Vienna/Salzburg - tips please

[Twonewcats]

We've never been to Austria, but have always wanted to, after many years of repeatedly watching the Sound Of Music 🙈

We're aiming to be there for a week in the summer, spending a few nights in each city. Any tips for tried and tested places to eat/museums/wine bars etc?
And is it hugely expensive to eat out, ie would an apartment be better than a hotel so we can bring takeaways back etc?
Any tips would be so welcome.

For Vienna, Tiergarten Schönbrunn is a great zoo if you like them. St Stephens Cathedral is absolutely incredible - definitely buy the ticket that includes the catacomb tour and both towers, it's so worth it. Skopik & Lohn was the best schnitzel we had and we would recommend. The Sacher cafe is amazing if you can get a table, lovely lovely pastries! The Hofburg imperial palace & Spanish riding school are also beautiful and I would go back to if we ever went back to Vienna.

We loved the food and didn't think it was pricey but we are big splurgers so not the best judge on that, I'm really sorry! We went to Steirereck and it was mind blowing, but definitely very spendy.

Salzburg - the Old Town and the castle. Nearby salt mines. The "Sound of Music" tour obviously. Salzburg can get busy with tourists, so really get out into the mountains and pretend that you're Julie Andrews, a day trip by train to Zell am See with a ride up the cable car and a walk across the Alpine meadows.

I loved the Prater in Vienna - but I was a bit meh about the rest of it - lacked atmosphere. All cake and no knickers :) It wasn't as expensive as I feared though. We did the Third Man tour which was quite interesting, and a carriage ride. The Natural History museum was good. We rented an apartment www.rafaelkaiser.com/en/apartments-vienna/cora-deluxe-apartment-terrace-1bedroom-vienna-leopoldstadt-glockengasse/ here, which was fabulous for public transport and between the city centre and the Prater. We got a multi day transport pass.

Central Cafe in Vienna is lovely.

Bring back Mozartkugels - surprisingly addictive:) - and sachertotrte

I love Vienna. Hofburg & Schonbrunn both interesting.
Albertina gallery has some fabulouscart - also the Belvedere Museum & Secession Building if you like Klimt.
Definitely cafes - Cafe Central & also Cafe Hawelka, which is reassuringly old-fashioned and rickety.
Not especially expensive, for a capital city.

Going for the first time in March, also looking for tips and recommendations.

Also going in the summer, so shamelessly piggybacking, as apart from flights ten days apart, into Innsbruck and out of Munich, I've planned nothing.

Happy memories of dragging an Italian boyfriend (who’d never heard of the film) round the Sound of music sites in early 90s. Pre Internet so took a fair amount of dedication. The “I am 16” pavilion was sited outside of Salzburg in the grounds of some villa which I can’t remember the name of - had a fun water garden though which might be worth looking up.

Salzburg is fab. If weather is good, take a walk up the Kapuzinenberg, great views and a wonderful way to work up an appetite! In the old town, there is the St Peter’s Monastery and catacombs, which are very much worth a visit.

The Augustiner Bräustüberl in Mülln is a short pleasant walk from the old town and has great beer and lots of nice food choices, also a fabulous beer garden. It’s really fun - you grab a glass pay for your beer and get a chitty, which you then redeem at the beer tap. And there is a corridor of food stands where you buy whatever you want to eat.

Figlmueller for Schnitzel in Vienna. Schloss Belvedere for Klimt etc . Spanish riding school, rehearsal if performance ££ and you can see the stables from the street.

Book a Mozart dinner evening in Salzburg - kitsch but fun. Also ad hoc concerts in the day. The modern art museum gives a great vantage point and you can walk through woods up there.

Watch your valuables on the underground in Vienna, dh got pickpocketed.

In Vienna:
Figlmuller for schnitzel. They were closed when we went there, so Plachutta at Gasthaus zur Oper was the next best thing. Delicious.
Plachutta [in the city centre] for Tafelspitz
At Schoenbrunn, which is a wonderful visit with lovely gardens, you can rest your feet and enjoy a demonstration of strudel-making in the Residenz Cafe.
In the Prater, which is a big slightly tacky sort of fairground, you can enjoy roast pork knuckle with saurkraut and drink loads and loads of bier.
A interesting local dish, which my limited German got me a bit by mistake, is rye bread spread thickly with lovely butter and thickly sprinkled with chopped chives. Not sure if I recommend this or not!

Oh, wow, some fabulous tips - thanks so much.

I'm sensing that I'd prefer Salzburg to Vienna, so will try to stay there slightly longer x

I love Vienna but find Salzburg a tourist trap. Breugels and Velasquez in the Kunsthistorische Museum and one of the very best Vermeers. The cafe recommendations upthread are spot-on but there are so many good places and it's not an expensive city to eat in. The toy soldiers is Kobers Imperial Toyshop.

Salzburg can get very busy in July and August, verging on there being too many tourists all trying to get into the same places. May/June/September are much better times to visit.

A couple of days in high summer are probably enough in Salzburg, then head off to the mountains - Zell am See, Lofer, Leogang, Saalbach, Bad Gastein etc - where there are fewer people and there is time and space to enjoy the scenery and atmosphere.

Bratislava is also a short train ride from Vienna and worth a day trip.

From Salzburg you can easily reach Berchtesgaden/Königsee and Chiemsee in Bavaria, also very much worth a trip!

if you do go to Salzburg in tourist season, watch your belongings in the old town. A lot of tour groups come though, naively making themselves very identifiable with their walking tour headsets and tour group badges - an absolute magnet for pickpockets. I’ve seen them circulating and eyeing up their next targets.

We're staying an hour away from Salzburg this summer, so recommendations for other things around there would be great thank you.

The sound of music stuff was on my bucket list and we did it with baby DS, it did not disappoint! One of the best holidays we’ve ever had!

The I am 16 pavilion is, as a pp said, in the grounds of a villa which is worth a visit as it has lots of other stuff.

there are two houses which play their house in the film (front and back) and we also found their real house.

the convent entrance and the gravestones they hide behind are also in different places.

oh I’m jealous OP! We hired a car and explored ourselves, didn’t do the tour, as some houses are privately owned so off your (I wanted to see everything!)

there’s also a nice Christmas decoration egg shop(!) and obviously have sacher torte at the Hotel Sacher.

Where exactly are you staying? There are loads of things to do west of Salzburg in the direction of Zell am See, but if you're an hour away to the east of Salzburg then the suggestions will perhaps be less relevant.

Yes we're to the east - schladming.

We spent three nights in Salzburg in November, then took the train to Vienna for four nights. Salzburg was so pretty. Just walk the old town one day and do a kitsch Sound of Music Tour the next. We ate at Zum Fidelin Affen which served the best proper local food and had a lovely atmosphere. just outside the old town so not a tourist trap. (tho still down a nice cobbled street). Highly recommend. Try Austrian wine - it's delicious! They obv keep the best stuff for themselves.

Vienna surprised me in the breadth and depth of the art there was - Belvedere, Albertina and Leopold and Kunthistorisches. All fabulous. We stayed with a friend who works at the UN so had a ready made tour guide but I might be tempted by a Third Man trip next time. Some the corners we turned were straight out of the movie! We found the big cafes hit and miss - some grandly incredible with food to match. Some all squirty cream and not much more! We booked a night at the Musikverein an that was well worth it.. check and see what's on. Cheaper overall that the opera and for us it was spellbinding. Coming out with the locals and getting a snack at one of the bus stop stands is a nice thing to do too.
As for Bratislava mentioned upthread, our local (tho British) guide, said don't bother, so we didn't.

I absolutely loved Salzburg, the original sound of music tour was probably one of the best things I've ever done! Think sipping champagne whilst driving to all the film locations and singing song from the film! DH loved it and I don't think he's watched the film more than once years ago. Definitely recommend Hotel Goldgasse for location, comfort and value.

I'm so grateful for all these tips, thanks so much to all of you ❤️

You can drink champagne on the bus? 😍 Wow!!

Thanks for these tips MN, I will be using them too