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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 changes the arithmetic for almost every stay in Vienna, and a good deal of the advice you will find online is simply out of date.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. That is the benchmark every card has to beat.
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.
The 7-day ticket now rolls: it runs for seven days from a start date you choose yourself, no longer strictly Monday to Monday. That is what finally makes it useful for visitors.
Rule of thumb: from three journeys a day the 24-hour ticket pays off. From two days’ stay, the 7-day ticket. To Wiener Linien
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. There is also a discount-only card without travel for 9 euros.
The honest calculation. 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, 13.80 over seven days.
The 48-hour version is the sweet spot. One museum discount redeemed and the card has paid for itself. Over the longer periods you have to work at it. And honestly: the great names, Schönbrunn, Belvedere, Albertina, are not there with meaningful reductions. The card suits guests who go broad: several smaller houses, a concert, some shopping, a coffee house. To the Vienna City Card
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.
The Flexi PASS is the underrated option: two to eight houses of your own choosing, valid for sixty days, a 72-hour bus ticket included. If you know you want to see five houses but would rather not be told the pace, this is the calmer way. It suits guests who travel with time to spare. To the Vienna PASS
Go City no longer sells passes in Vienna. If you come across a Go City Vienna pass somewhere, that 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. That is down to the pedestrian zone and the narrow lanes, not to the operators. But it means that exactly where Vienna is at its densest, the Graben, the Kohlmarkt, the Judenplatz, the courtyards behind the cathedral, the bus cannot go.
Vienna Sightseeing runs up to four lines with 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.
Big Bus Vienna runs 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 bus makes sense for guests who cannot or would rather not walk far, for very short stays, and for the sights further out: Schönbrunn, the Prater, the Hundertwasserhaus, and in summer Grinzing and the Cobenzl.
It makes less sense from three days on: 72 hours of bus cost 53 euros, a 7-day transport ticket 25.20. The difference buys you a very good lunch in Vienna, and the U4 gets you from Stephansplatz to Schönbrunn in a quarter of an hour. There is also this: a recorded commentary does not answer questions and does not point at the detail above the door.
No card at all. The most common case. Two or three days, staying in the centre, two museums chosen on purpose: single tickets or a 24-hour ticket will do.
Just a transport ticket. From two days on, the 7-day ticket at 25.20 euros. The new standard advice since 2026.
Vienna City Card, 48 hours. For anyone going broad who does not mind keeping an eye on the discounts.
Vienna PASS. Only for the intensive sightseeing type, three or four houses a day. Add a transport ticket.
And the bus? If walking is hard or time is short, yes. Otherwise: Vienna on foot is one of the loveliest cities in Europe, and the first district opens up in no other way. That part we have to walk ourselves.
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.
