Schönbrunn Palace Gardens Panorama Train Ride Tickets Vienna

Schönbrunn Palace and its imperial park

Schönbrunn Palace is the former summer residence of the Habsburg dynasty and the most visited sight in Austria. The baroque palace, painted in its famous yellow, has more than a thousand rooms, and behind it stretches a park of about 160 hectares, laid out in the eighteenth century and open to the public since 1779. Palace and gardens together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and many visitors are surprised by how large the grounds are once they pass the Great Parterre.

The Schönbrunn panorama train solves that problem. The avenues run for kilometres between clipped hedges, and the climb from the parterre to the Gloriette takes a good half hour on foot. With a Schönbrunn Palace park train ticket you board at the palace stop and let the train carry you around the loop, getting off wherever you like. Entry to the palace rooms is not included, so pair this ride with a palace ticket if you also want to see the state rooms.

The Gloriette and the view over Vienna

The Gloriette crowns the hill at the far end of the park, a long colonnaded pavilion built in 1775 as a monument to the Habsburg army and used by the court as a dining hall. From its terrace you look straight down the axis of the gardens, across the Neptune Fountain and the Great Parterre to the palace, with the spires and domes of Vienna behind it. Most people agree it is the best photo spot in Schönbrunn.

On foot the Gloriette is the one part of the park that families with pushchairs and visitors with reduced mobility often skip, because the zigzag paths up the hill are steep. The Schönbrunn Gloriette train stop is right beside the pavilion, and trains leave the hill every 30 minutes, so you can spend as long as you want at the viewpoint and the café inside the pavilion before riding down to the next stop.

Neptune Fountain, Roman Ruin, Obelisk and Palm House

The train route strings together the garden follies that make the Schönbrunn gardens tour so varied. The Neptune Fountain at the foot of the Gloriette hill is a huge baroque group of sea gods and horses finished in 1780. To the east the Roman Ruin is a deliberately built ruin from 1778 that was fashionable at the time, and nearby the Obelisk Fountain rises from a grotto covered in hieroglyph-style carvings.

On the western side the route passes the Palm House, a great iron and glass greenhouse from 1882 with three climate zones, and the Desert House beside it. Between them lie the Orangery, the Privy Garden and the maze. Each of these has its own stop or is a short stroll from one, so you can hop off, walk a few minutes, and catch the next train an hour later. Seasonal entry to the greenhouses and the maze is paid separately.

Schönbrunn Zoo and the western park

Schönbrunn Zoo, the Tiergarten, lies inside the park and dates from 1752, which makes it the oldest zoo in the world still in operation. Its baroque pavilion still stands at the centre of the original animal enclosures, while modern habitats house giant pandas, elephants, polar bears, orangutans and a rainforest house. A visit easily fills two or three hours, which is why many families combine the Schönbrunn Palace with kids day with the panorama train.

The train stops at the zoo entrance, so you can ride there from the palace, spend the time you want with the animals, and ride on to the Gloriette or back to the palace afterwards. Zoo entry is not included in this train ticket and must be bought separately. Nearby stops also serve the Hietzing side gate and the Palm House, handy if you arrive by metro at Hietzing rather than at the main Schönbrunn station.

How to get to Schönbrunn and when the train runs

Getting to Schönbrunn from the centre of Vienna is simple: take metro line U4 to Schönbrunn station and walk five minutes to the main gate, or to Hietzing for the zoo side; trams 10 and 60 and bus 10A also stop at the palace. The park itself is open from early morning until dusk and entry to the gardens is free, so you can arrive early, walk the Great Parterre while it is quiet, and board the train when it starts.

The panorama train runs daily in season from 10:00 to 17:00, every hour on the hour from the palace and every half hour from the Gloriette hill. We recommend boarding at the palace stop, where the loop begins. Your ticket is for one whole day and can be validated on any day within 30 days of the date you choose, which gives you flexibility if the weather changes. In the festive season a Christmas Express version of the train runs as a separate option.