Which Vienna card pays off, which does not, and does the sightseeing bus actually go where you want to go? An honest calculation, with nothing to sell you.
On 1 January 2026 the Wiener Linien abolished the 48-hour and 72-hour tickets without replacement. That makes a good deal of the advice you will find online simply out of date. If you are staying two days or longer, the 7-day ticket at 25.20 euros is the cheapest option. Even if you only stay three days.
And one more thing, right at the start: Vienna is a walking city. Eight minutes from St Stephen’s to the Hofburg, five to the Albertina. The loveliest part of this city lies between the stations.
All prices apply from 1 January 2026 for the core zone of Vienna. Digital tickets are around five per cent cheaper than printed ones, but they are personalised and not transferable.
Digital prices. Printed: 3.20 / 10.20 / 28.90 euros.
From three journeys a day the 24-hour ticket pays off. From two days’ stay, the 7-day ticket. It rolls: it runs for seven days from a start date you choose yourself. That is what finally makes it useful for visitors.
The official card of the Vienna Tourist Board. Free travel in the core zone, more than two hundred discount partners, and one child under fifteen or one dog travels free.
Add-ons: hop-on hop-off 34 euros, airport transfer 22 euros. A discount-only card without travel costs 9 euros.
Subtract the cheapest transport alternative and the discount part costs you 9.30 euros over 24 hours, 5.80 over 48 hours, 11.80 over 72 hours and 13.80 over seven days. The 48-hour version is the sweet spot: one museum discount redeemed and the card has paid for itself.
Schönbrunn, the Belvedere and the Albertina, however, are not there with meaningful reductions. The card suits guests who go broad: several smaller houses, a concert, some shopping, a coffee house.
Free entry to up to ninety sights, fast track past the queue, and the sightseeing buses for the duration of the pass. Public transport is not included, which many people miss. You will need a Wiener Linien ticket as well.
The pass counts calendar days from activation, not 24-hour blocks. Activate in the afternoon and you give away half a day. It pays off at three or four paying houses per day, so with a tightly packed programme.
Two to eight houses of your own choosing, valid for sixty days, a 72-hour bus ticket included. The calmer option for guests who travel with time to spare.
no longer sells passes in Vienna. Wherever a Go City Vienna pass turns up, the page is out of date.
This is the sentence hardly anyone says, and it is the important one. The sightseeing buses run along the Ringstraße and around the outside, which is down to the pedestrian zone and the narrow lanes. Exactly where Vienna is at its densest, the Graben, the Kohlmarkt, the Judenplatz, the courtyards behind the cathedral, the bus cannot go.
Up to four lines, more than forty stops. 39 euros for 24 hours, 45 for 48, 53 for 72. Audio guide in nineteen languages, with its own children’s channel.
Two routes. 37 euros for 24 hours, 42.30 for the 48-hour package, plus versions with the Ferris wheel or a boat trip.
The most common case. Two or three days, staying in the centre, two museums chosen on purpose: single tickets will do.
From two days on, the 7-day ticket at 25.20 euros. The new standard advice since 2026.
For anyone going broad who does not mind keeping an eye on the discounts.
Only for the intensive sightseeing type, three or four houses a day. Add a transport ticket.
If walking is hard or time is short, yes. Otherwise rarely.
The loveliest ways through Vienna are on no map. That is what we are for.
Prices as of 12 September 2026. Prices and offers change constantly, please check on the provider’s own site before buying. We only link to what we would recommend ourselves.
