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Discover Austria: How to explore Salzburg in one weekend

Salzburg is a classy city with a rich cultural heritage and beautiful architecture. Here’s how to make the most of a weekend trip to the city where Mozart was born.

Discover Austria: How to explore Salzburg in one weekend
Salzburg, in Austria (Photo by Heinz Klier / Pexels)

For a weekend getaway filled with art, culture, shopping, nature and gastronomy, Salzburg ticks all the right boxes.

Located near the border with Bavaria in Germany, Salzburg is easy to reach from Vienna, either by train (around 2.5 hours) or car.

The city’s train station is also well connected to other cities across Austria like Innsbruck and Graz. As well as further afield locations in neighbouring Germany and Italy.

To help you plan for a weekend city trip, here’s The Local’s guide of what to do and where to go in Salzburg.

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Art and culture

Classical music plays a big role in Salzburg, from Mozarts Geburtshaus (birthplace of Mozart) on Getreidegasse to concerts at Mozarteum University and Salzburg Cathedral.

As a result, any trip to Salzburg would not be complete without discovering some of this cultural heritage, whether visiting the museum at Mozarts Geburtshaus (entry is €12) or attending a lunchtime concert at Salzburg Cathedral (tickets are €6).

The city also hosts the annual Salzburger Festspiele, which is a celebration of music and drama. This festival is held between July and August and tickets for events have to be purchased in advance, especially for the performance of the famous Jederamann play.

Then there is Salzburg Castle (Festung Hohensalzburg) that sits on a cliff top overlooking the city. It was built in 1077 and is one of Europe’s largest mediaeval castles.

Visitors can reach the castle either by walking (around 20 minutes uphill) or with a cable car. Tickets to enter the grounds start at €10.30 for an adult or from €13.30 with the cable car. If visiting in the winter, there is also a Christmas market held in the castle grounds.

And for those that like to stay on lower ground, Mirabell Palace (Schloss Mirabell) is well worth a visit – even if just to walk through the beautiful gardens before heading down to the river.

READ ALSO: Five European cities you can reach from Austria in less than five hours by train

Salzburg is a beautiful city with many attractions (Photo by Free Walking Tour Salzburg on Unsplash)

Shopping

Salzburg’s Old Town (Altstadt) is home to pretty weaving streets, all linked by narrow passageways dotted with boutiques and cafes. 

On Getreidegasse, you can find shops like Mango, Tommy Hilfiger and Liebeskind, as well as wine shops and stores selling souvenirs. For antiques, art and jewellery, head to Goldgasse – a winding street tucked away near the cathedral.

Salzburg also has a McArthurGlen Designer Outlet, but this is located outside of the city centre on Kasernenstrasse. It has brands like Diesel, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors and Calvin Klein.

Top tip: shops in Austria are closed on a Sunday, so make sure you get any shopping done before then.

READ ALSO: Why everything in Austria is closed on Sundays – and what to do instead

Food and drink

There are two breweries to add to your Salzburg weekend itinerary: Sternbraü and Augustiner.

Sternbraü was founded in 1542 and is located on Griesgasse, just a short stroll from the river in the Old Town. It has a large outdoor beer garden with trees, which is great if visiting in the warmer months. 

The brewery also has a food menu with Austrian favourites like Schnitzel and Schweinsbraten (roast pork), as well as healthier options like chicken salad and soups.

Augustiner is actually a Bavarian beer but it can be found on Lindhofstrasse in Salzburg where beer has been brewed since 1621. The beer is served in stone mugs and can be enjoyed indoors or in the vast beer garden.

You can also sample Augustiner beer at the Goldene Kugel on Judengasse (just off Goldgasse). This is a cosy, traditional-style restaurant serving a blend of Austrian and Bavarian cuisine, with dishes like Weisswurst (sausage made from minced veal and pork) and Leberkäse (meatloaf made from corned beef, pork and bacon) on the menu.

Or for a healthier option, head to the Afro Cafe on Bürgerspitalplatz. As the name suggests, Afro Cafe serves African-inspired dishes but also vegan and vegetarian meals, all in a modern setting.

Plus, the Afro Cafe has an outdoor terrace to watch the city go by while having a coffee.

READ NEXT: Discover Austria: How to make the most of 24 hours in Innsbruck

Hikes around town give you beautiful views of the city and surroundings. (Photo by Qamar Mahmood on Unsplash)

Hiking in the city

Salzburg sits at the base of the Kapuzinerberg and the Mönchsberg mountains, so it’s possible to combine a cosmopolitan city trip with some hiking.

For a winding city walk, head towards the Kapuzinerberg. The trail provides panoramic views over the Old Town and loops back down past the Capuchin monastery.

Alternatively, the Mönchsberg route takes you past the Nonnberg monastery and continues on to the castle. After that, you can head back to the city past the Augustiner brewery or the Salzburg Museum of Modern Art.

Both hikes are around 4km and take around one and a half hours to complete.

Got a recommendation for our Salzburg city trip guide? Let us know in the comments section below or email [email protected].

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Eight unique Austrian museums you need to visit

Austria—especially Vienna—is world-renowned for its museums, each exploring thousands of years of art, history, culture, nature, or science.

Eight unique Austrian museums you need to visit

However, where do you go after you’ve done the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Albertina, and the other ‘big names’? 

Here are eight wonderfully unique museums across Austria that are well worth visiting and offer a unique perspective on Austria and Austrians. 

Crime Museum, Vienna

Buried deep in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt, in one of its oldest houses, visitors can submerge themselves in centuries of the capital’s seedy underworld at the Vienna Crime Museum

Amidst printed murder ballads, weapons that took the lives of innocents and other rather gruesome displays, the story of how law and order developed within the Austrian capital is told – with a bit of dry caustic wit and humour. 

One particularly morbid highlight is the skeleton of Theresia Kandl, a 19th-century murderess who was the first woman to be hanged at the city’s gallows. 

Funeral Museum, Vienna

Spend any time in Vienna, and you’ll realise that death is a part of life. 

That’s not to say that it’s hazardous – just that the Viennese have a particular relevance and fondness for the business of death, including funerals.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that Vienna has a museum dedicated to funerary culture at the city’s central cemetery.

A lively, interactive series of displays informs the visitor about how funerals and mourning have evolved over the centuries. There are also loads of interesting headstones, mourning gowns, and other trinkets on display. 

The museum is also known for its gift shop, full of delightfully morbid gifts—a Playmobil funeral hearse and skeleton mourners, for example! 

Dom Museum, Salzburg

Tucked within the cathedral museum in Salzburg is the ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’, first established by Prince Bishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau and greatly expanded by one of his successors, Max Gandolf von Kuenburg, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

A collection of artworks and ‘oddities’ was essential to reputation building for Early Modern rulers, and the Prince Bishops of Salzburg were some of the most powerful around. Therefore, the treasures on display needed to be second to none. 

The collection includes the relics of various saints (sometimes multiples of the same body parts), beautifully preserved coral, automata, and other weird and wonderful things. 

Knappenwelt Gurgtal, Tarrenz, Tyrol

A lot of Tyrol and Austria’s wealth originated from beneath the ground. Evidence of mining occurring over three thousand years ago has been uncovered in some areas.

Knappenwelt Gurgtal is an open-air museum that aims to show how silver, zinc, and other metals were mined in the Middle Ages. 

That’s not the museum’s star attraction, however. That would be the ‘Healer of Gurgtal‘, found nearby in 2008. 

This is the grave of a woman around forty years old who showed evidence of being a ‘wise woman’ who supplied remedies and cures. 

She may have aided the miners before her death during the Thirty Years’ War.

Schloss Eggenberg, Graz, Styria

This one almost feels like cheating. Schloss Eggenberg is more than one museum—it’s three, at least. 

The castle has been preserved as a fantastic example of how Austrian nobility embraced growing scientific knowledge in the sixteenth century, embedding it into their homes’ very art and fabric. 

Nothing is by accident; everything is planned and usually has an astronomical significance. 

The castle also houses the art gallery and coin collections of the Universalmuseum Joanneum, Styria’s central museum authority.  

The state’s archaeological museum is constructed beneath the beautiful gardens. You can find several unique ancient treasures there, such as the ‘Cult Wagon of Strettweg’. 

Burg Riegersburg, Riegersburg, Styria

Another castle, the imposing Burg Riegenburg, was once home to one of the most colourful characters in Austria’s history: Katharina Elisabeth von Galler, or ‘Bad Lisl’. 

At a time when women were not permitted the same rights as men, the seventeenth-century noblewoman refused to submit. She married three times and proved a terror to her husbands if they so much as lifted a finger to prevent her from ruling in her own right. 

Today, the castle’s museum is divided into three sections. 

The first tells the story of the castle and its rulers over the centuries, while the second deals with Burg Riegersburg’s role in witch trials during the lifetime of ‘Bad Lisl’. 

The third section is devoted to a display of weaponry and armour that would humble some state museums. 

Archaeological Park Carnuntum, Bruck an der Leitha, Lower Austria

Once upon a time, Austria was an integral part of the Roman Empire, known as the province of Pannonia – and the capital wasn’t Vienna, but the thriving city of Carnuntum

Once home to 50,000 inhabitants, the city was destroyed in the fourth century, only to be really excavated in the closing decades of the twentieth century.

Now, a vivid picture of life is displayed in locations across Bruck an der Leitha, including a dedicated museum and recreations of several buildings found there. 

An innovative aspect of the experience is the ‘Carnuntium’ App, which allows users to see the ruins as they would have appeared at the city’s height. 

Tyrolean Folk Art Museum, Innsbruck, Tyrol

Austrian folklore is a wild mix of magic, nature, and Christian belief, expressed through traditional handicrafts, songs, and dance. 

These traditions are showcased in the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum in central Innsbruck, a Tyrolean State Museum collection. 

Don’t go in thinking you’ll just be looking at cosy domestic artefacts; you’re far more likely to encounter ghosts, goblins, witches, and saints doing extraordinary deeds. 

Definitely one to spend hours enjoying – especially the rather creepy masks and costumes used in traditional festivals!

Is there a museum we should add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below. 

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