hi,
have just got my girlfriend addicted to the traviling bug. am hoping to plan a trip to salzburg in april. can anyone pls recomend some side trips with this pls. we will be staying for 7 days and could easily fly back from a different airport (not salzburg) back to manchester.
thank you

Easy side trips include the whole Salzburg region (mountains), Innsbruck, and Bavaria (Munich, Neuschwanstein castle, etc).

Or you can go the other direction to Vienna.

Munich has an excellent international airport with far more flights than Salzburg.

Berchtesgaden is close to Salzburg even though it is technically in Germany. Trains and buses run between the two locations.

If you are thinking of renting a car, which is expensive in Austria, many more possibilities open up.

One suggestion I make for a day trip is to the castle near Prien, Germany.
The castle itself was built during the reign of Ludwig II and was intended to emulate Versailles. It even has a hall of mirrors which some people feel is even more impressive than Versailles.

It probably is because the technology was about 100 years more advanced.

Getting to the castle, known as Herrenchiemsee, is a bit of a chore.
If you look at the Deutsche Bahn website at http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en
You can see the exact schedule.

Enter Salzburg for your origin; Herrenchiemsee as your destination

The trip involves a train ride to Traunstein, a bus ride to Gstadt am Chiemsee Ortsmitte and a walk to the boat dock.

Not as hard as it sounds. There will be quite a few people doing it on a pretty weekend day.

Hallstadt is another possible trip from Salzburg. It can be reached by train.
Bad Ischel is on that route and you might want to include it also.

It is a spa town, formerly used by royalty.

Get your hands on a copy of the Rough Guide for Austria. The possibilities are absolutely endless.

You should also learn to use the Austrian rail website at www.oebb.at.
It has English captions for some of the displays.

OOPS bad proof reading. No e in Bad Ischl. Phonetic spelling will do you in every time; or how do you spell Thames after only hearing it pronounced, or Gloucester?

PS. Ortsmitte can be read as "the middle of the town,"
The area has quite a few buildings; hopefully some friendly person will tell you where to get off. I find that many Austrians and Germans speak some English, a word or two.

You will find that most educated Bavarians and Austrians are in good command of English. Some of them take it for 9 years in school!!

Double OOPS for Mrs. Brookwood. Phonetic spelling strikes again. The town name is H A L L S T A T T -- Hallstatt. Easy mistake to make.

The Austrian rail web site will show you combination train and bus connections on how to get there. There is a bus directly from Salzburg to Bad Ischl.

According to the web site, the bus leaves from the Mirabell Palace bus stop after originating at the main train station.

I have been to the Mirabell Gardens, even attended a concert in the building, but darned if I remember where the bus stop is located. It should be obvious, but when you are a stranger, even the obvious is sometimes elusive.

Just think, Emperor Franz Josef used to intertwine with his mistress at Bad Ischl. Go there and perhaps a molucule of water that once graced the corpus of the stubborn the last Hapsburg monarch will flow over your skin.

Don't know that it conveys any regal status, but you can always pretend.

I've seen pictures of people arriving in Hallstatt by boat after having disembarked from the train across the lake. Always thought that would be a lovely way to arrive. So is there still a boat that meets the train? And does it run in April?

There is tons of local travel information available specifically on Salzburg at http://www.visit-salzburg.net and generally on Austria on http://www.tourmycountry.com

Have fun!

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