A country that sells tickets to its own golden age.
Which Vienna concert is played in a real hall and which is played at tourists. What the Lipizzaner morning actually shows you. Whether Hallstatt is worth eight hours in a coach. Reviews of every tour you can book in Austria.
Five to start with
01The first nightVivaldi’s Four Seasons Concert in Karlskirchefrom $40
02The morning rideSpanish Riding School Trainingfrom $20
03The palace daySchönbrunn Palace & Gardens Skip-the-Line Tourfrom $63
04The Salzburg dayThe Original Sound of Music Tour in Salzburgfrom $90
05The lake dayHallstatt & Alpine Peaks Day Trip with Skywalk Liftfrom $131
Every night in Vienna somebody is playing Mozart. Not all of it is worth the seat.
Three kinds of evening, and they are not interchangeable. A church with the acoustic the music was written for, a costumed Mozart-and-Strauss programme in a palace room, and the fortress concerts up above Salzburg. What each one costs to walk into.
The Austrian days out more travellers take than any other.
Every Austrian tour we have reviewed →Concert seats, palace passes and one coach that leaves Vienna before breakfast. What earns each of them the slot.
1
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Concert in Karlskirche
Hear Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on period instruments inside Vienna’s Karlskirche, with dramatic acoustics, historic surroundings, and useful 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
The Original Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg
from $90
Vienna first, then whichever direction the train goes.
An imperial capital that still runs on evening dress, a fortress town that trades on one film, a lake village photographed to death and rightly so, two Alpine valleys and a stretch of Danube lined with vines. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Six hundred years of one family, and they kept the receipts.
Schönbrunn for the summer rooms and the gardens behind them, the Hofburg for the crown jewels and Sisi’s obsessive private apartments, the Kaisergruft for what became of everyone. All three sell timed entry, and all three have a slow queue you can step around.
The best Austrian days start with a coach at seven.
Hallstatt is three hours from Vienna and worth the alarm. Melk Abbey and the Wachau vineyards are closer, and there is a boat involved. The Salzkammergut lakes go green in a way photographs keep failing at. All of them run as one long day and get you back for dinner.
What a day in Austria actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs a head. Vienna has a reputation for expense it does not entirely deserve — a great deal of it opens for the price of lunch.
Church concerts, museum entry, the Riesenrad, an hour of Lipizzaners and most city walks.
Palace tours with a guide, the Mozart dinner concerts, the Danube cruise, a fortress evening.
The long lake days, private drivers, the Wachau with tastings and everything with a summit in it.
Three things that only happen in Austria.
Concert halls and old towns exist all over Europe. A stallion doing a capriole in a Baroque riding hall, a café that will let you sit four hours on one melange, and a film tour a whole city agreed to keep running do not.
The Lipizzaners
The white stallions are born dark and greying takes them the best part of a decade. They live in the Stallburg, cross the lane to the winter riding hall Charles VI built for them, and work through the same classical figures the school has taught since 1565. Morning training is the cheap ticket and, in a quiet way, the better one: no music, no audience discipline, just horses being schooled under the chandeliers.
- 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 Kaffeehaus
The rule is that one coffee buys you the table for as long as you want it, and the newspapers on wooden holders come free with it. Order a melange, not a latte. The waiter in the dinner jacket is a career professional and will be mildly offended by hurry. UNESCO listed the whole institution as intangible heritage, which is a very Viennese thing to have happened to a room where people sit and read.
- 1Hard Rock Cafe with Set Menu for Lunch or Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 643 reviews
- 2Vienna Coffee, Cake & Pastries Tour with Local Stories★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 470 reviews
- 3Guided Foodie Walking Tour with Tastings and Coffee★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 246 reviews
The Sound of Music circuit
Austrians largely have not seen the film. Salzburg noticed the coaches anyway and built a whole afternoon around it: the Mirabell steps, the lake house at Leopoldskron, the gazebo that was moved to Hellbrunn because too many people were climbing on it, and the church at Mondsee where the wedding was shot. The bus sings along. Everyone claims they will not join in.
- 1The Original Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 6,129 reviews
- 2Original Sound of Music Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 5,059 reviews
- 3Hallstatt and Sound of Music Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 522 reviews
Four Austrian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on stallion holidays, a concert hall’s own calendar, one coach a day and a market that packs up on Christmas Eve.
- 01Spanish Riding School TrainingTraining mornings run on set days, and the horses leave Vienna for summer pasture, closing the school for weeks. There is no turning up on spec.
- 02Classical Concert in the World-Famous MusikvereinIt is a working concert hall. Visitor concerts fit around the orchestra’s own season, so dates appear late and disappear fast.
- 03The Original Sound of Music Tour in SalzburgOne departure a day out of Mirabellplatz, one coach on it. In summer it is gone days before you get there.
- 04Christmas Markets TourThe market huts go up in mid-November and are dismantled on Christmas Eve. Outside that window there is nothing to see.
From November the mountains close and Vienna takes over.
Lifts stop, lake boats are pulled out, and the Salzkammergut goes quiet under low cloud. The capital was built for exactly this. Its answer is indoors and it is a good one: heated palace rooms, museums the size of city blocks, a concert almost every night, and a café to sit out the afternoon in.
Salzburg is a fortress, a birthplace and a film set, in that order.
The old town fits inside a bend of the river and can be walked in a morning. The fortress above it has never been taken. Everything else here is Mozart, or the other soundtrack — and both of them sell tickets.
Every Salzburg day out →
By place — capital, lakes and the Alps
By kind of day — hall, palace, lake or lift
Vienna, the Danube, the lakes, Salzburg, Tyrol: east to west, and the train does it all.
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