Last Updated on 05/11/2026
Schönbrunn, the Hofburg and the Vienna Woods with a Licensed Guide
Six sample days in and around Vienna, typical guiding fees, ticket prices for the main palaces, and short notes on longer trips such as Hallstatt and Salzburg.
Three or four days in Vienna leave room for the essentials: one for the old town and St. Stephen’s, one for Schönbrunn, one for the Hofburg or the Belvedere, and, if there is time, one outside the city in the Wachau or the Vienna Woods. Below you can contact an English-speaking licensed tour guide in Vienna directly and plan those days together. The page also covers how guiding is regulated in Austria, sample itineraries, day trips from Vienna and typical fees and ticket prices.
Guides in Vienna charge per group, and each guide sets their own rate. As a rough guide, a half day costs around 290–390 € and a full day around 590–690 €. Group size and the program change the figure, and entrance tickets are paid separately. Send your dates, the number of people and the places you have in mind, and the guide will reply with a plan and a price.
Are you a licensed tourist guide working in Vienna? You can register on the platform here.
Wolfgang H.
The guides listed on OfficialGuides for Vienna hold the Austrian trade licence for tourist guiding (Fremdenführer) under the Trade Regulation Act and are members of the Austria Guides professional group at the Austrian Economic Chamber. Each profile shows the guide’s languages, specialist subjects and sample tours, and you write to the guide directly to agree on the day.
What a licensed tour guide in Vienna means
In Austria, guiding visitors for payment is a regulated trade. The legal basis is § 108 of the Trade Regulation Act (Gewerbeordnung 1994), and the German name of the profession is Fremdenführer. To open the trade, a guide completes a preparatory course of at least 250 teaching hours, passes a state qualifying examination and an entrepreneurs’ examination, and then registers the business with the district authority. Guides licensed in another EU or EEA country can work in Austria on a temporary basis after notifying the ministry responsible.
The professional organisation is Austria Guides, part of the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKO). That is why so many guides in Vienna describe themselves in English listings as an “Austria Guide” or a “licensed Austria tourist guide”. When you see either phrase, it refers to the same state-examined trade licence. The Austrian tourism board’s trade site points to findaguide.at, where guides can be searched by region, language and topic.
Search for “Vienna tour guide” in English and the first results are mostly marketplaces and booking platforms, where each guide writes their own description. Some say licensed, some certified, some simply local. The Vienna Tourist Board, for its part, lists scheduled public walking tours that you can join without booking ahead. Both are useful, but a private day with a licensed guide is a different thing: the program is yours, the timing is yours, and the guide can arrange museum time slots around it.
Finding an English-speaking guide in Vienna
Austria’s licensed guides work in more than 40 languages across the country, and the findaguide.at directory can be filtered by language as well as by region. Language is only half the question, though, because specialisms differ a great deal. Some guides are art historians who lead tours of the Belvedere and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, others specialise in music and theatre or in Freud’s Vienna. It is worth telling the guide in your first message what interests you most, so they can suggest the right mix of sights and confirm that the whole day will be in English.
A few places have their own staff for tours inside. At Burg Liechtenstein the interior can only be visited with the castle’s own guides, in German or English. The Seegrotte at Hinterbrühl is also guided only by its own staff. In both cases your guide accompanies you, explains the surroundings and handles the timing, while the in-house tour covers the interior.
Old town walks
St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the Graben, the Hofburg courtyards and the lanes between them.
Imperial palaces
Schönbrunn and its gardens, the Hofburg with the Sisi Museum, and the Spanish Riding School.
Art and museums
Klimt at the Upper Belvedere, the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the buildings of the Ringstrasse.
Day trips by car
The Wachau and Melk Abbey, the Vienna Woods, and longer days to Hallstatt or Schloss Hof.
Private tours in Vienna: four sample days in the city
These are the half days guides plan most often. A half day usually runs three to four hours, and two of them fit easily into one day with a lunch break in between. The order and length depend on you, and entrance tickets are paid on top of the guide’s fee.
Old town walk: St. Stephen’s, the Graben and the Hofburg courtyards
The walk starts at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, whose south tower is the landmark of the city centre. The all-inclusive ticket for the cathedral costs 25 € and covers the interior, the towers and the catacombs. The catacombs are visited on a short guided tour of about 30 minutes at set times, and the individual ticket is not valid for groups. From the cathedral the route follows the Graben and the Kohlmarkt towards the Hofburg. It ends in the palace courtyards, a good place to decide whether the afternoon goes to the imperial apartments or a museum.
St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Stephansplatz (ai illustrated)
Schönbrunn Palace and gardens
Schönbrunn sells several tickets, and choosing the right one saves time. The State Apartments ticket covers the main rooms in about 40 minutes and costs 30 €. The Palace Ticket takes about 75 minutes and costs 42 €. The Guided Tour Maria Theresia, also about 75 minutes, costs 44 €. Tickets are sold online only through imperialtickets.com, the official shop, and entry is by time slot. The rest of the half day goes to the gardens, which are large enough that it helps to know which paths to take for the Gloriette and the best views back to the palace.
The Hofburg, the Sisi Museum and the Spanish Riding School
The Hofburg was the Habsburgs’ winter residence, and the visit combines the Sisi Museum and the imperial apartments. The guided day ticket costs 33 € and includes a tour of about an hour. If the Spanish Riding School holds its morning exercise on your day, it fits well before or after the palace. Standing tickets start at 17 €, and seats cost between 19 and 29 €. Training days change from week to week, so check the schedule first.
The Hofburg, Michaelerplatz
The Belvedere, Klimt and the Ringstrasse
The Upper Belvedere holds Klimt’s The Kiss, and the museum is open every day from 9 am to 6 pm. Adult tickets cost 23 €, and visitors under 19 go in free. A guide who knows the collection will take you to the Klimt paintings and the Baroque state rooms in an order that makes sense of them, rather than room by room. Afterwards the tram along the Ringstrasse passes the State Opera, the Parliament, the City Hall and the university, with stops wherever you want a closer look.
The Upper Belvedere from the gardens
Day trips from Vienna: the Wachau, the Vienna Woods and beyond
For a full day outside the city, guides work with a driver or travel with you by train. The two trips below are the classic choices. Hallstatt, Schloss Hof and Forchtenstein Castle follow in short form underneath.
The Wachau Valley and Melk Abbey
The Wachau is the stretch of the Danube between Melk and Krems, with vineyards on the terraces and small wine towns along the river. A typical private day includes Melk Abbey, Dürnstein, Spitz and Krems, and many groups add a river cruise on part of the route. Tours inside Melk Abbey run in English, German and French. Private days with a driver in the Wachau usually take nine and a half to ten hours from Vienna and back.
Melk Abbey and the Danube
The Vienna Woods: Liechtenstein Castle, the Seegrotte, Heiligenkreuz and Mayerling
The Vienna Woods begin at the edge of the city and are a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Liechtenstein Castle at Maria Enzersdorf is the family seat that gave the Princes of Liechtenstein their name. It was built around 1122–36, damaged by the Ottomans in 1529 and 1683 and rebuilt from 1884. Tours inside take 50 minutes and cost 18 €. The Seegrotte at Hinterbrühl, about 20 minutes from Vienna, is a former gypsum mine with what is described as Europe’s largest underground lake. During the Second World War its tunnels hid an aircraft production plant, and today visits include a boat trip on the lake. The temperature inside is around 9 °C all year. The day continues to Heiligenkreuz Abbey, founded in 1133 and the oldest continuously occupied Cistercian monastery in the world. It ends at Mayerling, where Crown Prince Rudolf died in January 1889. The hunting lodge was then turned into a Carmelite convent. The spa town of Baden can be added on the way back.
Liechtenstein Castle, Maria Enzersdorf
Hallstatt, Schloss Hof and Forchtenstein Castle
Hallstatt lies about 300 km from Vienna, roughly three hours each way by car, so it makes for a long day. It is part of the Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut Cultural Landscape on the UNESCO World Heritage List, where salt has been produced since prehistoric times. A slower route via the A1 adds a stop at Melk. Schloss Hof, about an hour east of Vienna, was Prince Eugene of Savoy’s Baroque country residence and model farm and later passed to Maria Theresa. It has terraced gardens, farm animals and a Lipizzaner stud. Forchtenstein Castle in Burgenland came to the Esterházy family in 1626 and holds their treasury and a collection of arms from the 16th to the 19th century. From November to March it can only be seen on a guided tour.
Salzburg and Bratislava are also possible from Vienna. Salzburg is about two and a half hours away by train, so it is better with an overnight stay. Bratislava is about an hour by train. Ask your guide how they would plan either day.
Typical fees for a licensed guide in Vienna
Fees vary from guide to guide, and you agree the final price with your guide directly. The figures below are typical ranges. Group size and the program change the price, and so does the guide’s specialism. The fee covers the guide’s time only: entrance tickets, public transport and any car with driver are paid separately. When you compare offers, it helps to ask which of these are included.
| Service | Typical guiding fee (EUR) | Unit |
| Licensed guide, per hour | around 80–100 | per group |
| Half day in the city, 3–4 hours | around 290–390 | per group |
| Full day, city or day trip | around 590–690 | per group |
| Car with driver for day trips | quoted separately | per vehicle |
Entrance tickets at the main sights, adult prices:
| Sight | Ticket (EUR) | Notes |
| Schönbrunn, State Apartments | 30 | about 40 minutes, audio guide |
| Schönbrunn, Palace Ticket | 42 | about 75 minutes, audio guide |
| Schönbrunn, Guided Tour Maria Theresia | 44 | about 75 minutes |
| Sisi Pass | 60 | Schönbrunn, Sisi Museum and Furniture Collection, valid one year |
| Hofburg, guided day ticket | 33 | tour of about 60 minutes |
| Upper Belvedere | 23 | free under 19 |
| St. Stephen’s Cathedral, all inclusive | 25 | not valid for groups |
| Spanish Riding School, morning exercise | from 17 | standing; seats 19–29 |
| Liechtenstein Castle, guided tour | 18 | 50 minutes, castle guides only |
Because the fee is per group, a family of four pays roughly the same guiding fee as a couple. One Vienna travel blog puts the hourly fee of the partner guides she recommends at about 95 €, which sits inside the range above.
Guide and driver: when you need a car
In the city a car is rarely needed. The centre is compact, and trams and the U-Bahn reach Schönbrunn and the Belvedere within minutes. For day trips it is different. Melk, the Wachau wine towns, Liechtenstein Castle, the Seegrotte and Heiligenkreuz are spread out, and connections between them by public transport take time. For these days your guide either brings a driver or meets a car you have hired. The vehicle is quoted separately from the guiding fee, so ask how many hours the car is booked for and whether parking and tolls are included.
When to visit Vienna
Vienna works all year, but each season changes the plan. In November and December the Christmas markets open. The market in front of Schönbrunn runs from early November into early January, and the one on Rathausplatz from mid-November to 26 December. In winter Forchtenstein Castle is open for guided tours only, and outdoor days in the Wachau get shorter. Inside the Seegrotte it stays around 9 °C whatever the weather, so bring a jacket even in summer. The Spanish Riding School’s training days vary through the year, so build the program around them rather than the other way round.
Getting to Vienna and around
From Vienna airport, the City Airport Train runs nonstop to Wien Mitte; the operator quotes 16 to 21 minutes, with trains every 12 to 15 minutes. Wien Mitte is a short walk from St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and you can arrange to meet your guide there or at your hotel. For longer trips, Bratislava is about an hour away by train and Salzburg about two and a half hours. Hallstatt is about three hours by car.
A more comfortable Vienna
For a slower pace, split the city into half days and take the afternoons off. A private car with driver makes the Wachau and the Vienna Woods far easier, especially with children or older travellers. At Schönbrunn, the Guided Tour Maria Theresia gives a fuller picture of the palace than the audio-guide tickets. At the Spanish Riding School, a seat rather than a standing place makes the morning exercise more comfortable.
Entry to Austria: official sources
Austria is part of the Schengen area. Whether you need a visa depends on your nationality, so check before you travel. The Austrian government portal explains who needs a visa, what documents to bring and where to apply. Applications are made at Austrian embassies and consulates. See oesterreich.gv.at for current information.
Frequently asked questions about guides in Vienna
Do tour guides in Vienna need a licence?
Yes. Commercial guiding in Austria is a regulated trade under § 108 of the Trade Regulation Act. Guides complete a course of at least 250 teaching hours and pass a state examination before registering the business. Guides licensed in another EU or EEA country notify the ministry before working temporarily in Austria.
Is an “Austria Guide” the same as a licensed tour guide?
Yes, it is the same profession. Austria Guides is the professional group of licensed tourist guides at the Austrian Economic Chamber. In English listings the same guides also call themselves licensed, certified or state-certified Vienna guides. The name differs, but the licence behind it is the same.
How much does a private guide in Vienna cost?
Typically around 80–100 € an hour, around 290–390 € for a half day and around 590–690 € for a full day, per group. Each guide sets their own fee, and the final price depends on group size and the program. Entrance tickets and any car with driver come on top. See the price table for details.
Can my guide come inside Schönbrunn and the Hofburg with us?
Yes, and timed tickets make this easier to plan with a guide. Schönbrunn tickets are sold online only through imperialtickets.com, with entry by time slot. Tell your guide which ticket you prefer, and they will build the morning around your slot.
How many days do I need in Vienna?
Three or four days covers the main sights without rushing. One day for the old town and St. Stephen’s, one for Schönbrunn, one for the Hofburg or the Belvedere, and a fourth for the Wachau or the Vienna Woods.
Which day trip from Vienna should I choose?
For wine, river scenery and a great abbey, the Wachau with Melk. For castles, caves and Habsburg history close to the city, the Vienna Woods with Liechtenstein Castle, the Seegrotte, Heiligenkreuz and Mayerling. Hallstatt is the most famous but the longest, at about three hours each way.
Can I visit Hallstatt as a day trip from Vienna?
Yes, but it is a long day: about 300 km and around three hours each way by car. Most of the day is spent on the road, so some travellers break the journey at Melk or stay overnight in the Salzkammergut.
Can I find an official guide for the Kunsthistorisches Museum?
Yes, some licensed guides in Vienna are art historians who lead tours of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Mention it in your first message, and the guide can plan a morning there around the paintings that interest you most.
Plan your days in Vienna with a licensed guide
Send your dates and the sights you want to see, and your guide will reply with a plan and a price.
Fees, opening hours and entry information on this page are based on published sources and may change. Please check the official channels of each institution before you travel. See our legal disclaimer and privacy policy for details.
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