any suggestions for 5 days in Salzburg? Hotel suggestions? It will be our first trip there. we'll have our 16 year old son and 2 12 year olds with us so we need a bit activity to keep them happy in addition to the 'usual' touring in the city. Is the Sound of Music tour enjoyable or too hokey? anyone go on a salt mine tour?

I liked the SOM tour very much, but I am a huge fan of the movie. Be sure to visit the water castle, the kids will get a major kick out of that.

topping for kwren.

Hi,
We went on the salt mine tour (the mines at Hallein just outside Salzburg) a few weeks ago. It was tacky but fun - the guide was very good, speaking German, Italian and English and keeping everybody entertained. You have to dress up in white overalls and get to slide down the miners' toboggans and walk through the old tunnels, as the history of the mine is explained by means of short films projected at intervals throughout the tour.

The saltmines are very popular, especially as a rainy day activity, so if you go on a rainy day as we did, make sure you get there early (we arrived about 10 am.). When we came out (around 11.45) the queue for tickets was incredibly long and all the carparks were full, with traffic backed up along the road and people parking way down the hill.

Two things that could be fun (and that we had hoped to do, but didn't have time for) are the ice caves at Werfen, and Hellbrun castle, with its gardens and trick fountains.

PS We hired a car and were really glad that we did - driving is easy, roads are well marked and signposting is easy to understand, and the Austrians don't drive too fast. There is so much beautiful scenery and lots of towns worth visiting around Salzburg, it would have been a shame to miss them!

We enjoyed our visit there though we did now have our sons with us; we loved looking around and think teens could find enough to do. We,d both recommend renting bikes and taking a leisurely ride along the river -- good for all the ages traveling in your group. Easy to rent bikes right near the bike path by one of the major bridges near the old town.

Check out several SOM tours; the one we went on, in a small van, was conducted by kind of a hard-to-take guide (ex-pat american actually); you,re in the van 4 hours or so, so make sure you,re in good company. However, this tour did include the luge ride which we highly recommend (again all age groups could enjoy).

We did like dinner at the inn that's been serving meals since the 13th century, the guidebooks will have tne name of it.

Also we didn't get to that castle on the hilltop but I wish we had.

we stayed right in old town and enjoyed that very much.

have a great trip!

Thanks for the info on the salt mine tours. What were your favorite towns to visit outside of Salzburg?

Halstatt is one town that's definitely worth a daytrip from Salzburg. Took us about 1 and a half hours to get there (we weren't in a hurry so we took the drive pretty slowly). I believe it can be reached by train/ferry from Salzburg too.

The town is nestled between mountainside and lake and is almost impossibly pretty. There's a saltmine that can be visited there too, which you reach by a steep funicular that takes you up the mountain to the entrance (you don't have to visit the mine when you get to the top - you can also hike on the footpaths or just enjoy a coffee or meal at the inn perched on the mountainside overlooking the lake). Down in the village, the houses are built higgedly-piggedly against the flank of the mountain. We hired a motor boat (12 euros for an hour) and puttered around the lake, taking in the views, snapping pictures and generally enjoying ourselves so much that we didn't manage to visit any of the other places we had planned to see that day!

We liked the Hot Wolf-Dietrich and the adjacent "organic" restaurant.
M

Your kids would probably love the ice caves and castle (Hohenwerfen) in nearby Werfen. The ice caves are world renowned and something completely unique http://www.eisriesenwelt.at/.

The castle is famous for its armory and also its birds of prey center with daily demonstrations. Easy to reach from Salzburg by car or train (about a 20 minute train ride, I think).
http://www.salzburg-burgen.at/englisch/index_engl.htm

FYI, while the kids are touring the castle, you could treat yourself to a gourmet lunch at the Hotel Obauer in Werfen
www.obauer.at

It's a very nice little hotel--we will be spending a few nights there next month.

Oops, that should be www.obauer.com
not www.obauer.at

Sorry!

Now that's my kind of vacation...send the kids to a castle and we go out to lunch!