Salzburg Panorama Tours

The company and where it operates

Salzburg Panorama Tours is a Salzburg sightseeing company that runs its own tours with its own buses, limousines, guides and drivers. The about page calls it "Salzburg's premier sightseeing tour operator" and says it began in 1954 as a small company named "Kleinbusse Mirabell," offering a shuttle up to the Gaisberg. Its office is at Hubert-Sattler-Gasse 1, 5020 Salzburg, and prices are in euros.

Every tour starts from Salzburg. The regular group tours go to Sound of Music film locations in and around the city, Hallstatt and the Salzkammergut lakes, the Eagle's Nest above Berchtesgaden and the Berchtesgaden salt mine across the border in Bavaria. The private tour menu reaches much further: Vienna, Munich, Innsbruck, the Großglockner High Alpine Road, Chiemsee and the Bavarian royal castles, and the page says private guests can also go to Budapest or Prague. The company's sister business, Panorama Tours & Travel, is described as "Salzburg's largest incoming agency with local offices in Salzburg, Vienna and Budapest" and handles hotels, concert and festival tickets and incentive programs from the same office.

The Sound of Music connection

The story at the center of the brand is on the about page: "In 1964, the legendary movie 'The Sound of Music' was filmed in Salzburg and it was our company taking movie stars like Julie Andrews, Christoph Plummer as well as the whole film crew in our limousines to the various film sets." (A second passage on the same page dates the filming to 1965.) When fans later arrived asking to see the locations, "our drivers could naturally guide them," and that, the page says, is how the Original Sound of Music Tour began. The site says this tour runs "twice a day." The homepage shows the Original Sound of Music Tour rated 4.8 from 6,438 reviews and listed from €70.

The site is not consistent about its age: the about page says "More than 60 years" and the homepage says "more than 70 years." Today, the page says, Mag. Stefan Herzl and his nephew Daniel run the company.

Group tours and packages

The homepage lists the scheduled group tours by number, each with a length, rating and starting price. The Original Sound of Music Tour, Tour 1A, is 4 hours. The Eagle's Nest Bus Tour, Tour 4, is 4.5 hours, rated 4.5 from 1,281 reviews, from €100. The Hallstatt Half-Day Tour, Tour 6, is 5.5 hours, rated 4.5 from 1,110 reviews, from €80. The Guided Salt Mine Tour Berchtesgaden, Tour 3A, which "takes you on an adventurous trip into the Bavarian Alps," is 4 hours, rated 4.5 from 565 reviews, from €85. Two Super Saver combinations pair the Sound of Music tour with Hallstatt (9.5 hours, from €135) or with the salt mine (9 hours, from €135).

Packages bundle a tour with food or a hotel partner. Sweet Temptation introduces "Salzburger Nockerl" and "Mozartkugeln." The Sound of Music Tour with Schnitzel and Noodles adds "a 3-course Sound of Music menu" and is listed from €120. Salzburg Now or Never is billed as a last-minute package. The homepage says "Our tours are guaranteed to take place" with a daily program "365 days a year."

Private tours and transfers

The private tours page is long, and every entry shows a length and a starting price per booking. In Salzburg it offers a 2-hour private walking tour with "a certified Austria Guide" from €285, 1-hour city and Mozart tours, a 2h Salzburg City Tour, a city tour with coffee and cake at Restaurant M32, and a tour with a backstage visit to the Salzburg Marionette Theatre. Sound of Music private tours start with a 4-hour half-day from €600 and extend to full days with Hallstatt, the Eagle's Nest, a cooking class making "Apple Strudel," a hike on the Sound of Music Trail in Werfen, or breakfast at Schloss Leopoldskron. Further afield, the Bavarian Royal Castles day is described as a "magical 10 hours day tour," and there are private tours to the Krimml Water Falls, the Giant Ice Caves at Werfen, Zell am See and Kitzsteinhorn, and historical days to Mauthausen and on WWII and the Third Reich. Closer to the city there is a half day in the Lake District with St. Wolfgang and St. Gilgen, and a city tour with a visit to the Stiegl brewery. The page adds that a half-day tour can be combined with lunch at Restaurant Oberauer, which it says has been awarded 4 toques. In winter the company offers a private horse-drawn sleigh ride.

The transfer page lists private cars from Salzburg to the airport, the main station, hotels such as Schloss Fuschl, and cities including Munich, Vienna, Linz, Graz, Kitzbühel and St. Anton, with the longest run, to Zurich, from €1,550. The page promises "our modern fleet of vehicles and the first-class service of our local chauffeurs."

Guides, awards and booking

The team page lists the office staff of both companies by name, with direct phone extensions, and links to a guide list, saying "we're not lying when we talk about multi-lingual driver guides!" The company says it has held the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence "for several years in a row," shows "4.5 stars from over 7,300 Tripadvisor reviews," and lists Viator 2017 Travel Awards and Global DMC Partner of the Year badges. Every page says it is rated "Outstanding" on Trustpilot. Tours are booked online through a cart, and questions go to +43 662 8832110 or info@panoramatours.com.

What the site leaves open, and who it suits

The tour listings do not state cancellation or refund terms (the footer links to separate Terms), group sizes on the scheduled coach tours, or the meeting point for each departure. The guide list is linked rather than shown, so the languages offered on a given tour are not stated on the tour cards. The tour cards do not explain what the "Skip the Line" and "Non-stop to destination" badges on some tours cover.

Salzburg Panorama Tours suits Sound of Music fans who want the tour from the company that drove the film crew, and visitors who want guaranteed daily departures to Hallstatt, the Eagle's Nest or the salt mine. Its private menu, with fixed starting prices, suits families and groups who want a car and guide to themselves anywhere from the old town to the Alps.