Salzburg Card with Free Attractions & Public Transport

Hohensalzburg Fortress

Hohensalzburg Fortress crowns the Festungsberg hill above the old town and is the first thing most visitors want to see. Building began in 1077 and continued for five centuries, which makes it among the largest fully preserved medieval castles in Europe. The Salzburg Card includes the all-inclusive fortress ticket and the funicular from Festungsgasse, so you ride up in a minute instead of climbing the steep lane. Inside are the Golden Hall with its late-Gothic carvings, the fortress museum, the marionette museum and the Salzburg Bull, a mechanical organ from 1502.

The bastions give the best panorama in the city: the domes and spires of the old town below, the Salzach winding through, and the Untersberg to the south. Plan about 2 hours. Hohensalzburg Fortress opening hours are longer in summer, and going up right after opening or late in the day avoids the crowds. A Hohensalzburg Fortress ticket at the door is among the dearer entries in the city, so the card pays for itself quickly here.

Mozart's Birthplace and the Mozart Residence

Two of the best-known museums in Salzburg are included on the card. Mozart's Birthplace stands at Getreidegasse 9, the narrow shopping lane of wrought-iron guild signs in the heart of the old town; the composer was born in the third-floor apartment in 1756, and the rooms now display his childhood violin, a clavichord, family portraits, letters and the kitchen as it looked in his day. Allow about an hour, and arrive early because the lane fills up by late morning.

Across the river on Makartplatz, the Mozart Residence is the larger apartment the family moved into in 1773, with an audio guide that walks you through the salon where chamber music was played, the original fortepiano and documents on his years in the city. For a Mozart birthplace ticket and the Residence together, the Salzburg Card is the natural choice because both are free entries, and the two sites are 10 minutes apart on foot across the Makartsteg footbridge.

Hellbrunn Palace, the trick fountains and Salzburg Zoo

Hellbrunn Palace is a Renaissance pleasure palace built between 1612 and 1615 as a summer residence for the prince-archbishop, set in a wide park about 5 kilometres south of the old town. Its fame rests on the trick fountains, a garden of hidden water jets, grottoes, a mechanical theatre with moving figures and a stone table whose seats spray unsuspecting guests. The fountains are visited on a guided walk of about 40 minutes, included with the card, and operate from April to early November; the palace rooms and park stay open longer.

Salzburg Zoo lies at the edge of the Hellbrunn park, built against the cliffs of the Hellbrunner Berg with large enclosures for alpine ibex, brown bears, lynx and rhinos and a walk-through area with free-roaming animals; it is also a free entry on the card. How to get to Hellbrunn is easy: bus 25 runs from the main station and the old town to the palace gate in about 20 minutes, and the fare is covered.

The DomQuartier, Salzburg Cathedral and the old town museums

The DomQuartier links the former prince-archbishops' Residenz, the cathedral and St Peter's Abbey into a single museum route through the heart of baroque Salzburg. You walk through the state rooms of the Residenz, the Residenz gallery of European paintings, along the cathedral's organ gallery with a view down into the nave, and into the museum of St Peter's, without leaving the connected buildings. Salzburg Cathedral itself, consecrated in 1628, is the great baroque church whose domes dominate the skyline.

Also on the card are the Salzburg Museum in the Neue Residenz on Mozartplatz, which tells the story of the city and its rulers, the Panorama Museum with a 360-degree painting of Salzburg in 1829, and the Haus der Natur, a natural history and science museum with an aquarium and a science centre that children love. This cluster of free entries around the Residenzplatz and Mozartplatz is exactly what a Salzburg attractions pass is designed for: several visits within a few hundred metres.

Mönchsberg, the Museum der Moderne and the Untersberg cable car

The Mönchsberg is the wooded ridge that walls the old town on its western side, and the Mönchsberg lift from Gstättengasse takes you up in seconds to the Museum der Moderne, the modern-art museum whose terrace offers the classic view over the domes to the fortress. Both the lift and the museum are included, and the footpaths along the ridge lead past old fortifications and quiet lookouts back towards the fortress. For most visitors this is the best spot for photographs of Salzburg's skyline.

For a mountain day, the Untersberg cable car in St. Leonhard, about 20 minutes south by bus 25, climbs to almost 1,800 metres with views over Salzburg, the Salzkammergut lakes and the Bavarian Alps; the ride is free with the card, and the summit walks are easy and well marked. Check the weather first, because the summit can be in cloud while the city is sunny, and remember the card's 24 hours run continuously from first use.

Salzach river boat and getting around with the card

The Salzach river cuts the city in two, with the old town on the left bank and the newer quarters, the Mirabell Gardens and the station on the right. The card includes one boat ride on the river, a relaxed 40-minute loop from the Makartsteg landing in the old town that gives a different angle on the fortress, the city walls and the villas along the banks. In summer the boats run several times a day; in winter the service pauses, so check the schedule for your dates.

Unlimited public transport is the part of the Salzburg Card that saves the most time: trolleybuses and buses connect the main station, the old town, Hellbrunn, the zoo and the Untersberg valley station, and the fare is covered for the whole validity. Collect the card at the tourist information office on Mozartplatz or at the main station, write the start time on it, and the 24 hours begin; the printed guide lists every included sight with its opening hours and bus lines.