On a European Alps road trip, we spent two days in Salzburg, Austria.

Several years ago, my sister stopped in Salzburg, Austria, and I never expected I myself would go there. I’m a pretty frequent traveler due to the nature of my studies and research, but it has always been in Asia. I love Korea and the rest of Asia from the bottom of my heart, and for the longest time I never had any interest in going to Europe.

In 2024 I won a Fulbright, then I lost it when the country I was selected for refused to give me a visa after a four month wait. It was a confusing time for me, as I had quit my job for this opportunity, and suddenly I was left unemployed and without any prospects ahead of me.

I did end up taking a year off in order to focus on my goals, as I was in the right financial situation and had enough savings, and in December I decided to take a leap of faith and book a five country Europe tour through EF Ultimate Break. I’ll be writing a review of the company and tour on my blog, but I paid about $4,300 with all the excursions and whatnot to roam around Europe.

I needed to unplug and not think, and I could afford the tour that would give me that. And it so happened that our third stop of this trip, after a few hours in Innsbruck, Austria, would be Salzburg. I remembered what my sister told me, and while there was an optional alpine slide excursion through my tour for $45, I opted out of it and decided to roam around the city instead.

As I mentioned before, I’m going to be writing blog posts for each of the countries and cities I visited during this trip, except for Liechtenstein, as we only went to that country for only thirty minutes as a bathroom break on the way to Switzerland.

Let’s get into what we did during our time in Salzburg! Some of my other tour members would definitely mention the nightlife in their reviews, but because I am someone who doesn’t really go to clubs or drink, I went ahead and slept instead.

A walking tour of Salzburg is a definite way to understand the town and its unique history.

We actually arrived in Salzburg in the evening our first night, and because most of us were really hungry after a long bus ride from Venice and Innsbruck, we took our guide’s suggestion and went to a local biergarten. We were seated in the indoor portion, and I ordered a blondie beer and an entree of a pork schnitzel.

I thought the schnitzel was tasty, and it worked really well with the lemon and cranberry sauce they served it with. I didn’t care for the beer, but it wasn’t the worst beer we had. The worst beer would come the next day in Salzburg, but more on that later.

I went to bed that night with a fully belly, then we woke up early at the hostel, grabbed some food from their buffet (it was my least favorite breakfast of this trip, if we’re going to be honest), and then headed out for a walking tour. We took the bus to the the downtown historical part of Salzburg, then met our cute little guide. She was so adorable.

She took us around with her little binder showing us The Sound of Music scenes and where they were filmed. We went to a famous garden and residence near the river, then peered at some gnome statues. This was also where we got a taste of the fortress views, as it loomed over us in the distance, making for some nice photos.

Anyways, she took us over to the bridge and through the winding streets of the historical shopping area. We went all the way to the museum, which I wanted to go to, but then it happened to be closed because we were in town on a Tuesday.

When in Austria, eat cake and roam around a fortress.

There were only three of us from my tour group who weren’t going on the alpine slides, so we decided to team up and wander the town together. Our tour guide for the trip and the Salzburg one both referred us to a cafe in the shopping area and told us to get the cakes there, so we decided to order drinks and three cakes to split.

I got an Einspanner, which I had only ever had in South Korea, and then a chocolate cake with a green middle filling. I wasn’t too sure what that was, but the other two girls picked up a rum-based cake and a plain chocolate cake. My favorite was the rum based one, as the other two were a little dense. None of us were able to finish the cakes.

After that we decided to pick up some souvenirs before we moved on to the next country, then purchased tickets to take the train up to the fortress on top of the mountain. I knew I wanted to go here even before we arrived, as my sister had told me about the view from the top of the fortress.

Immediately once you get off of the tram, we saw that the view was stunning. We ran to the bathroom first, as we saw it was a free public restroom, then spent an hour kind of wandering around the fortress. I ran into someone from a town over at the top, which was interesting because we were on the other side of the world just looking out at the Austrian countryside.

Life can be wild like that, am I right? We then headed back down the mountain and took the bus back to the hostel, as we were all tired and felt like we needed a rest before the other plans our group had for the night.

Biergartens and nightlife are a staple of Austria, depending on who you ask.

Biergartens are such a fascinating part of Germanic and Austrian culture, and in Salzburg there’s a pretty big one not far off from the historical city center. Our tour guide told us to go to this one specifically, and our entire tour group plus our director grabbed a table outside.

I first nabbed some food in the upper section. There, I got some pomme frites and a pork schnitzel sandwich, then grabbed a half liter of beer. This is a place where you pay for the size you want, grab a mug from the rack, clean it with cold water, then a guy behind the counter fills it with beer from tap.

The beer at this place was absolutely too bitter for me. I did not like it at all and could not finish it; several others in my group also did not want this beer at all after taking a few sips. Some of the guys were downing it though.

We spent a few hours here just chatting, as the entire biergarten was packed and full of locals and tourists alike. My food was just okay—I wouldn’t go back to this biergarten again to eat or drink, but I would hang out with friends without paying for anything.

After that, everyone headed to an Irish bar closer to the river at the center of town. I spent about thirty minutes there before dipping, as I’m not a bar person (they give me a lot of anxiety, as they’re small, tight spaces, so I try to avoid them as much as possible). While I headed home, showered, and enjoyed a good book in bed, apparently the rest of the crew was having a blast with karaoke at the bar.

The next morning, we then ate breakfast, packed up, and headed to Munich, Germany. I really enjoyed my time in Salzburg, although I don’t know if I would go there a second time. Once was enough I think!

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