Schonbrunn Palace

When we did the Rick Steves tour of Vienna, we simply took the subway out to Schönbrunn. It was easy to do and quick. The trick in my mind would be to get their early before the crowds of people. It looks like they open at 8:30, I don't think we were that early, but probably got there by 9 AM.

Public transport lines which take you directly to the palace
Underground: U4, Schönbrunn station
Trams: 10 and 58, Schönbrunn station
Bus: 10A, Schönbrunn station

We did the underground.

Pam

Gosh that is a lot of money for something that is so easy to do yourself. I looked at the tour overview on the Viator website. The tour lasts for 3.5 hours and includes a ride in a bus along the Ring (boring, walk it as it lovely to stop and take photos), a stop a Schonbrunn (which the tour company claims will give you plenty of time to see state rooms AND leisurely stroll the gardens - how on earth in this timeframe?) and then it takes you to the Belvedere. All in 3.5 hours? Crazytown. Do yourself a favor and skip the tour.

Getting to Schonbrunn is very easy as it is located on the U4 subway line. Your tickets will include an audio guide, which is really good. You will also want to walk around the gardens, which are lovely this time of year. You might want to consider having dinner at the Figlmuller for schnitzel and sneak in a coffee and cake at a café.

As for your first day, let me make a suggestion so you don't wander in the wrong direction. Get to the Opera and walk up Karntnerstrasse to St. Stephan's Cathedral. Look in the cathedral and take the elevators up the tower for a view. Walk along Graben to Kohlmarkt. Turn left at Kohlmarkt walking towards the Hofburg. Stop at Demel for cake and a coffee. Walk through the Hofburg to the Ring. The Natural History Museum and Kunsthistoriches Museum will be in front of you. Go right on the Ring and walk to the Rathaus (town hall). Get on Tram D and ride it to the end (Nussdorf) and have dinner at the Scheubel-Auer heurigen. You will be in town during Sturm season (new wine) so you must be sure to try this. If you don't feel up to riding out to Nussdorf, then go the Naschmarkt and have dinner there at one of the many restaurants.

I can't remember exactly how I got there, but I also went to the Schonbrunn on the underground and it was super easy. As others advised, if you go yourself, go early. However, the palace is easy to see yourself and has wonderful gardens.

I 2nd what Emily said . . . don't miss St.Stephan's Cathedral . . . the tile roof is amazing. There is an antique round elevator inside and for 5 or so Euros, you can go to the top for magnificent views of Vienna. The walk to the cathedral is full of old buildings . . . it's a fantastic walk to explore some side streets too. We did enjoy Schonbrunn, seems you could do it on your own (Viator is a 3rd party tour company).

It will probably be cheaper to book directly with the tour operator instead of Viator. I'll bet you can go to TripAdvisor and figure out who the operator is.

That's really expensive. We did the tour on our own and it was my favorite thing we did in Vienna . The best part was walking up to the Gloriette and then lunch at the cafe there. I'm pretty sure we had an audio guide for a few euros.

Thank you to everyone for your speedy & very helpful responses! You have convinced us to see the palace on our own with the audio guide. I believe we can order tickets ahead of time on line (Rick suggestion I think) & thus avoid the lineup for buying tickets by just going to the pick up window.
Emily - I was concerned about the tour only being 3.5 hours as well. Especially if you wanted to spend some time in the gardens. Thank you for the very detailed description of what to do on our first day. I believe our Hotel(Papgeno) is near the Naschmarkt so may end up there for dinner. Is the Figlmuller the place I have read about that is near St Stephens Cathedral?

Thank you again to the others - you have all been very helpful & I really appreciate it!!
Lynne

We will be in Vienna for 5 nights the day after the OP and already have Sisi tickets so we can do the Schoenbrunn any time we please, but these bits of advice are very helpful for us too. Thanks.

Someone recently asked me so I checked. I spent about 1.5 hours in the palace itself, going fairly slowly. I got the ticket that allowed access to all the rooms. It was probably a 10-15 minute u-bahn ride, then a 5 minute walk to the entrance. The gardens are extensive and beautiful. How much time you spend in them depends on your interest and stamina.

Thank you so much for your post Chani - Those times are exactly what I was wanting to know! Very helpful!!

The first time we went to Schonbrunn, we were there the entire day by the time we saw the palace, wandered the gardens (even popped into the zoo), saw the carriages, and attended the strudel demonstration. The second time we just went into the palace and did a quick wander of the gardens and it still took a half day. You can spend as much time there as your interest allows.

Both times we took the underground and it was cheap and easy.

Thank you Andrea ( a fellow Canadian!) I appreciate your response.

Another Vancouverite! :) (How I miss home.) I've done Schoenbrunn and I can say you don't need a guide. The audio guide alone is fabulous, and you can easily reach Schoenbrunn by way of the u-bahn. It's a simple and easy ride, you can't possibly miss the exits given how well laid out the u-bahn is. It's just like SkyTrain to Science World, with lots to warn you on the way.

The palace itself is very large but the tours are laid out in such a way that you can wander along your own path at your own pace. Several English-speaking docents were available throughout to answer questions and specifically give good tidbits. Personally I wouldn't bother with the Viator tour. The Rick Steves guide + the additional audio guide were more than enough to get a lovely sense of the place, plus the additional support from the staff on hand were well worth it. Save your money for souvenirs!

We took a tram instead of the subway to the palace. Followed RS advice and toured the gardens first, had lunch and then toured the palace. This worked out really well as the groups mostly do the palace in the morning so was not horribly crowded in the afternoon.

We went to the Schonbrunn gardens last Sunday - planned to walk around and enjoy the gardens, walk up to the Gloriette and relax over a lunch or dessert. We ended up going through the Palmhaus & Desert and the zoo, also. The café at the entrance to the zoo was nice. If you're not planning to go inside the palace (we've been through it previously), take the Hietzing U4 U-bahn stop, and you can easily enter the gardens directly from the side. For those who want to just take a lovely walk, the gardens are free.

Thanks to everyone who posted. We did take the U4 from Karlsplatz ( super simple and fast) and did tour the Palace on our own with the audio guide. We then walked up to the Gloriette and enjoyed coffee and cake after touring the gardens. We were lucky to have beautiful weather for our two days in Vienna.
Thanks again for all the input.