Free things to do in Salzburg

Salzburg can feel terribly grand, with its parade of palaces and squares, where the prince-archbishops once wafted around and horse-drawn carriages clip-clop past evoking the glory days of the Hapsburg Empire. So it comes as a (very pleasant) surprise that you can see so much of the city without spending a single cent.

Mozart symphonies, skipping Marias (as in The Sound of Music), gorgeously manicured parks, public art, abbeys, cathedral concerts, jazz jam sessions and wild canal swims – time your visit right and you can tank up on culture and the outdoors in Salzburg for nothing. And, frankly, you’ll have a much better time than if you’d stuck to the usual tick-and-click tourist trail. Here’s our guide to seeing the city for free.

Get your Mozart and Maria fix

You can’t move for Mozart and Maria in Salzburg. And while it’s tempting to take an official tour of the composer’s hood and The Sound of Music film locations, you can see plenty without spending a single cent.

Piece together your own self-guided walking tour – GPSMYCITY has a free Mozart Walking Tour to get you started, which covers biggies like Mozartplatz, Residenz, where he gave his first court concert at the tender age of six, and the Dom where he was baptized in 1756.

If The Sound of Music is more your style (and, let’s face it, who doesn’t love a good mountain and yodeling nun), you can easily devise your own tour of the film locations. Top of your list should be stops like Benedictine convent Stift Nonnberg, where the nuns waltzed on their way to mass, Residenzplatz where a fountain-splashing Maria belts out  “I Have Confidence” and the fortress-facing Mirabell gardens where she teaches the kids to sing “Do-Re-Mi”. 

Spend time outdoors

With uplifting views of the Alps and a shockingly turquoise river running right through it, Salzburg is just as much about the outdoors as the urban. Its gardens are fabulous and free, from the sculpture-dotted parterres, rose gardens and leafy arbors of Schloss Mirabell (incidentally the best vantage point for photos of the fortress-topped Altstadt) to the Volksgarten, with its summer lido and beach.

Rent a bike and you can pedal gleefully along the riverbanks, mountains looming on horizon, on the 4.5km route to Schloss Hellbrunn,…