INTRODUCING SALZBURG
Salzburg, honestly.
A local, licensed guide on what is actually worth your time. Tours, food, the quiet corners most visitors walk past.
Browse Salzburg
Where do you want to start?
The places worth walking to, the experiences I recommend, the towns beyond the city, and the people behind the story.
Salzburg Card
A visitor pass that covers free entry to most major attractions and free public transport, available in 24, 48, or 72-hour versions. For any…
Schranne Salzburg
Thursday mornings at the Andrakirche in the Neustadt: regional farmers selling produce to the people who will cook it that day. The genuine feel…
Siemens Festspielleinwand
A free outdoor screen in Kapitelplatz during the Salzburg Festival, broadcasting live and recorded opera and concert performances to anyone who brings a picnic.…
Walk of Modern Art
Seventeen permanent sculptures by Anselm Kiefer, James Turrell, Abramović, and others, scattered through the Altstadt and Mönchsberg. Self-guided, free, and placed exactly where they…
Maxglan
Maxglan is a western district of Salzburg where the airport, a legendary brewery, a Red Bull aviation museum, and a piece of important interwar architecture all exist within walking distance. It is also where Hermann…
Mülln
Mülln sits immediately northwest of the Altstadt, pressed between the Mönchsberg cliff and the Salzach River. Its main draw is the Augustiner Braustuebl Muelln, a monastery beer hall that has been serving unfiltered…
Neustadt
The Neustadt occupies the right bank of the Salzach River, directly across from the Altstadt. Planned and built from the late 17th century under the prince-archbishops, it holds Mirabell Palace and Mirabell Gardens,…
Nonntal
Nonntal is the valley district at the foot of the Nonnberg, the rocky hill that has held a convent since the eighth century. Quiet and primarily residential, it is also one of the most historically…
Salzburg State
Salzburg State is the place behind the city: a federal state of 7,154 km2 that runs from a baroque UNESCO-listed capital in the north to glacial peaks and remote alpine plateaus in the south. Five…
THINGS TO DO
Things worth doing
Half-day tours, cooking classes, mountain swims, concerts in the old town. The ones I would actually send a friend to.
Sound of Music Tour Salzburg
A four-hour coach tour of Salzburg and the surrounding lake district, connecting the filming locations of the 1965 film with the real history underneath.…
Rupertikirtag
Late September, Residenzplatz fills with fairground stalls, traditional food, and local people. Salzburg's oldest folk festival, running for days around the feast of the…
Mozartwoche
One week each January, entirely Mozart, in the city where he was born. Organised by the Stiftung Mozarteum, attended by serious Mozart enthusiasts from…
Mozart Dinner Concert
Dinner in the oldest restaurant in the world, by candlelight, with costumed performers playing Mozart arias. The Baroque Hall of Stiftskeller St Peter is…
Festungskonzerte
Chamber music by candlelight in the Prince's Chamber of Hohensalzburg Fortress, 900 metres above the Altstadt. Mozart and Haydn, performed in the same building…
Private Walking Tour Salzburg
Current Salzburg private walking tour experience surface for custom guided tours under the FWTS side of the cluster.
Free Walking Tour Salzburg Public Tour
Core public guided city walking tour experience delivered by Free Walking Tour Salzburg.
Free Walking Tour Salzburg
A daily guided walking tour of Salzburg's Altstadt. Tip-based, no fixed price: join for free, pay what you think it was worth at the…
FROM THE NOTEBOOK
Stories from the notebook
Field notes and honest takes from my last few weeks around Salzburg.
The Original Mozartkugel: A Legal Battle in Chocolate
The original Mozartkugel is wrapped in blue and silver foil, made by hand, and sold only in Salzburg. The one you see at every airport and supermarket in Austria, the red and gold version, is a mass-produced copy that…
Nannerl: The Mozart Nobody Talks About
Maria Anna Mozart was four and a half years older than her brother and just as talented. As a child, she toured the royal courts of Europe alongside Wolfgang, performing for kings and emperors. The audiences could not…
What Most Mozart Guides Get Wrong
Every week on my tours, someone asks about Salieri. Every week I explain that Amadeus is a film, not a documentary. That is only the beginning. The popular version of Mozart's life is a mix of half-truths, romantic…
The Mozart Family and St. Gilgen
Mozart never visited St. Gilgen. His mother was born there. His sister lived there for seventeen years. His grandfather and brother-in-law are buried in the churchyard. The village square is named after him. He never…
WORTH A STOP
Places worth a stop
Cafes, viewpoints, swim spots and dinner tables on the shortlist.
WHERE TO BASE YOURSELF
City and beyond
Salzburg city, the lake towns, the mountain villages. Pick where you sleep.
St. Wolfgang
St. Wolfgang is a historic pilgrimage village on the eastern shore of the Wolfgangsee, carrying…
Zell am See
Zell am See is the kind of Austrian town that works across every season without…
Vienna
Vienna is referenced in IS content both as a primary gateway city (approximately 3 hours…
Munich
Munich is the nearest major international city to Salzburg and one of the two primary…
Gosau
Gosau is the quiet end of the Salzkammergut, a Upper Austrian village at the mouth…
Flachgau
The Flachgau is the district that surrounds Salzburg on nearly every side, stretching from flat…
WHY THIS SITE
No sponsored lists. Just what I would tell a friend.
I have lived and guided here for over fourteen years. Everything on these pages is somewhere I have actually been, eaten, or walked. If a place is not worth your time, I say so.
PLAN YOUR TRIP
Plan a trip that fits
How many days, where to stay, what to skip. The practical groundwork before you book a thing.