The best time to visit Salzburg
Salzburg has six weeks in the year to catch deliberately or dodge deliberately — and they are all in summer.
- Best
- May–June and September
- Dearest
- The festival
- December
- Advent
When to visit Salzburg depends on one date: the Salzburg Festival runs from mid-July to the end of August, lifts room rates and fills the city. If you are going to the festival, the whole trip is built around it; if not, pick May, June or September.
The year in six moves
The month picks the lakes — the festival picks the price of a room
The festival, and why it is planned ahead
The Salzburg Festival runs for about six weeks, from mid-July to the end of August. Ticket orders go in from early December to mid-January, and what is left goes on open sale at the end of March; rooms in the festival window rise and fill. If you are going, the whole trip is planned around the date of a performance; if you are not but travel in summer, pick the first days of July or September — the same city without the festival room rate.
The rain nobody plans for
Salzburg sits on the northern rim of the Alps, where damp air from the north stalls against the mountains. On the 1991–2020 average it gets about 1,450 mm a year, more than twice as much as Vienna; of Austria's state capitals only Bregenz gets more. The local name for the fine, persistent rain that can fall for days is Schnürlregen. It does not spoil the city — the fortress, the cathedral and the museums keep the same hours — but it changes the trips out: the lakes and Hallstatt in the rain are not the same thing.
Which month for whom
- A first visit — May, June or September. A day on the lakes fits in beside the city, and rooms are not yet festival rooms.
- For the music — July and August; book the room the same day you send the ticket order, not after it is confirmed.
- For Advent — late November to New Year. December is not low season, so the room is booked earlier than for January.
- For price — January to March. The fortress, the cathedral and the museums are open, while the mountain trips wait for spring.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
Which is the best month for Salzburg?
May, June or September. The Schafberg railway is running, the city is not full, and rooms are not yet festival rooms.
Should I avoid the festival weeks?
Without a ticket, yes. Rooms are the dearest of the year then and the city is full of people who came for what happens inside the halls.
How often does it rain in Salzburg?
More often than in most Austrian cities — the city sits on the northern rim of the Alps. The fine persistent rain even has a name here, Schnürlregen, and an umbrella belongs in the bag in any month.
Ready for Salzburg?
Where to next
Getting around Salzburg
→A bus runs from the airport to the centre in about 20–23 min — and the Old Town itself is walked, so city…
Hallstatt · 52 km
→A village that lived off salt for seven thousand years, and off photographs for the last ten
How well does Salzburg suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Front row for the next trip
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