Tour operators in Vienna

While on holiday in Vienna July 2008, we took a couple of tours, a city tour that included Schonbrunn Palace and a tour to the “Vienna Woods.”  Both tours were provided by Vienna Sightseeing Tours, but there were some differences between the two in terms of how personable the tour felt.

One thing that we liked about Vienna Sightseeing Tours is that the retrieved us from our hotel and took us to the company’s bus terminal where the tours departed.  The city tour with Schonbrunn Palace was supposed to be 3.5 hours, but the tour did not last that long and felt rushed and there was unbelievable traffic.  I thought that we would periodically make stops at some of the sites like most other city tours that we have taken.  Perhaps, the traffic was the reason why we did not make any stops or perhaps, we did not make any stops because we were on a large motor coach.

Our first stop … and final stop … was Schonbrunn Palace in which a guided tour of the palace was included.  The Palace really provides insight into how the monachy lived and puts history into context.  The one problem … all the people from our large motor coach had to crowd around our one little tour guide and try to listen while other visitors are trying to pass by.  The bottom line, this tour had too many people, especially for the Palace visit.  At the end of the Palace tour, which was also the end of the tour, we had 10 minutes to visit the gardens … we opted not to take the motor coach back to the city center, so we could have time to visit the garden.  10 minutes would not have been enough time.

In summary, even though the city part of the tour was more or less pointing out what this building is and how old it is, the tour did help orient us to the city … later during our stay in Vienna, we revisited the interesting sites we wanted to see.  Schonbrunn was definitely worth a visit … just make sure you get to visit the gardens, which also include a small zoo.  Also, have lunch at the cafe … the food is good.