Sound of Music / Hallstatt Tour

Elvis was a great tour guide. He was very knowledgeable and entertaining with his stories. The Sound of Music stops were perfect! He had pictures of movie scenes to show us that brought back memories and connected them to the actual filming locations. The stops ranged between 15 to 45 minutes and were a perfect amount of time to take photos and relive the movie. Now for the drawbacks. This tour was not cheap. For the cost of the tour, I expected a luxury van or a tour bus where we could be comfortable and enjoy all the scenery on the spectacular Austrian mountainside.. we just took a Rabbie’s tour in Edinburgh to the Highlands for half. the price and the bus was phenomenal with large windows to admire scenery. Although I understand that there were only three people booked on this tour, I did not expect to be sardined into a small sedan.. My husband and I were stuck in the backseat and could really not view much out the windows. It was truly a huge disappointment and not worth the money. The other downside was that we were dropped off in Halstad for three hours so that Elvis could go visit his friend and the town is nothing but a tourist trap. Honestly, do just Sound of Music part and skip Halstad. Yes has great views, yes the movie Frozen makes it famous but literally full of huge Chinese tour groups and 1 min cable car up to top is a huge rip off at 24 Eiuro pp. And find a tour company that actually has legit tour busses and not driving you around in the back of a car.

Franziska gave us an amazing day! She made sure that we saw everything we wanted to, giving us amazing accounts of the local history, the Von Trapp family, and the current culture in Austria. She played the Sound of Music soundtrack, showed us pictures from the movie to show us where we were compared to the filming, and answered any question we came up with. Overall a great experience– we came away feeling like we learned more than we thought we would. As a Sound of Music fan, this should be on your list of things to do while in Salzburg.

Incredible views! We saw places we wouldn’t have seen on our own. Our guide was very informative and helpful. There was one other couple on our tour and we traveled in a van vs a bus full of people on the other tours. She told the story of the Sound of Music and how it contrasted with the real life Von Trapp family story. Drove us through scenic small towns on the way to Hallstatt and the way back took a different route. Highly recommend this tour!