Hellbrunn trick fountains tickets: €16.50, open 28 March to 1 November 2026 only, and the free Sound of Music gazebo

💡 The Short Version: The trick fountains are €16.50 for an adult and open daily from 28 March to 1 November 2026, not after. One ticket covers the fountains (about 50 minutes with an audio guide), the palace exhibition (about 30 minutes) and the Folklore Museum in the Monatsschlössl (about an hour, a 10-minute walk away). No booking is needed for individuals. You get wet only if you wish to. Take bus 25: 25 minutes from the centre, 30 from the Hauptbahnhof. The Sound of Music gazebo is in the park, which is free and open daily 6:30 to 21:00. The Sound of Music museum beside it closes on 1 November and reopens on 20 March 2027. The Salzburg Card gets you in once. Prices are in euros. Or book a tour: the Original Sound of Music Tourad stops at the gazebo and is from €75 (GetYourGuide), against €70 from Panorama Tours.

Tickets and prices

Prices are Hellbrunn’s 2026 rates, from its opening hours and prices page, and include VAT. Buy at the ticket office or at tickets.hellbrunn.at.

• What it covers: the trick fountains with a mobile audio guide, the palace exhibition SchauLust (“GrandDelight”) with an audio guide, and the Folklore Museum in the Monatsschlössl.
• Audio guides come in 15 languages, including English.
• The Salzburg Card gets you in once. A child aged 4 or 5 is charged at Hellbrunn, so needs a child’s card or a ticket.
• Booking: reservations are not necessary for individuals and small groups, and are recommended for 15 or more. An online ticket avoids the ticket-office queue.

Where to buy

Buy from Hellbrunn. GetYourGuide sells no Hellbrunn ticket. Searches return resale sites with Hellbrunn’s name in the web address that are not Hellbrunn, and one says openly that its price is the ticket cost plus a concierge fee.

Tours worth paying for

The ticket includes the audio guides, so a guide adds little at the fountains. The tour to book is the one that stops at the gazebo.

Original Sound of Music Tour

From €75 on GetYourGuide, €70 from Panorama Tours · 4 hours · 4.8 stars from 6,315 reviews

Salzburg: Original Sound of Music Tourad is run by Salzburg Panorama Tours. It leaves the Panorama terminal at Mirabellplatz daily at 9:15 and 14:00, in English, and goes through the old town and the Mirabell Garden to Leopoldskron, the Hellbrunn gazebo and the church at Mondsee. Panorama’s own price is €70; GetYourGuide’s is €5 higher. The Sound of Music tour comparison sets it against Bob’s tour and the bike tour.

What to see

Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus built the fountains between 1613 and 1619, and the water machines date from 1615.

The Neptune fountain in the Hellbrunn water gardens. Photo: 1971markus, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

1. The trick fountains. Grottoes and water-driven figures, a guided circuit of about 50 minutes with the audio guide. The Mechanical Theatre of 1750 has 163 figures moved by water.
2. The palace exhibition. SchauLust is an audio-guided exhibition inside the palace, about 30 minutes.
3. The park. Free, with the Stone Theatre, used for performances from 1617, and the Altemps fountain and Star Pond behind the palace.
4. The Folklore Museum. In the Monatsschlössl, a 10-minute walk from the palace, about an hour. It is in the ticket, and open daily 10:00 to 17:30. It is the part to skip if time is short.
5. The Sound of Music gazebo. The glass pavilion of “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” stood in the garden of Schloss Leopoldskron and was moved here. The Salzburg Museum calls it the only film set from the film that remains in Salzburg. Sound of Music locations in Salzburg separates the real places from the studio sets.
6. The Sound of Music museum. A separate €8 ticket (€4.80 reduced) from the Salzburg Museum, in the former hunters’ lodge at Fürstenweg 33 to 35. It is open daily 9:30 to 17:30 until 1 November 2026 and reopens on 20 March 2027. Its ticket carries a voucher for the Marionette Theatre’s The Sound of Music.
7. Salzburg Zoo. Next door, with its own ticket of €17.

The order that works: the fountains first, because the circuit is guided and runs to a schedule, then the exhibition, then the park and the gazebo. What to skip: the Folklore Museum if the weather is poor or the afternoon is short.

Hellbrunn Palace seen across its pond. Photo: Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Hours and practical information

The park is open daily from 6:30 to 21:00 all year. Hellbrunn has not announced the 2027 season.

• Getting there: bus 25 towards the Untersbergbahn, from the Hauptbahnhof or the Rathaus stop, to Salzburg Schloss Hellbrunn. The zoo and the Sound of Music museum are on the same line. Bus 25 is a city bus, so the Guest Mobility Ticket covers it.
• Wet: the fountains soak you only if you wish. Keep phones, cameras and the audio guide dry.
• Dogs: welcome on a lead, with a muzzle in the trick fountains, and not in the palace exhibition unless small enough to carry.
• Access: the park and trick fountains are accessible, with wheelchair hire at the fountain ticket office. The palace is not.
• The one thing that ruins a visit: coming after 1 November. The fountains do not run in winter.

Day trippers from Munich and Vienna can reach Hellbrunn by bus from the station. What to book in Salzburg has the closed days for every sight. Best museums in Salzburg covers the Sound of Music museum and the Folklore Museum. Salzburg with kids puts the fountains first for families. Mirabell Palace and Gardens is the other palace garden, and it is free. Is the Salzburg Card worth it? runs the sums with Hellbrunn in them. Salzburg Christmas markets 2026 covers the Advent market at Hellbrunn. For a bed, see where to stay in Salzburg.