What should I avoid in Salzburg?

Most first-timers lose their best morning on Getreidegasse, and that is the first mistake to avoid. By 10:30am the narrow lane is a shoulder-to-shoulder crawl past Zara, Swarovski and wrought-iron guild signs, a style even the Getreidegasse McDonald's had to copy. Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9 is the one stop on the street worth your time, so go at opening, roughly 9am: the third-floor floorboards creak under you and you can stand almost alone beside his childhood violin. A ticket currently runs around €15. If you visit a single Mozart house, make it this one over the Mozart Residence on Makartplatz, which was largely rebuilt after 1944 bomb damage. Then duck through one of the vaulted Durchhäuser passages to Universitätsplatz, where the Grünmarkt stalls smell of fried sausage and the crowd noise drops by half.

Hohensalzburg Fortress looms over every view, and the FestungsBahn funicular on Festungsgasse is where the day-one queue builds. Between 11am and 3pm the line can stretch past 30 minutes for a ride of about a minute, so walk up from Kapitelplatz instead: the cobbled ramp climbs past the Stiegl-Keller beer garden in about 20 minutes, and after rain the stones get slick, with the air on the ramp in late October carrying a smell of wet leaves. Do a quick sum on the Salzburg Card before buying it. It usually pays off if you cram the fortress, the birthplace, Hellbrunn Palace and a bus ride into 24 hours, which is exactly the packed, jet-lagged first day you should not plan. On a slower day with two sights, single tickets at the Salzburg ticket desks likely come out cheaper.

The restaurant terraces on Residenzplatz and Domplatz are selling the view, and the prices show it: photo menus in five languages, schnitzel priced well above the same plate in Mülln or Andräviertel. The Fiaker carriages lined up by the Residenzbrunnen fountain are the other square-side trap. A 25-minute loop costs upwards of €50, about $56 at the current rate of 0.8934 euros to the dollar, and the warm reek of horse hangs over the cobbles. For souvenirs, pass on the gold-foil Mozartkugeln stacked in every Getreidegasse window. Those are factory chocolates from Mirabell and Reber. Café Konditorei Fürst on Brodgasse has made the original by hand since 1890, and it comes in silver and blue foil with a green pistachio-marzipan core that tastes far less sugary.

For dinner, walk 15 minutes north along the Salzach to Augustiner Bräu Kloster Mülln. You take a stone mug off the shelf, rinse it under the cold fountain, and pay at the till before the Märzen is poured from wooden barrels. The corridor stalls at Mülln sell Stelze, roast pork knuckle with crackling that shatters when you bite it. Before you order, it helps to know the menu: Kasnocken are Pinzgau cheese dumplings under crisp fried onions, and Salzburger Nockerl is a baked meringue for two that takes about 20 minutes to arrive, so order it with your main course.

The four-hour Sound of Music coach tour is worth it for fans and a long bus ride for everyone else. Many Salzburgers say they have never sat through the 1965 film, and much of the tour is spent on the road to the Mondsee wedding basilica. Mirabell Gardens has the Do-Re-Mi steps and the Pegasus fountain for free, a short walk from Makartplatz. We'd skip the Hallstatt day trip as well: by public transport it can take around 2.5 hours each way, and the village of roughly 750 residents is now swamped by tour coaches. Postbus 150 to St. Gilgen on the Wolfgangsee takes about 50 minutes and gets you a similar lake-and-peak view with room to breathe. Timing matters in late October, since Hellbrunn's trick fountains usually close at the start of November and the Kehlsteinhaus buses above Berchtesgaden stop around the end of October. From W. A. Mozart Airport, buses 2 and 10 reach the centre in about 20 minutes. Buy your ticket at the machine at the stop, because the driver charges more.