Salzburg

the world's leading classical festival in the city that made Mozart

a candlelit dinner-and-Mozart evening in the halls of Europe's oldest restaurant, inside the St. Peter's Abbey complex — a Salzburg set-piece

one of Europe's oldest Christmas markets on Dom- and Residenzplatz, then a candlelit concert inside Hohensalzburg

the open-air Jedermann on Domplatz — the Festival's signature since 1920, played to ~2,500 spectators a night before the cathedral

UNESCO-listed puppetry staging Mozart operas and The Sound of Music — a uniquely Salzburg, all-ages evening off the Mirabell gardens

the funicular up to Central Europe's largest preserved castle for the panorama, then the baroque lanes and guild signs before the coaches arrive

the yellow house on Getreidegasse where Mozart was born, plus the DomQuartier circuit

the oldest monastery in the German-speaking world, its arcaded cemetery and cliff-cut catacombs at the foot of the fortress

the 1606 palace Wolf Dietrich built for Salome Alt, its baroque gardens and the Marble Hall where the Mozart children performed

the 2014-reunited prince-archbishops' precinct — Residenz state rooms, the Residenzgalerie old masters, cathedral terraces and St. Peter's

the Mirabell "Do-Re-Mi" gardens, the glass gazebo at Hellbrunn and its Baroque trick fountains, and the Mondsee wedding church — a joyful family day

the glass hangar of historic aircraft, race cars and two Michelin-starred tables by the airport

Café Tomaselli and the cloud-like Salzburger Nockerl soufflé, plus a Stiegl or Augustiner Bräustübl beer-hall night

Salzburg's vast monastery beer hall on the Mönchsberg — self-poured steins from wooden barrels, chestnut-shaded garden, a local institution since 1621

first recorded in a letter to Charlemagne in AD 803, set inside St. Peter's Abbey walls at the foot of the fortress

Austria's oldest coffee house on the Alter Markt — a Melange and a cloud-like Salzburger Nockerl in a room the Mozarts knew

a castle-resort spa on a Salzkammergut lake 20–30 minutes out — swim, sauna and alpine-lake calm

the Sacher or Schloss Mönchstein spa circuit as an in-town wellness half-day between Festival nights

the 8½-minute cable car lifts families 456 m → 1,776 m for easy summit trails

the candlelit medieval Steingasse bars on the right bank and the livelier Rudolfskai strip

Austria's largest linked ski area is inside an hour; ski by day, baroque city by night

the Flachau–Wagrain–St. Johann sector is the closest big Ski amadé region to the city

the world's largest ice cave and a clifftop medieval fortress with daily falconry — a dramatic alpine day

the emerald fjord-lake, St. Bartholomä and the Eagle's Nest are ~30 km across the German border — a classic Salzburg day-pairing

the UNESCO lakeside village and the imperial lake district start ~an hour east

a suite at the Sacher or the 1407 Goldener Hirsch, a horse-drawn Fiaker through the old town

the Mirabell Marble Hall — where the young Mozart played

an inn since 1407 at Getreidegasse 37, steps from Mozart's birthplace