Vienna Pass Digital Sightseeing Pass for 85+ Attractions

Schönbrunn Palace and Schönbrunn Zoo

Schönbrunn Palace is the Habsburg summer residence and the most visited sight in Austria, a yellow Baroque palace of more than 1,400 rooms in a formal park west of the centre. The Vienna Pass includes the tour of the state rooms and, more importantly, lets you book a time slot online for guaranteed entry, the biggest advantage of the pass because Schönbrunn Palace tickets at the gate often mean a wait of an hour or more. Allow an hour inside and another hour for the gardens, the Gloriette on its hill and the maze.

Schönbrunn Zoo, in the palace park, is the oldest zoo in the world still in operation, founded in 1752 as the imperial menagerie, and also a free entry on the pass. Elephants, a rainforest house and the original Baroque pavilion in the centre make it a half-day on its own. The palace is 15 minutes from the centre on the U4 metro, and the hop-on hop-off yellow route stops at the gate.

The Hofburg: Imperial Apartments, Treasury and Spanish Riding School

The Hofburg is the vast palace complex in the city centre from which the Habsburgs ruled for more than six centuries, and several of its museums are free with the pass. The Imperial Apartments show the private rooms of the imperial couple together with the Silver Collection of court tableware; the Imperial Treasury in the Swiss Wing holds the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austrian imperial crown and the Burgundian treasure, which many consider the most valuable collection in Vienna.

The pass also includes the Spanish Riding School, where the white Lipizzaner stallions are trained in classical horsemanship, and nearby the Imperial Furniture Collection and the Austrian National Library's State Hall. Everything in the Hofburg is within a few minutes' walk of Michaelerplatz and Heldenplatz, and the hop-on hop-off buses stop at the State Opera a short walk away, so a Vienna city pass day can easily be built around this one complex.

The Belvedere: Upper and Lower palaces

The Belvedere is a pair of Baroque palaces facing each other across a terraced garden south of the Ringstrasse, built in the early 18th century as the summer residence of a victorious field marshal. The Upper Belvedere houses Austria's most important art collection, from medieval altarpieces to the gold-ground paintings of the Vienna Secession around 1900 that draw visitors from all over the world, with Impressionist and modern works alongside. The Lower Belvedere holds the original state rooms, the Marble Hall and changing exhibitions.

Both palaces are free entries on the Vienna Pass, and the garden between them, with its sphinxes, fountains and view back over the city to the cathedral, costs nothing at any time. Plan about 2 hours for the Upper Belvedere and an hour for the Lower. The hop-on hop-off red route stops at the gate, or it is a 15-minute walk from the State Opera; a time slot may be required on busy days, which the pass guide explains.

The museum quarter: Albertina, Kunsthistorisches, Natural History and Leopold

Vienna's great museums cluster around the Ringstrasse near the Hofburg, and the pass covers the major ones. The Kunsthistorisches Museum, in a palatial building on Maria-Theresien-Platz, holds the imperial picture gallery with Bruegel, Vermeer and Velázquez, plus Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities and the Kunstkammer of curiosities. Opposite, in its mirror-image twin, the Natural History Museum shows the Venus of Willendorf, dinosaurs and a famous meteorite collection, a favourite with children.

The Albertina, in a former Habsburg palace beside the State Opera, combines sumptuous state rooms with one of the largest print and drawing collections in the world and a permanent display of modern paintings. Across the road in the MuseumsQuartier, the Leopold Museum presents Austrian art around 1900 and the mumok shows contemporary work. With a Vienna museum pass like this one you can see two or three of these in a day without buying a ticket at any of them; each needs about 1.5 to 2 hours.

Giant Ferris Wheel, Prater and the Danube Tower

The Giant Ferris Wheel at the entrance to the Prater has turned since 1897 and is one of the symbols of Vienna. A ride in one of its red wooden cabins takes about 15 minutes and reaches 65 metres, with views over the Prater park, the Danube and the city centre; the ride is a free entry on the pass. The Prater itself is a free public park with a historic amusement area and long tree-lined avenues, reached by the U1 and U2 metro lines at Praterstern or by the hop-on hop-off buses.

On the other side of the Danube, the Danube Tower rises to 252 metres in the Donaupark, with a lift to an observation deck at 150 metres and a revolving café above it; it is also included. Together the two give the best high viewpoints over Vienna, and they combine well on the same day because both lie north-east of the centre on the same bus route, with the Danube Island and the UN headquarters in between.

Getting around: hop-on hop-off buses and the pass in practice

The Vienna Pass includes unlimited rides on the hop-on hop-off sightseeing buses, which run on 4 routes with 50 stops and an audio guide in many languages: the red route around the Ringstrasse, the yellow route to Schönbrunn, the blue route to the Prater and the Danube, and the green route to the hills on the city's edge. They are the simplest way to link the big sights in one day; inside the Ring the metro and trams are faster but need a separate ticket.

You receive the pass by email, show it on your phone at each entrance, and visit each attraction once; bus rides are unlimited. Before your day, check opening hours, reserve your Schönbrunn time slot, and pick up the printed guidebook at the service centre at Opernring 3-5, opposite the State Opera, open daily from 9:00 to 18:00. Is the Vienna Pass worth it? For a full day with Schönbrunn, the Hofburg and two museums plus the buses, usually yes.