Where to stay in Salzburg: the best areas and hotels

The Old Town is a wedge of Baroque squares and medieval lanes pressed between the river and the cliff of the Mönchsberg. Getreidegasse, its narrow main street, is hung with gilded guild signs and leads past the yellow house where Mozart was born. Beyond are the cathedral, the Residenz squares where fiacre horses wait, and the funicular that hauls you up to Hohensalzburg, one of the biggest medieval fortresses in Europe.

Staying here means living inside the postcard. The buildings are ancient: one hotel has occupied a house dating from 1365, a small luxury hotel sits steps from the Salzach and three minutes from the cathedral, and a celebrated five-star on Getreidegasse has been the festival crowd's favourite for generations. Rooms can be snug and the streets are mostly car-free, so arrive by taxi and travel light.

Cross the Salzach and turn around. This is the view: domes, towers and the fortress stacked above the water, best at dusk when the lights come on. The right-bank old town is smaller and calmer than its neighbour. Linzergasse is a sloping shopping street of bakeries and small boutiques, Steingasse is a hushed medieval lane, and paths climb from both onto the wooded Kapuzinerberg.

Hotels along the river make the most of the outlook. A grand hotel in an 1866 building stands directly on the bank, with magnificent views of the Old Town and the fortress and a proper Austrian coffee house. An adults-only hotel by the main bridge looks straight across to the Altstadt, two minutes' walk away. Behind them, a charming hotel fills a 14th-century house in the car-free centre, and another sits at the foot of the Kapuzinerberg.

Mirabell Palace and its gardens are the green heart of the right bank: clipped hedges, a Pegasus fountain, a dwarf garden and the steps the von Trapp children hopped up singing Do-Re-Mi. The view down the central path to the fortress is Salzburg's most famous. Around the park lie the Mozarteum, the congress centre and the tidy 19th-century streets of the Neustadt.

This is the most practical central base. It is flat, a ten-minute walk from the Old Town and about the same from the station, and the hotels are larger and easier to reach by car. A five-star beside the gardens has a health club and two restaurants; a family-run boutique hotel a few steps from the park is adults-only; and smart four-stars sit near Mirabell Palace and the Linzergasse. The airport is around 5 km away.

North of Mirabell, the Hauptbahnhof is Salzburg's gateway, with direct trains to Vienna, Munich and the lakes. The district behind it, Elisabeth-Vorstadt, is an ordinary residential neighbourhood, which is exactly why hotels here cost less. Trolleybuses reach the centre in under ten minutes, and the path along the Salzach makes a pleasant 15-minute walk.

You will find contemporary design hotels alongside traditional family-run ones. One is a five-minute walk from the platforms; a traditional family hotel on a quiet residential street is 400 metres from the station and has a bus stop outside; and a modern four-star is within a 15-minute walk of Mirabell Palace and Gardens. Ideal if you are touring Austria by rail, or if the Old Town is full for the festival.

Head south from the fortress and Salzburg turns rural within minutes. Tree-lined avenues run through meadows to Hellbrunn Palace, with its trick fountains and the Sound of Music gazebo, and beyond it the Untersberg rises like a wall. A cable car swings up to the summit ridge for a view that reaches deep into Bavaria.

Hotels out here trade the cobbles for space, parking and fresh air. A traditional hotel established in 1886 sits at the foot of the mountain, with the cable car and a bus stop next door and the centre about five miles away. Closer in, a modern city hotel has two bus lines to the Old Town and Sound of Music tours that collect guests at the door, and a striking design hotel frames the fortress in its windows.

Salzburg's airport is tiny and close, on the western edge of the city beside the motorway. In winter it is the gateway to the ski resorts of Salzburgerland; the rest of the year it is simply handy. The exhibition centre, the Messe, lies to the north-west, next to another motorway exit.

Hotels in both places are modern and built for convenience. One is 800 metres from the terminal, with the historic centre a 15-minute drive away; another stands right at the Messe, two minutes from the motorway, with its own parking garage. Pick them for a late landing, an early departure or a road trip, and take the bus into town for dinner.

About 20 km east of the city, the road drops to Lake Fuschl, the first of the Salzkammergut lakes and one of the clearest. Forest runs down to the shore, a footpath circles the water and the swimming, in summer, is glorious. Wolfgangsee and the rest of the lake district are just beyond, with Hallstatt further on.

This is where to combine a city break with a proper rest. A fairytale castle on the lakeshore is one of Austria's great luxury hotels. A historic hunting lodge dating from the 15th century overlooks the water from the hillside, and a spa hotel right on the lake has its own private beach. Salzburg is an easy drive or bus ride for a day of Mozart and cake.