Where to stay in Salzburg: best neighborhoods and hotels

Base yourself in the Altstadt (the left-bank Old Town) or in the Neustadt on the right bank. Both put the Hohensalzburg fortress, Getreidegasse, the Salzach river and Mozart's two houses within a 5–15 minute walk, and both keep you near the buses and the S-Bahn. The trade-off is price and noise: the Old Town is the most expensive and busiest, the right bank is slightly cheaper and calmer, and the station quarter is the cheapest practical base if you are arriving late or leaving early.

If you have three nights or more and want a slower trip, the southern districts (Nonntal, Aigen) and the area under the Mönchsberg give you gardens, hills and quiet streets while still being 15–25 minutes on foot or a short bus ride from the centre.

Use this table to pick a base before you look at individual hotels. Walking times are to the Residenzplatz in the Old Town, roughly the middle of the sightseeing area.

Altstadt. Everything is walkable: the fortress funicular, the cathedral, the festival halls and the river. Streets are narrow and mostly pedestrian, so expect some noise from evening crowds and, in summer, from open windows. Hotels here are often in historic buildings with small rooms and no lift; if that matters, check before booking. This is the base to choose if your trip is short and you want to spend your time on foot.

Salzburg is not a cheap city, and the summer and Christmas periods are the tightest. A clean double in a mid-range hotel in the Old Town is commonly €150–300 in high season, while the same standard near the station is often €80–140. Hostel dorm beds and simple guesthouses sit below that, and apartments can beat hotels for stays of four nights or more, especially outside the centre. Expect a city tax of roughly €3.55 per person per night on top of the room rate, and check whether breakfast is included: it often is not in the cheaper bands.

Book summer and December three to six months ahead; spring and autumn usually allow one to two months. If you are coming for the festival or the Christmas markets, treat accommodation as the first thing you book, not the last.

Check the walking distance to a bus stop as well as to the Old Town: the city buses and the S-Bahn are the practical way to reach the station and the airport, and a base 10 minutes from a stop is often better value than one 5 minutes from the cathedral. If you are driving, confirm parking before you book, because the Old Town is largely closed to cars and garage space is limited and expensive. For a longer stay, consider two bases: Salzburg for the city and a lake village for the mountains.