Christmas Markets 2025 – Day 3 (On to Salzburg, and a Return to Augustiner Bräu!)

We took a morning train to Salzburg, which was a 2.5 hour trip.

After getting settled in, we went to a nearby Christmas Market at Mirabellplatz, which was a short walk from our hotel. It’s a small market, but cozy, and they had good mugs for the glühwein (so we bought one, which would become a recurring theme—we came home with three mugs!) There were some handcrafted gift items and a small selection of food as well.

This particular Christmas Market is in front of Mirabell Palace. Behind the palace is the garden, with a fountain and steps that fans of The Sound of Music will recognize from the Do-Re-Mi segment (but more on that in tomorrow’s installment!) It was nice having a Christmas Market so close to our hotel. We ended up returning here a few times. It wasn’t as big as the main Christmas Market at Residenzplatz/Domplatz, but it was good anyway.

Christmas Market at Mirabellplatz Photos

Entrance to the Christmas Market at Mirabellplatz

Augustiner Bräu Mülln (Augustiner Bräustübl)

After the market we headed for the Augustiner Brewery in the Mülln area of Salzburg. It’s a brewery and tavern (bräustübl means “brewery pub” in German) that’s been brewing beer since 1621. The beer is served unfiltered and unpasteurized, directly from the wooden kegs. (They also sell their beer in bottles, but it’s pasteurized, so not quite the same). The brewing process includes uncovered cooling of the beer wort in the last remaining traditional cooling vessel in Austria, as well as open fermentation.

The brewery was originally operated by Augustine hermits (monks), but was taken over by the Benedictines of Michaelbeuern in 1835. The bräustübl includes five beer halls plus a large beer garden (closed for the winter), and is the largest bräustübl in Austria with over 5,000 square meters of space inside, plus the 1,400 seat outdoor beer garden.

There’s a section of stalls serving various food items. We all went for various meats (I also got sauerkraut), and everything was delicious! I had the seasonal Bock beer, which is only served in November and December. It’s stronger than their regular Märzen, which is what everyone else enjoyed. You can get your beer in three sizes of mug: 0.3L, 0.5L, and 1.0L. (I went for the 1 Litre, everyone else had the 0.5.)

I’d visited Augustiner Bräu in 2001, and loved it! It was a day trip from Munich (where I spent a week), and it was the best beer I had on the trip. So, when we decided to add Salzburg to our itinerary, I made sure we’d stop in for some beer and food. Despite me hyping it up relentlessly, everyone loved it as much as I do!

How to Order Beer

That may seem like a silly heading…how hard can it be? It’s not difficult, but can be confusing at first. Here’s what you need to do:

Grab an empty mug from the huge wall of mugs, in whichever size you prefer.
Rinse your mug at the rinsing station (you can’t miss it…see the photos at the end of the post).
Take the rinsed mug to the cashier, who will charge you based on the mug size.
Take the mug and your receipt to the counter where they’re pouring the beer. They’ll fill it up, and you’re all set!
If you want another round, just rinse (literally) and repeat!

Everything at Augustiner Brewery is cash only, so make sure you have enough with you! There’s a bank nearby if you forget, but better to plan ahead.

Salzburg Christkindlmarkt

The main Christmas Market in Salzburg is split between two adjoining town squares—Residenzplatz and Domplatz—and is a fantastic Christkindlmarkt!

Google got us very lost at first. When searching Google Maps for “Salzburg Christkindlmarkt”, an entry comes up that says “Verein Salzburger Christkindlmarkt”, with photos that look just like what I saw when gathering info about the main Christmas Market. The photos linked to the Google Maps entry are in fact of Domplatz and Residenzplatz, so it appeared to be the correct place. It’s very much not. We took two buses 25 minutes out of town, to an industrual area. There was nothing there but some closed buildings. (I have a theory that this is the address of the association that runs the Christkindlmarkt, not the address of the actual market.) The correct one is titled “Salzburg Christmas Market“, but really, all you need to do is navigate to either Residenzplatz or Domplatz (they’re connected) and you’ll be set.

Compared to the Wien Christkindlmarkt, the Salzburg Christkindlmarkt is smaller, as it’s confined to two town squares vs and entire park. There are no rides for the kids (although there was a pretty neat model train set). However, for adults, all four of us liked this Market better. It felt less commercial. There was a wider variety of food, drinks, and gifts, despite being smaller. (Speaking of drinks, there’s a stall selling all manner of alcoholic drinks made with Red Bull—which makes sense, since Red Bull is headquartered in Salzburg.)