Vienna Card

When we visited Vienna for the first time, the helpful agent in the TI office pointed out that we would do better to buy 3-day senior transit passes and get the sr. discounts on admissions, where available, than to buy the Vienna cards. I don't know if the same is true if you're not seniors. However, you can work out what you'll probably want to do and its cost, then compare with the cost of the card. In my experience, many of the city cards offer more attractions than are humanly possible to see. They then appear to be better bargains than they actually are.

I can't confirm on the Wiener Linein website that there's a senior-priced 3-day ticket. Does anyone know if this is still available? (RS Vienna book doesn't mention it.)

There are 2 separate Vienna discount offers, the Vienna Card and the Vienna Pass and they are completely separate but both worth looking into to see if one would be a good fit for you.

For our upcoming trip, I made a simple list of what we wanted to see (used the "Vienna at a Glance" section in Rick's book), a rough idea of when during the trip (since there are options for different number of days for the cards/passes) and the cost with or without the discounts.

For us, a 2 day Vienna Pass was a clear cost savings but for other people, that might not be the case. It really just depends on what you're planning on seeing.

Keep in mind also, that if time is an issue, the Vienna Pass might be good even if it's a little costlier if you'd be happier with fast-track entry to help avoid some lines or the ability to make a quick stop for free at an attraction you wouldn't be willing to see if you had to pay full price (these are benefits at some sites with the Vienna Pass but not the Card as far as I can tell).

I hope that helps some, I know it would be easier if someone could just give you a yes or no, but there's really no way to do that since it's going to be different for each traveler!

I didn't see a 3-day senior pass, but I did notice 2-ride senior tickets for €2.80 (compared to standard €2.20 per ride.) If your daily use is less than 4 rides, this might be better than all-you-can-ride pass rates. (This was as of March 2017.)

It certainly is possible that I have misremembered the details of the transit passes. However, I stand by my point that it's best to figure out what you're going to actually want to do before plopping down your euros for any kind of pass or city card. A few years ago, we did a house exchange in Berlin. Because many of the museums were very expensive, we did buy 3 - day passes. Then we felt we had to cram too much into those 3 days, because we'd paid for that, right? In retrospect, it would have been better just to eat the higher cost of single admissions and have a more relaxed experience.