Fräulein Maria’s Sound of Music Bike Tour

When I’m planning a trip I always ask friends and family for recommendations. So when I was planning my time in Salzburg, Austria I asked around with friends who had previously visited. A friend told me Fräulein Maria’s Sound of Music Bike Tour was a must-do, so I immediately booked a tour!

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The Sound of Music Bike Tour

My friend was correct, this tour is a must-do! From the behind-the-scenes info shared, to the stunning Austrian countryside, to the entertaining and knowledgeable guides, I can not recommend this tour enough. As you bike along listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack, you can almost picture the Von Trapp children hanging from the trees and laughing. Here is some of the fun insider information I learned about the movie during tour and when you take the tour, you can learn more.

•For filming they used the back of one house (the first photo in this post) and the front of another house (see photo below) to make up the Von Trapp family house.

•If the family had truly left via the route they took at the end of the movie, they would have ended up right at Eagle’s Nest, a high-level Nazi building.

•They added a doorbell to the convent so the kids could ring the bell when they were looking for Maria. The convent kept the doorbell after filming, until too many tourists visited and used the doorbell. Then they took it down to regain some peace and quiet.

Know Before You Go

•Although you reserve your spot for the tour ahead of time (via the website) you don’t actually pay until after you’ve completed the tour. You should also note that cash is the preferred payment method.

•The tour lasts around 3.5 hours and you’ll bike about 8 miles over the course of the tour.

•You’ll cover more ground than a walking tour (because bikes travel faster!), and although you can’t cover as much ground as a bus tour, you are able to go to places that are more difficult to reach via bus.

•You don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to join the tour. My tour had an 8-year-old and a 68-year-old, so the tour really is for everyone.

•Tours run from April to October and for a couple of months in the summer they run twice a day. But it can rain a lot in the summer so be ready for the rain.

Literary Connections

While neither of these books are fiction, both are related to The Sound of Music so they are great reads before or after the bike tour. Julie Andrew’s Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years covers her time filming Sound of Music. The Story of the Trapp Family Singers tells the story of the family who inspired the movie.

Interested in visiting other European destinations? Here’s a look at my recommendations of what to do, see, eat, and read on your next European adventure.