The Best Tours in Vienna – Palaces, concerts & day trips

The palace interior runs on timed entry, so a fixed time slot is the norm, and in high season and on weekends slots go first. The guided skip-the-line tours listed here start at around €16 and go past €60 for longer guided and private tours. Pick date and time before you travel and compare what the ticket includes: the palace only, or the gardens and a guide as well.

From 7 September 2026 to 31 October 2027 the City Airport Train is replaced by premium buses between the airport and Wien Mitte; a ticket for that bus is listed here from about €12. The S7 suburban train is the cheaper option, but its route has been changed by construction work – check the current connection with ÖBB before you travel. A private transfer starts at around €29 and pays off with luggage or on a late arrival.

There are three different things. The “training” (€17) is the horses’ daily work with music in the Winter Riding School – a session, not a show, and it is rated lower, 3.9 stars. The guided tour (€24) explains the school and the stables and has 4.7 stars. The Lipizzaner performance (from about €40) is the only one of the three that is a real performance.

Only with a very full programme. The Vienna PASS costs around €109. Three of the most popular museum tickets here – Upper Belvedere €23, Kunsthistorisches Museum €22, Albertina €20.90 – add up to about €66, well below that. The Vienna City Card is a different thing: public transport plus discounts, but no free entries. Add up what you really plan before you buy.

It depends on what you accept. The trip is a 13-hour day with about three hours on the road each way and only a couple of hours in the village, which is crowded in July and August. Day trips start at around €65; combined Hallstatt and Salzburg days cost about €100. If you want less time on the bus, the Wachau valley with Melk or Bratislava is the half-day alternative.

Look at the programme, the venue and the seat category. Most offers here are hour-long programmes by small ensembles in churches, palace halls or the Musikverein, with well-known pieces by Mozart, Strauss or Vivaldi. They start at around €15; dinner concerts cost well over €100. The State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic sell through their own box offices.

The Christkindlmarkt on the Rathausplatz runs from 13 November to 26 December 2026, the market at Schönbrunn Palace from 6 November 2026 to 6 January 2027. Several smaller markets open from the beginning of November. Opening times and dates change each year, so check them for your travel dates.