bad ischl.
Bus 451: You will wait for 30 mins at Bad Ischl, and then take bus 451 to Hallstatt Gosaumühle.
Bus 453: When you will reach Gosaumühle, you will have another bus waiting there, you will take that to Hallstatt Lahn.
Alternatively you can take a train from Bad ischl, but the bus route is prettier. You can also drive to Hallstatt from Salzburg, if you've a car.
As soon as you reach Hallstatt, you will be greeted with a wonderful view of the most picture perfect town. The mountains, the lake, the colourful timber houses, and the post card view of Hallstatt will be waiting for you and will welcome you with a warm heart.
Even though you might want to hurry and start covering the town, we recommend stopping here and taking in the view. As when you come here again later, more crowd might have reached, and the open view you have might not be that open anymore.
After taking in the views of the gorgeous lake, we will make our way to the Salzbergbahn which is the funicular that will take us to the Skywalk and salt mines.
Enjoy the gorgeous views of the Hallstatt town, hallstattersee lake and the mountains from this panoramic view point.
Visit the Salt mines and take their tour. General time to take this tour is 45 mins. However, with taking the cable car, changing into clothes and all, we recommend keeping approximately 2 hours for this activity.
After covering the Skywalk and the salt mine, you can either take the cable car back down, or you can hike down.
After coming down, we will stroll near the lake and soak in the gorgeous views that this town has to offer.
While walking you will come to the Marktplatz. It's a very small platz, but is very colourful. There are a few restaurants here, and if you're hungry, you'd grab a bite either here or at the Gasthof Zauner.
After grabbing something to eat, we will explore the church and the cemetery.
Near the cemetery, there is a bone chapel.
After visiting the churches, and chapels, we will head towards the postcard view of Hallstatt.
This panoramic viewpoint is picture perfect. A lot of photos of Hallstatt that you see are taken here. And the view is absolutely mesmerising. We can spend an hour here taking in the beauty and still not get bored.
After covering the panoramic view, we will start strolling back towards the Lahn.
Optional activities:
If you have more time, you can take the ferry and visit Obertraun from Hallstatt.
In Obertraun there is a cable car, which will take you to the ice cave. The ice cave is not always open in winters, so check before going.
The same cable car continues and takes you to an even higher view point, called as 5 fingers. From here you can get great views of the lake and mountains.
If you plan on visiting Obertraun after Hallstatt, we recommend taking train back to Salzburg.
Summary
We hope you enjoyed this 3/4 days guide for Salzburg and Hallstatt. Both the cities are absolutely beautiful, and we loved spending times there. We hope that you will love and enjoy them as much as we did.
Happy traveling!!
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