My daughter and I have just returned from a delightful trip to Salzburg, organised in part by Panorama Tours.

We enjoyed a stay at the excellent Crowne Plaza Pitter Hotel and also took two of Panorama's interesting tours, including the famous Sound of Music tour. They also arranged for us to attend a candle-lit Mozart Dinner Concert, which was certainly different to anything we had experienced before.

All in all, I would most definitely recommend Salzburg as a beautiful city to visit at any time of the year, but it is certainly a rather magical place to visit in winter. I would also highly recommend Panorama Tours for the highly efficient manner in which our trip was organised and for their friendly, knowledgeable and highly amusing tour guides.

We stayed in this hotel during the christmas season. From arrival to check out, the service was outstanding. The room we stayed at its one of the most beautiful I have ever stayed at any hotel (Room #111). If you want a great stay in Salzburg, book the Crowne Plaza without any doubt.

We stayed at “The Pitter” (5 *) in August, during the time of the Salzburg Festival. It is a 10-minute walk to the train station and across the Salzach river into the Altstadt (“Old Town”) and the Hohensalzburg palace. It’s right across the street from the Mirabell Gardens, where some of the “Do-Re-Mi” scenes from “The Sound of Music” were filmed. ATM machines, restaurants, and grocery stores are also located within walking distance of the hotel.

While our room was clean and well-kept, it felt small and crowded with two twin beds and the crib for our toddler. The bathroom was average-sized, clean, and well-stocked with towels. There is air conditioning, an iron with an ironing board, a safe, and a small refrigerator / minibar. There is no physical LAN network but the hotel is a T-Mobile Hot Spot: wireless internet access is available but must be purchased.

The maid service was fine – all of our bed linens (including a special pink blanket for our toddler!), towels, and toiletries were replaced daily. The desk clerks were all very helpful but one thing that bothered me was that the night clerk informed me of the breakfast times but did not inform me that my hotel cost did not include breakfast (or should I know prior to check-in if breakfast is included?). Consequently, when I checked out, I was surprised to discover that each member of the family was charged 22 euro per day for the meals. While the food was good, with hot (including an omelette bar) and cold food, I don’t think it was worth 22 € per person.

The hotel is nice and the location great, and I paid a great fare (119 € / night), but somehow I expected better for a "five star" hotel. Or am I expecting too much?

We stayed in this hotel for three nights in December 2004. We booked two rooms. One of the rooms was large, decorated to a superior standard with really comfortable beds. The other room was fairly small and while pleasant it was ordinary in decor and comfort compared to the other room. That aside, this is a great hotel. Comfortable, welcoming and when cold outside it was lovely to come back to the warmth of the hotel. Super breakfast, great choices and service. Wonderful helpful, efficient staff at the front desk. We enjoyed the food and athmosphere in the Pitter bar in the basement, excellent value, weird opening hours!! While the hotel location is a little away from the centre, we enjoyed the 15 minute walks to the town centre alternatively walking through the steets, along the river or through the Mirabelle gardens. The hotel is right beside the tour company that does all the city tours such as the Sound of Music (sounds tacky but just not to be missed). There is a bus stop right outside the hotel which we also used. It is only about 15-20 minute taxi ride to the airport. Salzburg is a great place for a city break We would definately return to both the city and hotel.