Vienna sightseeing tours

A Vienna sightseeing tour can be a two-hour guided walk through the centre for $27 or a private day to Hallstatt, Salzburg and Melk Abbey for $885, and the 65 tours compared here sit between those numbers in six price bands. Price is the first filter. The second is how you want to move — on foot, by bike, on an open-top bus or in a horse-drawn fiaker — and how far you go: inside the Ring, or out of the city for a day.

On foot first. The walk past St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the house where Mozart lived is $27 for two hours, rated 4.7 by 5,658 people — the most reviewed city tour on the page. A second two-hour walk at the same $27 takes the Hofburg entrance, the Spanish Riding School and the State Opera, 4.8 from 4,191 reviews; the small-group version is $39, rated 5 by 820 people.

The open-top hop-on hop-off ticket is $37 for one or two days and passes the Ringstrasse, Schönbrunn Palace and Prater Park; 4,126 reviews at 4.4. By bike, three hours with a guide is $55, rated 4.7 by 2,542 people, or $53 for the ride past St. Stephen’s and the Hofburg. The fiaker is the slow option: thirty minutes in a horse-drawn carriage to five sights of the Old Town for $106.

The palaces and museums are mostly entry tickets, and they carry the biggest review counts. The Upper Belvedere with its Klimt collection, The Kiss included, is $26 with 18,103 reviews at 4.6 — the most reviewed listing on the site. Schönbrunn is $17 for 22 rooms with a licensed guide or the gardens alone; the Sisi Museum and Hofburg apartments with a guide, $58. The cheapest listing here is the Giant Ferris Wheel ride with direct turnstile access, $16.

Music is a choice of halls and churches. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by a period instrument ensemble in Karlskirche is $43, with 17,993 reviews; a concert in the Musikverein, $17; Mozart and Strauss in its Golden Hall, $77. The thirty-minute light show inside the Votivkirche is $27 and 10,688 people have rated it 4.8. Dinner and Strauss in a mirrored tent at the Prater runs three hours for $111.

Private guides start at $53 for two to eight hours on foot, and $54 with a local host who follows your interests. With a state licensed guide, a private walk is $258 and a private ride by bike past the Hofburg, the Rathaus and the Albertina $251. Three hours past the landmarks of the centre by private car is $661.

Food is a category of its own. The hands-on class for wiener schnitzel and apple strudel is $207 for three hours, rated 4.9 by 151 people; the cakes and café culture walk, from Sachertorte to coffeehouse etiquette, $312. A culinary carriage ride with Viennese drinks or delicacies is $218, and the river trip with a freshly made schnitzel on board $55.

The long days are the trips out of the city. Hallstatt with a Skywalk option is $73 for thirteen hours and 7,097 reviews; Hallstatt with Salzburg, $112 for fourteen. The Wachau by bus and boat is $133 for eight and a half hours, Melk Abbey as an upgrade. Bratislava with a speed boat back is $100; Prague in a semi-private group, $207. Give each its own day.