3 days in Salzburg: an itinerary built round the Tuesday closure of the DomQuartier, the Cathedral's midday break and the winter closures

💡 The Short Version: Day 1, Wednesday: Mozart’s Birthplace (€18), the DomQuartier (€12), the Cathedral (€7, before 11:40), St Peter’s and Hohensalzburg Fortress (€19.20 with the funicular), ending at Nonnberg for Vespers at 17:00. Day 2, Thursday: the Sound of Music tour (€70), Mirabell and the Mozart Residence, with the Museum der Moderne open to 20:00 or a concert. Day 3, Friday: the Hallein salt mine (€35) by train. Tuesday shuts the DomQuartier, Monday the Museum der Moderne and Sunday the Mirabell Palace. The plan runs Wednesday to Friday, which keeps every sight open. Or book a tour: the Original Sound of Music Tourad is from €75 and the Hallstatt half-day tourad from €85 (GetYourGuide).

Before you go: what to book

Hours are for autumn and winter 2026/27, from the operators.

Mozart’s Birthplace and Residence are €25 together and the ticket is valid for 48 hours, so buy it on Wednesday and use it again on Thursday. The Mozarteum says it accepts only its own tickets: its webshop or either box office.

Getting around

A guest who sleeps in the province gets the Guest Mobility Ticket from the hotel at check-in, which covers city buses, trolleybuses and trains, but not the fortress funicular or the Mönchsberg lift. A day visitor pays €2.60 for 1 hour or €5.20 for 24 hours. Salzburg public transport has the rules. The paid sights on the plan come to €168.20 a person: the two Mozart houses €25, the DomQuartier €12, the Cathedral €7, the fortress €19.20, the Sound of Music tour €70 and the salt mine €35. Day one is the day for the Salzburg Card: the fortress, the Birthplace and the DomQuartier cost €49.20 against €35 for the 24-hour card from 1 November, and is the Salzburg Card worth it? runs the sums.

Fitting the plan to your dates

The plan runs Wednesday to Friday, which keeps every sight open. If your days differ:

• Monday. The Museum der Moderne and the Toy Museum are shut. The DomQuartier, the Cathedral, the fortress, the Mirabell Palace and the Marble Hall are open. Swap the Museum der Moderne for a concert on Thursday evening.
• Tuesday. The DomQuartier is shut, and the Marble Hall opens only from 13:00 to 16:00. Everything else on the plan is open. The DomQuartier is also shut on Tuesday 8 December, a holiday.
• Saturday and Sunday. The Mirabell Palace and the Marble Hall are shut on Sundays and holidays, though the gardens are open. The Cathedral opens at 13:00 on Sundays. The DomQuartier’s Date with Mozart concert is at 16:00 on both days. The Hallein shuttle from Mirabellplatz runs on Fridays and Saturdays.
• Winter. The funicular is shut from 9 to 13 November 2026 and from 11 January to 14 March 2027, and walking up takes 15 to 20 minutes. The Untersberg cable car is shut from 2 November to 13 December, and Hellbrunn’s trick fountains closed on 1 November: the park and the gazebo stay open. The Neutor tunnel is shut to cars and buses to about the end of March 2027.
• Christmas. The markets run from 19 November: see Salzburg Christmas markets 2026. Mozart’s Birthplace opens at 13:00 on 24 December and at 12:00 on 1 January, and the fortress closes at 14:00 on 24 December: see Salzburg New Year’s Eve 2026.
• January and March. Mozart Week runs from 21 to 31 January 2027 and the Easter Festival from 20 to 29 March: see Mozart concerts in Salzburg.
• July and August. The Salzburg Festival runs from 16 July to 29 August 2027: see the Salzburg Festival 2027.

Day 1: the old town and the fortress, Wednesday

• 9:00, Mozart’s Birthplace, on Getreidegasse 9, about an hour. The ticket you buy for both houses carries you to the Residence on Thursday: Mozart’s Birthplace.
• 10:00, the DomQuartier, €12, 1.5 to 2 hours: the Residenz state rooms, the Cathedral Museum, St Peter’s Museum and the Cathedral arcade terrace: the DomQuartier.
• 11:15, Salzburg Cathedral, €7, and be out by 11:40: the Cathedral closes for Music at Noon, €12, and reopens at 12:30.
• 12:30, lunch. Zwettler’s kitchen is open from 11:30 on Kaigasse, and the coffee houses are in Salzburg’s coffee houses: where to eat in Salzburg. St Peter’s church and cemetery are free, and the catacombs are €2.
• 14:00, Hohensalzburg Fortress, the All-inclusive ticket at €19.20 with the funicular from Festungsgasse 4, or €14.50 and a 15 to 20 minute walk up. It includes the Prince’s Chambers, which the Basic ticket leaves out: the fortress.
• 17:00, Nonnberg Abbey, the free church where the nuns sing Vespers, Monday to Saturday: the old town walk joins the stops in order.
• Evening, the Augustiner Bräustübl in Mülln opens at 15:00 and serves beer from wooden barrels: beer halls and gardens.

The Franziskanerkirche’s spire above the old town’s roofs. Photo: Uoaei1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Day 2: Mirabell and the Sound of Music, Thursday

• 9:15, the Sound of Music tour, from Panorama Tours’ terminal at Mirabellplatz, Hubert-Sattler-Gasse 1, 4 hours. Arrive 15 minutes early. The 14:00 departure suits a later start: the Sound of Music tour.
• 13:30, lunch at Café Bazar, which opens at 7:30 and takes no reservations.
• 14:30, Mirabell Palace and Gardens, free: the Angel Staircase is open to about 18:00, the Marble Hall on Thursday until about 16:00, and the gardens until dusk: Mirabell.
• 15:30, the Mozart Residence, at Makartplatz, on the ticket from Wednesday, open to 17:30. The right bank walk goes on from here to St Sebastian’s Cemetery and the Kapuzinerberg, but the cemetery shuts at 16:00 from November to March, so do the walk on a morning.
• Evening, the Museum der Moderne is open to 20:00 on Thursday, €15 or €17 with the Mönchsberg lift, which stops at 21:00. Or a concert: the Mirabell Marble Hall at 20:00 is €46 or €42 on the organiser’s site: Mozart concerts in Salzburg.

Day 3: the salt mine at Hallein, Friday

• 9:00, the regional train to Hallein, 19 to 24 minutes from the Hauptbahnhof, free on the Guest Mobility Ticket. The Salzwelten mine opens at 9:00 and its last tour starts at 15:00 from 2 November 2026.
• 10:00, the salt mine and the Celtic Mountain, €35, 2.5 hours in all: a guided tour of about 90 minutes at 7 to 10°C all year, a raft across an underground lake and the miners’ slides: the Hallein salt mine.
• 13:00, back in the city. The Stiegl brewery tour runs at 13:00 in English, €22.90 on the brewery’s site, or the Haus der Natur, €16, open to 17:00, takes about 3 hours: Salzburg museums and Salzburg food tours.

Swap the day for a longer trip. The Hallstatt half-day tour takes 5.5 hours, Berchtesgaden is 49 to 55 minutes by bus 840, with the Eagle’s Nest open only to 8 November, and day trips from Salzburg compares every trip.

With children

Salzburg with kids sorts the sights by age and price.

Plan the rest

Where to stay in Salzburg compares the areas, and hotels near Salzburg Hauptbahnhof lists the ones beside the station. For the way in, see Salzburg airport to the city. What to book before you go to Salzburg has the hours for every sight, and the best time to visit Salzburg has the weather by month.