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Mozart's birthplace hosts the world's most prestigious classical music festival every July and August — but the old town's Steinstrasse bars and the surrounding Alpine lakes run a parallel summer season that costs nothing like a festival ticket.
Salzburg's Altstadt (old town) sits in a river valley between two forested hillsides, with the Hohensalzburg fortress on the southern cliff and the Mirabell Palace gardens to the north. The whole central area is UNESCO-listed, which means the streets look largely as they did when Mozart was born here in 1756. The Salzburger Festspiele, founded in 1920, runs July and August across multiple venues in the old town: the Grosses Festspielhaus, the Felsenreitschule (a stage cut into the cliff face), the Mozarteum, and the open-air Domplatz where Jedermann (Everyman) is performed annually.
Festival tickets are expensive and book out months ahead. What most backpackers discover is that Salzburg during festival season is worth visiting regardless of whether you attend a performance. The old town fills with an international crowd, outdoor restaurant seating extends across every piazza, and the sound of rehearsals carries through the Altstadt streets in the mornings. The bars on Steinstrasse and Rudolfskai along the Salzach River are the after-performance nightlife spine. Wolfgangsee and Hallstatt, both within an hour by bus or train, are day trip options that define 'Alpine summer scenery' in a way that no marketing image fully prepares you for.
Party hostels within reach of 's main celebrations. Ranked by guest rating.
Day-by-day breakdown
Walk the Altstadt from Mozartplatz to Domplatz before 10am when the day tripper buses arrive. The cathedral (Dom) is free to enter. The Hohensalzburg fortress takes 15 minutes to reach by funicular (13.40 EUR return including fortress entry) from Festungsgasse. The fortress view of the city and the surrounding Alps is best in the morning before afternoon cloud builds. Mozart's Geburtshaus (birthplace) on Getreidegasse is 11 EUR.
The Mirabell Palace gardens are free and open daily. The rose garden, the Pegasus fountain, and the steps used in the Sound of Music filming are here. Schloss Leopoldskron, the lakeside palace that stood in for the Von Trapp home in the film, is across the Leopoldskroner Weiher lake a 20-minute walk south of the old town. The exterior can be viewed from the lake path for free. The cafe on the lake terrace serves Kaffee und Kuchen from 10 EUR.
Jedermann (Everyman) performs on the Domplatz from late July. Tickets from 55 EUR; standing places from 25 EUR. The performance is in German, runs approximately two hours, and the natural acoustic of the cathedral square is part of the experience. For those not attending: the bars on Rudolfskai along the river run from 6pm and have outdoor terraces along the Salzach until midnight. Augustiner Bräustübl, a beer hall in the Mülln neighbourhood (15-minute walk), sells Salzburg's best local beer in ceramic mugs for 4.50 EUR a litre.
Bus 150 from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof to St Wolfgang (60 minutes, 4.60 EUR). The lake is the model for the Sound of Music's Trapp family swimming scenes. St Wolfgang has the Schafberg cogwheel railway (28 EUR return), which reaches 1,783 metres and was used in the original 1930 White Horse Inn operetta. Swimming in the lake is free from the public beach.
Pre-booked private transfers and shared shuttles for your arrival.