Wiesbaden to Salzburg
 

We are traveling from our daughters in Wiesbaden by train to Salzburg for 2 nights. Suggestions needed for what trains to take, where to buy, what to do while in Salzburg. We are going to be there two night beginning Dec 20. We have never been to Europe but my husband wanted to see The Sound of Music sights. We are staying near Mirabel gardens with free points.
Should we get the SalzburgCard and if so, where? Thanks to all you experienced travelers. We are so incredibly excited to be able to do this as well as visit our daughters family while they are living in Germany.

The trip is about 05:54 to 6:23 hrs in length and there is at least one change - the route through Mainz. The most common other routing is 2 stops via Frankfurt and Munich. There are roughly 2 departures every hour.

If you just want to get to Salzburg, then, pick whichever departure or arrival time suits your planning. If you want to stop on enroute, there are interesting stops on both routes mentioned; Wurzburg, Nurnberg, Augsburg, Munich.

Fares are currently 59 - 89 Euros depending on train selected.

Here is a link to the Deutsche Bahn (German National Rail) site with Wiesbaden departures listed beginning at 08:00 a.m.. If the link doesn't work, go to www.bahn.com and just fill in the boxes

http://tinyurl.com/bt4vnp2

I am confused by all the Choices of ICE, VIA, RJ, RE, RB, EC for the tickets at bahn.com.

Those designations are the type of train; ICE means Inter-City Express, EC means EuroCity, VIA is a regional service around Frankfurt, and S is a local train (commuter rail).

It is not something you need to consider as something you need to "select". It just tells you the type of service on each leg of the journey.

Click on the orange chevron and you will see more details and which leg has which type of train service. For example the Wiesbaden to Frankfurt leg of the 08:00 train shows this;


VIA25055 VIAS GmbH Number of bicycles conveyed limited, vehicle-mounted accessaid, notification: 01805-512512 *, (*14 ct per minute from German landline, mobile phone max. 42 ct/Min.), laptock sockets, air conditioning, VIAS GmbH

Thank you Aramis. The link did not work but I did find the information on bahn.com BELOW ARE MY CHOICES:
Wiesbaden Hbf
We, 19.12.12 dep 07:00 5:57 2 VIA, ICE, RJ 169,00 EUR
218,00 EUR
Return journey
Salzburg Hbf We, 19.12.12 arr 12:57
Wiesbaden Hbf
We, 19.12.12 dep 07:32 6:10 2 ICE, RE 189,00 EUR
218,00 EUR
Return journey
Salzburg Hbf We, 19.12.12 arr 13:42
Wiesbaden Hbf
We, 19.12.12 dep 07:38 6:31 1 RB, EC 89,00 EUR
188,00 EUR
Return journey
Salzburg Hbf We, 19.12.12 arr 14:09
Wiesbaden Hbf
We, 19.12.12 dep 08:00 6:09 2 VIA, ICE, EC 109,00 EUR
218,00 EUR
Would anyone be able to advise which one to choose?

You can click on the "Later" link at the bottom of the listing of "dep/arr" times to shift the schedule to later departures.

For example, it looks like you selected 07:00 as you departure time and these selections, beginning with a n07:00 a.m. departure are listed in order. If you want to leave later, either start with a later departure time in the input field or click on the "Later" link at the bottom of the selections.

From the list you posted, the 07:38 departure is the cheapest, at 188 Euros and only has 1 change.

Which one to choose is your call - the length of the trip is about the same, some have only 1 change, others 3 changes and the price varies by not too much.

Ticket purchased and I followed your advice. Chose only 1 change for both ways. THANK YOU. Now, I am hoping to find out what is suggested to do in Salzburg when we have about 48 hr there. Staying at Sheraton near Mirabel Garden.

The commercial Sound of Music tours visit a couple of places where the exterior of the Von Trapp house was filmed, the gazebo, and the wedding church in Mondsee.

Many of the places in the city proper are not visited on the tour, but are easy to do on foot. On the Salzburg forum at tripAdvisor, the contributor LizR has an excellent description of those locations.

You are right..LizR did have some great suggestions I was able to use.