Schönbrunn Palace Tickets and Guided Tours
Thirty EUR for about 40 minutes, 42 for about 75: the two tickets the palace really sells, and the 20 listings that add a guide, a slot and a meeting point to them.
Schönbrunn does not sell an Imperial Tour and it does not sell a Grand Tour. Both names were withdrawn, and the pages that still print them are quoting a version of the palace's site that no longer exists. The check takes a minute. On the operator's own all tickets page the strings Imperial Tour and Grand Tour appear zero times, while Palace Ticket appears eleven times and State Apartments eight. The old address for the longer route, schoenbrunn.at/en/all-tickets/grand-tour, answers with the Palace Ticket page. What the palace sells today is the State Apartments at 30 EUR and the Palace Ticket at 42, and the difference between them is the only real question at this door.
The count of rooms went out with the names. Twenty two against forty is the figure that half the internet still quotes, and it is no longer published in numeric form anywhere on the operator's current site. The State Apartments are described as selected rooms on the piano nobile. The Palace Ticket is described as all the rooms on the piano nobile. No total is attached to either. So what you are actually choosing between, in the palace's own published terms, is 12 EUR and about 35 minutes: roughly 40 minutes inside on the shorter route, roughly 75 on the longer one. Both are self guided with a free audioguide. The only ticket here that puts a live guide in front of you is the Maria Theresia tour at 44 EUR.
Twenty listings are tracked here, 13 from Viator, 5 from Tiqets and 2 from Civitatis, and the money in them behaves in a way the median hides. The median is 73.50 EUR, or 84 once the single tip-based walking tour and its 5.99 EUR booking fee are set aside, but the third quartile is 227.10 because five of the 20 are private tours and three cost more than 250 EUR. The products that actually sell sit in a narrow band: 55 to 63 EUR, which is 13 to 21 EUR above the palace's own 42 EUR ticket. That margin is the guide, the reservation and the meeting point, and it is worth knowing exactly what it is before deciding whether to pay it.
One practical note before anything else. The palace's real online shop is imperialtickets.com, which its own FAQ names as the only place genuine tickets are sold online. The address that looks like the shop, shop.schoenbrunn.at, is not it, and it failed to answer at all when tested on 5 September 2026.
Laid Out by a Pupil of Le Nôtre; Meet at the Model of the Palace
Two private hours inside on the partner-only Highlights ticket, then the Great Parterre walked on your own, in gardens by a pupil of Le Nôtre.
No Guide, No App, No Palace Ticket: Ten Stops on Your Own Phone
Thirty minutes of audio across two hours of walking, ten stops outdoors, nine languages. The link is inside the voucher and no app needs installing.
Private, Morning or Afternoon, and the Gardens Come Before the Palace
A private half day at Schönbrunn, booked morning or afternoon, that starts with the Gloriette and the park of 1779 and finishes inside the state rooms.
Six People at Most, and the Millions Room Named for What It Cost
A historian guide and no more than six in the group, through the Porcelain Room and the Millions Room. The palace can refuse entry if you are late.
Sixty State Coaches, the Sledges, and Two Centuries of Livery
The vehicles the court actually travelled in: over 60 coaches, sledges and sedan chairs, with the harness and livery. The ticket cannot be cancelled.
The Only Synagogue in Vienna That Survived the War, and Schnitzel at Noon
A private day that opens at the Morzinplatz war memorial, not a palace: twenty stops, lunch at the Naschmarkt, and an hour inside Schönbrunn at the end.
Headsets for the Crowded Rooms, and It Can Still Be Cancelled
Headsets carry the guide through 22 rooms including the Great Gallery, and the ticket line is skipped. Free cancellation up to the date of the visit.
Twenty-Four Rooms or Forty, With or Without the Hour of Transfer
A private licensed guide and four lengths to pick from: 24 rooms in two hours or 40 in two and a half, each with an hour of transfer added if wanted.
Twenty-Two Rooms, Lantern to Hunting, Not the Standard Imperial Tour
Two and a half hours on the 22-room Highlights route, open only through official partners, meeting at Café Gerstner and not the Schlosscafé by the gate.
Do Not Go Into the Palace: the Group Center Is on the Other Side
U4 to Schönbrunn, three minutes on foot, and the guide waits with a sign at the Group Center. Twenty-two state rooms, then the gardens at your own pace.
Entry and Guide Together, and the Booking Cannot Be Cancelled
Entry and a guide in one booking, palace rooms and gardens both. Fix the date before you buy: this ticket cannot be cancelled and is not refunded.
Look for the Green Umbrella at the Ehrenhofbrunnen, First Fountain Right
Two hours with headsets and a live guide, the highlights route that cannot be booked without one. Latecomers are not refunded, so arrive 10-15 minutes early.
Thirty Million Bricks in the Rathaus, and the Walking Done by Car
Three lengths, 3, 7 or 8 hours, with the transfers by car: Schönbrunn on the longer two, and Klimt's The Kiss at the Upper Belvedere on the longest.
A Great Gallery Forty Metres Long, the Blue China and Breakfast Rooms
Over twenty rooms in Rococo, among them the Blue China Room and the Breakfast Room, and a gallery 40 metres long. Two to two and a half hours.
The Room Where Mozart and Salieri Were Set Against Each Other
An hour and three quarters with a 15-minute interval, four ticket grades from C to VIP, and the Orangery garden open while the orchestra rests.
Figaro, Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni, Played Here Every Day
Overtures, arias and duets from Figaro, Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni, with waltzes and polkas, played daily. Cancel free up to the time slot.
The Hour That Never Goes Inside: Gardens, Angel Fountain, Gloriette
One hour in the Schlosspark with the palace seen only from outside, or two with 22 rooms added. Private guide, meeting in front of the Museum Shop.
One Mug, One Hot Drink and One Dish, Then the Orangery at 8:30
The voucher covers a mug, a hot drink and a dish at any food stand of the market, open 8 November to 6 January. Concert times shift over the holidays.
The Concert Ticket on Its Own, With Nothing Bundled Around It
The plain seat at the concert, without the palace tour or the market voucher other tickets attach. Booked for a fixed date and not cancellable.
The Palace After Closing Time, then Mozart Where He Played in 1786
Audio guide in 16 languages through a palace already shut to day visitors, meeting 6:45 pm, then the Orangery concert from 8:30 and out by 10:15.
Ratings collected by Viator, Tripadvisor, Tiqets and Civitatis
What each ticket opens
Seven products carry the palace's name and they are not variations on one theme. Two are routes through the building, one is a guided visit, three are passes and one is a garden ticket. The audioguide comes free with the two routes; the palace claims 21 audio languages and 24 in print, with the phrase depending on availability attached, and on the day this was checked the shop offered four languages for the State Apartments and sixteen for the Palace Ticket. If you need a specific language, check it in the basket rather than on the description page.
The one internal contradiction left in the official pages is a duration. The Palace Ticket page says about 75 minutes; inside the Sisi Pass the same walk through the same rooms is described as 50 to 60. Two pages, one operator, a 25 minute spread. Plan on an hour and a quarter and the difference stops mattering.
| Ticket | Adult | Child 6-18 | Time inside | What it opens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State Apartments | 30 | 20 | About 40 min | Selected rooms on the piano nobile, audioguide included |
| Palace Ticket | 42 | 30 | About 75 min | All the rooms on the piano nobile, audioguide included |
| Guided Tour Maria Theresia | 44 | 34 | About 75 min | Bergl Rooms and the eighteenth century rooms, with a live guide |
| Classic Pass | 49 | 36 | 3 to 4 hours | Palace Ticket plus Gloriette, maze, Privy Garden, Orangery Garden |
| Sisi Pass | 60 | 38 | Not stated | Palace Ticket with slot, the Hofburg pair, the furniture museum |
| Classic Pass Plus | 81 | 58 | About a day | The Classic Pass plus the zoo, Palm House and Desert House |
| Exclusive Gardens | 16 | 11 | Not stated | The four garden attractions alone, 27 March to 2 November only |
| Wagenburg | 12 | Not stated | Not stated | The imperial carriage museum, included in no pass at all |
The fifteen minute slot, and what happens if you miss it
Both routes are sold in fifteen minute slots, 08:30 to 08:45, 08:45 to 09:00 and so on through the day. The wording on the ticket page is unusually direct for a palace, and it is not decoration.
There is no priority admission at Schönbrunn for anybody. The Vienna PASS, which does work as a genuine fast track at other Vienna sights, explicitly does not here: holders still have to reserve a slot online, at the gate the staff scan the slot ticket rather than the card, and a slot cannot be changed once the reservation is complete. The pass covers the 30 EUR route only; upgrading to the 42 EUR one costs about 10 EUR more at the moment the slot is picked.
Which puts the phrase skip the line in a strange position. Four of the 20 listings here use it in the title, and not one of the 20 carries the structured skip-the-line flag that providers set when a monument really has a second entrance. Read the phrase as what it is: someone has already booked the slot in your name. That is a real service at a palace where the times are binding and the popular ones go early. It is not a separate door, because there is no separate door.
No document is needed for a standard ticket. The reduced rate of 23 EUR for students up to 25 requires an ISIC card, and disability reductions are checked at the desk.
Selected times of admission are binding! If you turn up late your ticket will no longer be valid.
What the ticket does not include
Three things people assume are part of a Schönbrunn ticket are not. The Wagenburg, the imperial carriage collection, is 12 EUR on its own and belongs to no pass at all, not even the Sisi Pass that reaches across town to the Hofburg. The zoo has its own gate, its own hours and its own metro stop at Hietzing, and only the Classic Pass Plus at 81 EUR includes it. The garden attractions are not sold one at a time: the Gloriette, the maze, the Privy Garden and the Orangery Garden exist only inside a pass, and the cheapest way to all four is the 16 EUR Exclusive Gardens ticket.
The Sisi Pass at 60 EUR is the one product that leaves the estate. It carries the Palace Ticket here plus, in the middle of town, the Sisi Museum of six rooms, the Imperial Apartments of nineteen, and the furniture museum. Neither of those two Hofburg visits needs a booked time, which makes them the flexible half of a day that starts with a slot out here.
Opening hours, and the last useful hour of the day
Schönbrunn is open every day of the year, public holidays included, and no annual closure appears on any of its pages. What moves is the closing time, in four bands, with last admission 45 minutes earlier. In midwinter that puts the final entry at 16:15, which is the number worth writing down if the day starts somewhere else. The palace opens at 8:30 all year, and the park gates open two hours before that.
| Dates | Palace | Last admission |
|---|---|---|
| 3 November to 26 March | 8:30 to 17:00 | 16:15 |
| 27 March to 30 June | 8:30 to 17:30 | 16:45 |
| 1 July to 31 August | 8:30 to 18:00 | 17:15 |
| 1 September to 2 November | 8:30 to 17:30 | 16:45 |
| The park, all year | 6:30 to 20:00 | Free, no ticket |
Where the money goes above 42 EUR
The four most reviewed products here are all guided visits and they cluster tightly: a Civitatis tour at 63 EUR with 2,767 reviews and 4.4, a Viator tour at 63 EUR with 1,731 and 4.6, another Viator at 55 EUR with 1,223 and 4.7, a Tiqets ticket and tour at 55 EUR with 948 and 4.6. Between them they carry 6,669 of the 8,206 reviews this palace has. The market has settled on 55 to 63 EUR for a guided visit, against a 42 EUR ticket bought alone.
What the 13 to 21 EUR of difference buys is a person, a reserved slot and a meeting point outside the gate. Whether that is worth it depends on one thing: the palace hands you a free audioguide with the ticket anyway, so the guide is not filling a silence. What a guide adds is the walk through the park to the door, the queue at the desk avoided, and questions answered.
There is also a time cost nobody prints. The median declared duration in this catalogue is 120 minutes, while the palace's own routes take 40 or 75. A guided listing therefore spends 45 to 80 minutes on things that are not rooms. That is fine on a morning with nothing after it, and it is the reason a two palace day needs three hours between entry times.
The rest of the range is thinner than it looks. Five of the 20 listings are private tours, three cost more than 250 EUR and the top one is 470. Seventeen of the 20 can be cancelled free of charge, but only seven confirm immediately, which matters when the thing being booked is a quarter hour on a specific morning.
The concerts are a different product
A good part of what carries the Schönbrunn name in this catalogue is music rather than rooms. The Orangery concerts run 105 minutes and cost 58 EUR, and they rate 4.4 with 336 reviews on Civitatis and 4.3 with 322 on Tiqets, which is a consistent verdict from two independent sets of buyers. A concert ticket sold on its own at 102 EUR sits at 4.2 with 146 reviews.
The interesting number is what happens when the two things are stacked. The worst rated Schönbrunn product with a meaningful review count is the one that bundles a 7 PM palace tour with a classical concert: 4.0 from 69 reviews, at 102 EUR. The best rated is a 150 EUR guided visit at 4.9 from 125 reviews. Same palace, same month, nearly a full point apart. The gap is not about the building. An evening that starts with a rushed tour and ends with a concert asks a lot of both halves, and the reviews say so.
Photography: the official answer contradicts itself
This one deserves reporting rather than resolving. The palace's own FAQ page answers the photography question twice and gives two different answers. In one place it says that during opening hours filming and photography are generally permitted in the state rooms, for personal non-commercial use, with no tripods, no selfie sticks and no flash. In another place on the same page, under weddings, it says that photographs for private purposes can be taken in the palace park, and that no photography is permitted in the Palace.
Both readings agree on the restrictions: no flash, no tripod, no selfie stick, nothing commercial without a permit requested at least three weeks ahead. Both agree the park is free to photograph and that drones are banned anywhere in it. Where they disagree is the interior, and since the operator has not settled it, the honest advice is to expect to be told either thing at the door and to keep the phone down until a member of staff has been asked.
Schönbrunn, asked properly
Is the Imperial Tour or the Grand Tour better value?
Neither is on sale. The palace withdrew both names: the State Apartments at 30 EUR replaced the Imperial Tour and the Palace Ticket at 42 EUR replaced the Grand Tour. The room counts of 22 and 40 that go with the old names are no longer published by the operator in any form.
So which of the two tickets should I buy?
The published difference is 12 EUR and about 35 minutes: roughly 40 minutes for the State Apartments, roughly 75 for the Palace Ticket, which covers the whole piano nobile. If the visit is the reason you came to Vienna, take the longer one. If it is the second palace of the day, the shorter one leaves the afternoon intact.
What happens if I turn up late for my slot?
The ticket stops being valid. Slots are fifteen minutes long and the palace states that admission times are binding. Vienna PASS holders should also know that a slot cannot be changed once the reservation is complete, so the margin has to be built into the plan rather than the booking.
Does the Vienna PASS skip the queue here?
No. The operator's wording is that there is no priority admission to Schönbrunn Palace. The pass includes the 30 EUR route and about 10 EUR upgrades it to the 42 EUR one, but a slot still has to be reserved and the slot ticket is what gets scanned. The pass fast track works on the garden attractions, not on the building.
How long should I allow?
Forty or 75 minutes inside, depending on the ticket. Listings in this catalogue declare 120 minutes on average, which includes the meeting point and the walk. With the four garden attractions the operator's own estimate is three to four hours, and with the zoo added it describes the day as roughly a whole one.
Can I take photographs inside the palace?
The official FAQ answers this twice and the two answers disagree: one says photography is generally permitted in the state rooms, another on the same page says none is permitted in the palace. Both rule out flash, tripods and selfie sticks. The park is free to photograph, drones are not allowed anywhere in it.
Is the park free, and is it worth the trip on its own?
The park is free and open 6:30 to 20:00 all year. The Gloriette, the maze, the Privy Garden and the Orangery Garden are not: they are on sale only from 27 March to 2 November 2026, they cannot be bought individually, and the smallest ticket covering all four is 16 EUR.
Data verified on. Prices, durations, slots and hours read on 5 September 2026 from imperialtickets.com, schoenbrunn.at and the Vienna PASS sight page. Catalogue figures from the 20 listings we track.