Saltzburg or...... Halstatt ?
 

We would like to spend some time in the area this summer. Can anyone recommend a great hotel in Salzburg? We will be with our children, so we want to book in advance. Thank you

Salzburg was a delight. We enjoyed walking through its quaint shops. Must is Salzburger knockel at oh darn think it was St Peters.. a spread out restaurant in an old monastery. We stayed at hotel Europa.. near the railway station, could walk to old town.. also good bus service. Mini bus trips into the neigbouring district were great.Our guide was Frank.. if you can find him he's a delight.

Have been to Salzburg twice, one of our favorites! We stayed at the Zum Hirschen, a very nice modernized hotel in the new part of the city. New meaning built in 13 to 1400's. Austria is expensive and Salzburg is no exception, however we found a number of reasonable restaurants and pubs. Try the Augustiner Monastery for food and great beer. Also, a pleasant surprise is to take the funicular to the top of the HohenSalzburg . Once at the top, turn right to the little restaurant. Get a window table, get a beer and some cheese, look at the the Alps and ask yourself if you really do need to go back home.

The city is full of nice sites. The Hohensalzburg, virtually all of old town, Mirabella Palace and gardens, and don't foret to take a stroll at night across one of the bridges and look at the city lit up like a dignified Christmas tree.

Also, there must be 10,000 little shops in little alcoves in the old town. One other thing, across from the funicular to Hohensalzburg is St Peters. In their graveyard you will see tombstones that date back to the 800's. This is also where they filmed the scene in The Sound of Music where the family is hding in the cemetary the night that they escaped. Also, if you can take the time visit the catacombs at the back end of the cemetary where the early Christians met as early as 100ad.

Have a nice trip and have a Gosser or Stiglbrau for me.

When I was in Salzburg it poured rain for the first day. Lucky for me, the youth hostel where I stayed showed "The Sound of Music" every day at one o'clock. So I watched it, for the very first time, and was so tickled pink by it that I went on "The Sound of Music" Tour the very next day. Some people who have taken the tour didn't like it, but I had a grand time. We saw most of the movie sights, and some interesting tidbits (for example: in the scene where Maria teaches the kids to sing -- "Doe, a deer..." -- they start out on a mountain top and end up in Mirabell Gardens right in Salzburg. They don't show you that the mountaintop is something like 57 kilometres from Salzburg! So not only do they learn to sing in five minutes, but they also run quite the marathon!). Anyway, you could show your kids the movie before you go, and it might be a fun way to spend a day. It's a good way to see the country side in the area, too, especially if you're stuck in trains on the rest of your trip. A word of caution though -- when they take you to souvenir shops and Cafe Braun you can be sure the tour guide is getting a cut, so shop and eat elsewhere. The apple struedel our guide got us drooling over for the entire morning cost me about 15$ Canadian with a coffee!!!
Halstaat is beautiful! I'm not sure there would be many exciting things for kids, but it's a good place to get away from the big cities and relax. It's quite cheap, too, even in peak season. I'm not sure if you can rent a canoe or kayaks, but that would be great. The lake was flat calm when I was there, and the mountains are breathtaking! I spent less than 24 hours there, unfortunately, but I'm quite sure there's hiking to be found there as well.
Have fun!

Hello I agree with the others Salzburg is fantastic We have been there 3 times and stayed at the Sheraton all three times. It is close to the Mirabel Gardens. the hotel is excellent and the service was very good. Enjoy.

Rudy, if you are willing to stay a little ways out of Salzburg...we stayed at the Seehotel Lachner in Mondsee..this is a lakeside hotel,with nice restaurant with patio, and swimming in a lake with wonderful view of mountains...town is small, church is known from Sound of Music as wedding church....many other hotels along lake also....we paid 1150 Austrian in 93 for double...

Rudy,
You'd be delighted by your stay in Hallstatt. It's a small village with a charming center square and magnificent views of its lake, Hallstatter See. Hallstatt is one of the oldest settled sites in Western Europe, dating to the first part of the Iron Age, 600 - 900 BC. There is a small but fascinating archeological museum in the town that displays many Iron Age implements that have been excavated in the area.

Since you have children with you, be sure to visit the church graveyard. In addition to beautifully maintained grave sites, there is an ossuary in a cave to the rear of the graveyard which contains the skulls and bones of the village's deceased. Skulls are decorated with floral paintings and the names of the deceased and the dates of birth and death. In some instances, the cause of death is depicted on the skull. Kids will be enthralled!

Take the kids to the salt mines as well. There is a funicular railway that carries you up a mountain to the mine entrance. If entering the mine, you will be provided with a heavy jacket and pants that have canvass or leather seats. You then get on a small train and ride into the mine. (The train is so small that you straddle it, much like riding a horse.) There are over 25 miles of tunnels within the mountain at various levels. Obviously, your tour only samples them. To get from a higher level to a lower, you straddle a wooden rail and slide down some 120 feet. It's a bit like sliding down a banister. Again, an exercise that should delight the children!

There is a restaurant with an outdoor patio near the mine entrance that offers sweeping panoramic views of the lake and village far below and the mountains in the distance.

There are a number of small hotels facing the small main square, Hotel Gruner Baum, which has lakeside views and Gasthof Simony. The latter is an old, old reasonably priced guesthouse in which we stayed but would not recommend to others, although it did have spacious rooms.