Vienna

Vienna is an imperial city with imperial-scale palaces, and the mistake most visitors make is underestimating how much time Schönbrunn takes. The other thing worth knowing early: the famous concerts and the Spanish Riding School both book out long before you arrive.

This page compares live ticket prices and availability for Vienna attractions across our booking partners.

When to visit Vienna

April to June and September to October are the best months. Mild, the palace gardens are open and planted, and the city is comfortable to walk.

July and August are warm and busy, though Vienna handles crowds better than most European capitals.

November to March is cold, often below freezing. This is also concert season, when the musical life of the city is at its fullest, and December brings some of the best Christmas markets in Europe.

The Vienna Ball season runs January to February — a genuine cultural phenomenon rather than a tourist event, though some balls sell public tickets.

Schönbrunn Palace

Vienna’s Versailles, and it takes longer than people plan for.

Palace tours come in two lengths: the Imperial Tour covers around 22 rooms, the Grand Tour covers 40 and includes the more interesting private apartments. The Grand Tour is worth the difference.

Entry is by timed slot and summer slots sell out days ahead.

The gardens are free and enormous. The Gloriette on the hill behind, the maze, the palm house and the zoo are all separately ticketed.

Schönbrunn Zoo is the oldest in the world and genuinely good, but it’s a half-day on its own.

Allow four hours minimum for palace and gardens together. A full day if the zoo is included.

Hofburg and the Imperial apartments

The Hofburg in the city centre is a complex rather than a single palace.

The Sisi Museum, Imperial Apartments and Silver Collection are sold as one combined ticket and are the main visit.

The Spanish Riding School is separate. Morning training sessions are cheaper and easier to get into than the full performances, which sell out months ahead. The horses are not performing in July and August.

The Imperial Treasury with the crown jewels is another separate ticket in the same complex.

A combined Sisi Ticket covers the Hofburg apartments, Schönbrunn Grand Tour and the Imperial Furniture Collection, and skips the Schönbrunn queue.

Concerts and the music

Vienna sells a great deal of music to visitors, and the quality varies enormously.

Musikverein and Staatsoper are the real institutions. Staatsoper standing-room tickets go on sale shortly before each performance for a few euros — queue early and it’s the best cultural bargain in Europe.

Costumed Mozart concerts in smaller venues are aimed squarely at tourists. Not bad, but not what the city is famous for.

Book the serious venues weeks ahead.

Booking ahead vs walking up

The Belvedere holds Klimt’s The Kiss and gets busy around it. A timed ticket avoids the worst.

Getting around

The U-Bahn is efficient and the Ringstrasse trams circle the historic centre, which makes tram 1 and 2 a cheap sightseeing loop.

The inner city within the Ring is compact and walkable. Schönbrunn is a metro ride out on the U4.

Vienna’s coffee houses are UNESCO-listed as cultural heritage and sitting for hours over one coffee is not just tolerated but expected.

A first-timer’s three days

Day one — the centre. St Stephen’s Cathedral, the Hofburg and Sisi Museum, Ringstrasse tram loop, coffee house in the afternoon.

Day two — Schönbrunn. Full morning at the palace with a Grand Tour slot, gardens and Gloriette after lunch. Concert in the evening.

Day three — art and the modern city. Belvedere in the morning for the Klimts, MuseumsQuartier in the afternoon, Naschmarkt for dinner.