Your holiday excursion
Plan the perfect Sound of Music tour from Hotel Nesslerhof
Quick answer: The fastest way to do a Sound of Music day trip from Hotel Nesslerhof in Großarltal is by regional bus (line 540) to St. Johann im Pongau, then a direct ÖBB train to Salzburg Hauptbahnhof — about 1.5 hours door to door. From Salzburg's Old Town, you can walk to most major filming locations, including Mirabell Gardens, Nonnberg Abbey, Residenzplatz, the Felsenreitschule, and Hellbrunn Palace, all in a single day.
There is a particular kind of magic that happens when you step off a train in Salzburg still smelling faintly of alpine air and pine, humming "Do-Re-Mi" before you've even seen the city gates. For our guests from the UK and the US, that magic is often the whole reason for the trip: the chance to stand in the exact meadow, garden, or gazebo where Maria, the Captain, and the von Trapp children first came to life on screen in 1965.
The wonderful part? You don't need a rental car, a tour bus, or a single stressful moment of navigating Austrian motorways. From Hotel Nesslerhof, deep in the Großarltal, the whole adventure can be done by train — slow, scenic, and utterly relaxing, exactly as an Austrian holiday should be.
How to Get from Hotel Nesslerhof to Salzburg by Train
Großarltal doesn't have its own railway station, and honestly, we like it that way — it's part of what keeps our valley so peaceful and untouched. Getting to the wider world is easy all the same. A short regional bus ride (line 540) takes you from Großarl down to the station at St. Johann im Pongau, where you'll board an ÖBB train bound for Salzburg Hauptbahnhof. All in, door to door, you're looking at roughly an hour and a half of comfortable, scenic travel — plenty of time to watch the Pongau farmland slide past the window and slowly give way to the spires of the city.
Our happiness concierge team at Hotel Nesslerhof is always happy to check the latest timetables and print your connection the evening before, so all you need to do in the morning is enjoy your coffee.
The Sound of Music Filming Locations in Salzburg, Stop by Stop
Stop 1: Mirabell Gardens and the Pegasus Fountain
Arriving in the Altstadt, this is where every Sound of Music pilgrimage rightly begins. The Mirabell Garden, with its baroque flowerbeds and the Pegasus Fountain, is where Maria and the children danced during "Do-Re-Mi" — every bit as photogenic today as it was on film. It's free to wander, and it's the kind of place where you'll want to linger.
Stop 2: Schloss Leopoldskron
A little further out, on the shore of the Leopoldskroner Weiher, sits Schloss Leopoldskron, the rococo palace whose grounds played the Trapp family's home in the film. The palace itself isn't open to casual visitors, so the classic move is a photo stop from the opposite shore, with the palace framed against the fortress and the water — one of the most romantic views in Salzburg. These days, Schloss Leopoldskron is a luxury hotel in its own right, which our guests who appreciate fine hospitality always enjoy hearing.
Stop 3: Hellbrunn Palace
A short bus or taxi ride south of the centre brings you to Hellbrunn Palace, where several of the film's singing scenes were shot. The palace's gardens, with their playful 17th-century trick fountains, are a delightful way to spend an hour, filming history aside.
Stop 4: The Gazebo
Also within the Hellbrunn gardens stands the famous gazebo, relocated here from the Leopoldskron grounds to make it accessible to visitors. This is where Rolf kisses Liesl for the first time during "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" — still one of the most-photographed spots on the entire Sound of Music trail.
Stop 5: Mondsee Church
A local tip from us: if your legs and your schedule allow, the Basilica in Mondsee — where the film's wedding scene was shot — is a beautiful half-day extension by Postbus, especially if you'd like to pair it with a stroll along the lake.
Coming Home to the Tal der Almen: Life in Großarltal's Valley of Alpine Pastures
Here is the part we love most about recommending this trip to our guests: after a full day immersed in music, film history, and baroque grandeur, the train ride back into Großarltal feels like a decompression in itself. As the city lights fade and the valley narrows, the mountains rise up on either side, and the pace of everything — including your own heartbeat — begins to slow.
Großarltal is part of the "Tal der Almen," the Valley of the Alpine Pastures, and that name is not just poetry. This is a working alpine landscape, shaped for centuries by transhumance — the seasonal movement of cattle up to high mountain pastures in early summer and back down to the valley in autumn. Even today, the "Almabtrieb," the cattle's decorated descent from the mountains, is celebrated each September with flower crowns, cowbells, and the kind of village gathering that has barely changed in generations. It's a tradition rooted not in performance for visitors, but in a genuine, still-living relationship between people and land.
That's the feeling we hope you carry with you after a day chasing Julie Andrews through Salzburg's gardens: the sense that just an hour away, an older, quieter Austria is still very much alive — one of hay barns, alpine huts, grazing cattle, and evenings that end not with a curtain call, but with the sound of cowbells drifting down the valley.
