Please critique my Austria itinerary

In Aug this year my wife and I (60s) visited Austria for the first time: Vienna (5 nights) and Salzburg (3 nights). We did some of the activities you are planning: Leopold Museum, Kunsthistorisches Museum (with lunch at the museum café), Belvedere, Schönbrunn Palace, Concert at Marabelle Palace, etc. Our trip report might be useful reference for your planning (parts 1-6): https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-austria-bavaria-aug-sep-2025

Skip the Spanish Riding School. Morning exercise means that you will see white horses walking around. This is not a performance.

Thank you so much for sharing this very detailed helpful report! It sounds like a fantastic trip. I need to study up on Klimt to better appreciate what I'll be seeing.

I'm going to go back and tweak my itinerary to try and include a performance at the Spanish Riding School rather than just morning exercise.

I'm also going to try and include an apple strudel cooking class in Salzburg. My grandmother was from Czechoslovakia (escaped during the war) and my mother often talked about helping her make strudel on the weekends.

Thanks again for your help.
Laurie

Kia ora,
Just back from 8 days in Austria (2nd visit). Vienna and Linz, 4 days each and a day trip to Salzburg. I would advise to defer an evening concert if you suffer from jet lag. Tho an opera would possibly be ok- more going on and less likely to hear one snore if the worst happens!. You dont have a slot for aimless strolling? I spent hours wandering (and kind of following the gorgeous horses/carriages) and having cafe stops. This visit we went to the Hundertwasser museum and village. I'm a fan of his, as he lived near my birthplace in NZ for some time. The Musikverien would be a great place for a concert- said to have one of the best acoustics in the world.

Oh, you are absolutely right, Jennie. No concert on arrival! I actually made that mistake many years ago. I should know better!
Thanks,
Laurie

Looks like a well-researched itinerary that will be a lot of fun!
The Staatsoper opera season opens in September, so you can catch a performance while you’re in Vienna. There are heavily-discounted “standing room” tickets ( aka “Stehplatz” tickets) available at 10am the day of the performance. These tickets can be bought online or at the Staatsoper itself. They cost about €13-€18 and allow admission to the balcony, gallery and Parterre sections. The €18 tickets for the Parterre section have great sight lines and are the ones to buy, if you can. And, people do get comfortable and sit down on the carpet during the performances.

The Augustinerkirche High masses on Sundays are an incredible experience.

Have a great trip!

If you have any interest in the Sound of Music or exploring the Wolfgangsee area, I would recommend extending your time in Salzburg.

We did 4 nights including a full day trip to St Gilgen and St Wolfgang, as well as a half day SOM tour and 4 nights was the perfect amount of time for us.

If no interest in those areas, 2 nights should be fine, but I'd want more :).

PQ

Thanks so much for all your input. I think the first day will be perfect for aimless walking and stopping in cafes. We'll be jet-lagged and hungry and will have all day to try and stay awake. Maybe sit in a park and people-watch? We love urban parks.

If I switch the Spanish Riding School performance to the day we visit Schonbrunn Palace, we may just tour the garden and skip the interior. It seems I always enjoy the gardens the most when I visit any kind of palace.

I don't think we'll be able to do the Marionette show, unfortunately, because I think it's only on weekends in September and I want to be in Vienna Sunday morning for mass at Augustine Church.

I did consider the SOM tour, but I think we will pass and keep Salzburg to just 2 days. But thanks for the suggestion. I think with our travel style and age, we're good for two weeks and then we start to wilt. I want to make sure and have six days left for the Swiss Alps.

I absolutely second the Augustinerkirche High masses on Sundays. It was a wonderful experience. I also loved seeing a performance at the Musikvieren which was recommended by a RS forum contributor. The venue and acoustics were stunning.

My thoughts:

1. On Saturday morning, please skip the SRS morning exercise (so boring unless you are a dressage expert). Instead, I highly suggest that you visit one of the many markets around the city - September is a particularly lovely time to do this. I suggest going to the Karmelitermarkt. Be sure to have a glass of Sturm.

2. Be flexible on your Wachau Valley day as you want to be sure you go in good weather.

3. You are seeing a lot of museums, churches and music. It is true that Vienna is famous for all of these things, but please be sure to include coffeehouses, a visit to the Wien Museum, and a walk (or bike) around the Ring.

I have shared a few walks/excursions recently which might be your speed:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/austria/a-viennese-food-crawl

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/austria/5-castles-fortresses-and-a-royal-residence-all-easy-day-trips-from-vienna

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/austria/a-vienna-walk-south-of-the-ring-palaces-gardens-and-architecture

Good point, Emily, about factoring in the weather. I'll keep Thursday and Friday flexible and pick the best day weather-wise. And thank you so much for the links to the walks. I'll look those over. I think our arrival day would be a good day to do Rick Steve's walk and possibly Leopold Museum as it's close by. Then dinner and bed! And I most definitely intend to include as many cafes as I can on this trip! For the Spanish Riding School, I've decided to do a performance instead of just exercise because it just seems like such a unique experience. But nothing is definite yet. Also, I've decided to just hit the highlights at the Kunst. Museum, only spending a few hours - not all day.

Thanks again!
Laurie

This is a little folder, targeted at short-time visitors. It gives you a good overview of the main sights in Vienna, suggesting two walks in the city center which might appeal to you. (Ignore the very last page which is not up to date, as this folder has not be reprinted since 2020 due to Corona times without tourists in Vienna.)

https://bit.ly/Vienna_in_3_days

Thanks so much! I'll check it out.

I'm a little late to the party but...

1. I agree with your plan to do a Spanish Riding School performance instead of a SRS morning exercise. I found the morning exercise incredibly boring, as did my buddy who was excited about it. He wished he had gone to a performance.

2. Of course, be flexible with respect to the night you go to the opera and other activities based on what the performance is.

3. If you like classical music and something good is at the Musikverein, consider going to a performance there. The Großer Saal is one of the best performance halls in the world in terms of acoustics and is Habsburg wonderful.

4. I think the Salzburg Marionette Theatre is great. If attending a German language performance, English subtitles are flashed on the wall on either side of the stage. It's good to be in the middle rows so that you can read those easily.

Thanks, Dave, for your feedback. We will definitely check out the Musikverein. Hoping there is a good opera while we are in Vienna. If not, we'll just take a tour of the Opera House.

Hoping there is a good opera while we are in Vienna.

The schedule for the 2026/27 opera season will be presented around April. Note that there will be a special date (other than the regular 1st of month) for ordering opera tickets in September. If there is a performance appealing to you, it is worth to get up in the wee hours (10am local time in Vienna), sitting in front of your PC, ordering in the first minute.

Really??? Ugh. Thanks for the warning! I'll try and find out when they go on sale.
Laurie