Vienna runs to a timetable. Book to it.
Which Schönbrunn ticket skips the queue. What a seat in the Musikverein really costs. Whether the Wachau beats Hallstatt on your one day out. Reviews of every tour you can book in Vienna.
A first Vienna, in four bookings.
An imperial morning, half an hour with the white horses, an evening under a dome, and the one day worth leaving town for. What each costs and what the people who took it say.
01The morningSchönbrunn Palace & Gardens Skip-the-Line TourSkip-the-line into the state rooms, then the parterre and the Gloriette on your own time. Take the first slot; the coach groups land at eleven.
02The half hourSpanish Riding School TrainingThe Lipizzaners at morning training under the chandeliers of the winter hall. A fraction of the price of a full performance, and the same horses.
03The eveningVivaldi’s Four Seasons Concert in KarlskircheVivaldi under Karlskirche’s dome, seventy-five minutes, out in time for dinner. The most-booked ticket in the city by a distance.
04The day outHallstatt & Alpine Peaks Day Trip with Skywalk LiftHallstatt and the Dachstein peaks by coach, back the same night. The one argument for leaving Vienna for a whole day.
The old town is a two-hour walk. The question is who is doing the talking.
Everything inside the Ring fits between breakfast and lunch. A guide, a phone, a bike or a vintage e-car — four ways through the same lanes, and what each one costs to board.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · Guided Walking Tour of City Center Highlights
With a guideTwo hours, small group, the stories the plaques leave out.
Off the GrabenCourtyards, cellars and the lanes the Ring traffic never reaches.
On your own phoneAudio in your ear, no meeting point, start whenever you wake up.
On two wheelsThe Ring, the Prater and the Danube island in one flat afternoon.
All 46 ways to see the centre →
Six addresses the Habsburgs left behind, and the best way into each.
A summer palace with a hill behind it, a winter palace you can still walk through, Klimt’s gold on the Belvedere’s first floor, the white horses, the picture gallery and the wheel that has been turning since 1897.
Vienna sells about four thousand concert seats a night. Some of them are worth the money.
The Musikverein and the Konzerthaus are the real rooms. The church concerts — Karlskirche, St Peter’s, St Stephen’s — are smaller, cheaper and often better played than the costumed shows in the tourist halls. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
The tickets Vienna runs out of.
Every Vienna review →More travellers book these than anything else in the city, and each one has a reason for the slot.
1
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Concert in Karlskirche
Hear Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on period instruments inside Vienna’s Karlskirche, with beautiful acoustics, historic atmosphere, and practical seating tips.
From · $40
Read our review →
2
Spanish Riding School Training
from $20
3
Skip-the-cashier-desk-line Giant Ferris Wheel Ride
from $17
4
Schönbrunn Palace & Gardens Skip-the-Line Tour
from $63
5
Light of Creation Votive Church Immersive Light Show
from $25
6
Vienna Spanish Riding School Guided Tour
from $28
7
Classical Concert in the World-Famous Musikverein
from $17
8
Skip-the-Line Sisi Museum, Hofburg and Gardens Tour
from $61
One free day: the Danube bend, the lake, or a second capital.
The Wachau is ninety minutes upriver — Melk’s abbey, terraced Grüner Veltliner and a boat between Krems and Dürnstein. Hallstatt is four hours each way for a village on a lake. Bratislava is an hour on a hydrofoil. Pick by how long you are prepared to sit down.
Every day trip from Vienna →
What a day in Vienna actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good half of the city’s best hours come in under the price of dinner on the Graben.
Museum and palace entry, church concert seats, the morning at the riding school, walks inside the Ring.
Guided palace tours, Musikverein and Golden Hall nights, dinner cruises, the Wachau by coach and boat.
Private guides, Hallstatt and Salzburg by car, after-hours palace evenings and the once-a-trip splurges.
Three things that only happen in Vienna.
Baroque palaces and good cake exist all over central Europe. Stallions that dance to Mozart, a coffee house that lets you sit four hours on one melange, and an orchestra playing in the room it was written for do not.
The Lipizzaners
The white stallions are born dark and lighten over six or seven years. They train in a hall Charles VI built for them in 1735, and the morning exercises — the same movements, without the music and the tailcoats — cost a fraction of a Sunday performance. The horses take August off, and so does the hall.
- 1Spanish Riding School Training★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 · 9,281 reviews
- 2Vienna Spanish Riding School Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 6,765 reviews
- 3Performance Of The Lipizzans At Spanish Riding School★★★★★★★★★★ · 4,190 reviews
The church concerts
Karlskirche, St Peter’s, the Annakirche and St Stephen’s all run small ensembles under their own domes. The acoustic is the point: Vivaldi in a baroque church is not the same piece as Vivaldi in a hotel ballroom. Seats are unreserved in most of them, which is the real argument for turning up early.
- 1Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Concert in Karlskirche★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 14,951 reviews
- 2Classical Concert in the World-Famous Musikverein★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 6,673 reviews
- 3Classical Concert at St. Stephen’s Cathedral★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 4,177 reviews
The coffee house
A Viennese coffee house sells you a chair, not a drink. The melange arrives on a silver tray with a glass of tap water, the newspapers are on wooden rods, and nobody will come to move you along. Central, Sperl, Hawelka and Landtmann each have their own crowd; the tours walk you between three of them with the cake included.
- 1Vienna Coffee, Cake & Pastries Tour with Local Stories★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 470 reviews
- 2Guided Foodie Walking Tour with Tastings and Coffee★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 246 reviews
- 3Typical Austrian Food Tour with Coffee House Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 159 reviews
From November the city moves indoors, and it has been practising for centuries.
Half the year Vienna is dark by four and cold enough to hurt. This is the city that answers that better than anywhere: galleries you could lose a day in, a wine cellar under the old town, a concert every night of the week and a coffee house that will keep you until closing.
Cake at eleven, Grüner Veltliner at six, schnitzel whenever you give in.
The Naschmarkt for the stalls, a Schlumberger cellar under the ninth district for the sparkling, a chocolate workshop for the rainy afternoon, and a coffee house for the four hours in between.
By address — the places with their own front door
By kind of day — concert hall, gallery, table or Danube
Hofburg, Stephansplatz, Schönbrunn, the Belvedere: the order most people end up walking.
The WachauThe newest Vienna reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Klimt Villa (Gustav Klimt Atelier & Museum) Ticket
Read our review →
Vienna Walking Tour with Audioguide on Your Smartphone
Read our review →
Guided Tour by Kick Bike or E-Scooter with a Local
Read our review →
Viennese Wine Tasting in a Private Hidden Wine Cellar
Read our review →
City Sightseeing Tour in an Electro Vintage Car (up to 5 people)
Read our review →
Private Full Day Trip to Hallstatt ,Salzburg and Melk from Vienna
Read our review →
