Anyone wishing to see the interiors of Schönbrunn Palace has to go on a guided tour or buy an entrance ticket for the self-guided equivalent. It’s well worth doing so.
- Fantastic staterooms full of history
- Three self-guided tours available
- Do the longest one (trust me)
- Entrance requires a time slot
- Popular times may sell out: book in advance if you can
- Book a Schönbrunn concert, tour & more*
- See also:
Inside Schönbrunn palace
(Schloß Schönbrunn, Wien – the palace)
Ignoring the details of the historical rooms, fittings and furnishings, Schönbrunn Palace is just one of those places where you can talk of “real” history. For example:
- Mozart (1756-1791) performed to the court and guests behind these walls
- The corridors echoed to the sound of Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780) planning strategic royal marriages that would help determine the destiny of Europe
- News from the WWI trenches or the 1866 Austro-Prussian war reached Emperor Franz Joseph (1830-1916) in his study here
- Napoleon lived here in 1805 and 1809 after his troops entered the city during the Napoleonic conflicts
At the same time, so much opulence acts as a monument to the decadence of the nobility and the extreme inequality of times past. You find yourself wondering if they really needed all that space.
(Schönbrunn Palace, Great Gallery © Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H. – Alexander Eugen Koller)
If you’re not on a tour with a live guide*, the palace offers three self-guided alternatives: the State Apartments, Imperial and Grand options.
Think of them as three different levels of permission for accessing the palace.
- The State Apartments tour is a quick “best of” tour of around nine rooms and includes the great gallery: imagine a ball scene from a Disney film
However, the extra cost for the other two options (€5 or €10 more at the time of writing) is low enough that I’d strongly recommend you do one of the two longer tours if you have the budget…
- The Imperial Tour sends you around 27 rooms/areas that includes, for example, the nine rooms of the State Apartments tour, the audience room, study and bedroom used by Franz Joseph, and the dressing room and salon used by Empress Elisabeth (the famous Sisi)
The Imperial Tour is great. However, again, I’d recommend investing the additional Euros to take the longest (Grand) tour: you pay a relatively small premium for quite a lot more to see…
- The Grand Tour lets you view an extra 13 or so rooms on top of the Imperial Tour. One is probably my favourite room in the palace: the breathtaking and moving Vieux-Laque room Maria Theresa redecorated in honour of her deceased husband
(Schönbrunn Palace, Vieux-Laque room © Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H. – Alexander Eugen Koller)
Schönbrunn tour ticket tips
Be mindful that queues for self-guided tour tickets in peak seasons can sometimes be quite long, and each ticket comes with a fixed time slot.
If you’re unlucky, you may have to wait twice: once to get your ticket and again before you can actually go in.
Which means buying an advance ticket with a fixed time slot makes a lot of sense.
I talk about the options in my overview article for wider Schönbrunn, but here a quick summary…
- Book a tour with a live guide. For example:
(Booking service provided by Tiqets.com*, who I am an affiliate of)
- Purchase a suitable sightseeing pass
For example, at the time of writing, a Vienna Pass (see my review) entitles you to one free State Apartment tour.
With the Vienna Pass, you still need to book a time slot on reaching the Schönbrunn arrival centre. But if you have to wait to go into the palace, the pass also gets you into other less-busy attractions at Schönbrunn. So you can make good use of any waiting time.
- Book a self-guided Schönbrunn tour ticket and time slot from the official website
You can also buy these tickets, of course, at the ticket office immediately inside the palace courtyard to the left of the main entrance. But, like I say, you may encounter queues.
Good to know
- The self-guided tours include a free audio guide, which has a choice of languages (including English, of course), or a printed description
- The rooms include some written information (in German and English) but you need a guide of some kind to fully benefit from the experience
- The interiors have a royalist flavour to them. You won’t see much indication of life for those outside the imperial family or their immediate entourage: you can view various bedrooms and ballrooms, but not the kitchens
- The entrance to the palace proper is away from its centre. Instead, go to the left-hand side of the large palace building after you pass through the main gateway to Schönbrunn
- Again, don’t forget Schönbrunn has plenty of other attractions, even if the palace tour forms the centrepiece. Consider, for example, a simple (and free) walk through the park and gardens to see the various botanical displays and architectural ornamentation
For another dose of palatial household fun, try:
- A tour of the imperial apartments and the Sisi museum in the Hofburg palace complex in Vienna’s city centre. The Hofburg tour(s) have a strong focus on Empress Elisabeth and Emperor Franz Joseph
- The Albertina art museum: an entrance ticket includes various top art exhibitions but also allows you to walk around the splendid 19th-century staterooms
And for information and advice on tours of one of Vienna’s many other historical buildings, including Stephansdom cathedral and the venerable concert halls, take a peek at this overview of your main options.
How to get to the palace
Follow these directions and travel tips for Schönbrunn.
Address: Schloß Schönbrunn, 1130 Vienna