- Palace and gardens added to the UNESCO World Heritage list
- 1996
- Palace Ticket tour, with audio guide
- About 75 min
- Entry to the palace park, open from 6:30am
- Free
Why Schönbrunn is worth your time
Schönbrunn is the Habsburgs’ summer palace, and it is the best second palace to see after the Hofburg. The Hofburg was the Habsburgs’ palace in the city. Schönbrunn was the country retreat, remodelled under Maria Theresa in the 1740s and 1750s. Emperor Franz Joseph was born here and died here in November 1916. The palace and its park joined the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1996.
Wikipedia puts the room count at 1,441, but you only see a slice of them. That slice is still impressive, and it comes with a large park that costs nothing to enter.
What to see and how long to allow
Inside, you choose between two routes. The Palace Ticket covers the whole first floor (the piano nobile), including the imperial couple’s apartments, the state rooms and Maria Theresa’s private chambers. The palace lists it at about 75 minutes with an audio guide. The cheaper State Apartments ticket covers selected ceremonial rooms and takes about 40 minutes.
For most visitors the full Palace Ticket is the better buy. The State Apartments ticket saves money but cuts the private rooms that make the place feel lived in.
Outside, the park is free to walk. It runs about 1.2 km east to west, and it opened to the public around 1779. Paid extras include the Privy Garden, the Orangery Garden, the maze and the Gloriette terrace. Expect a half day for palace plus park, longer if you add the paid gardens.
Tickets and opening hours
The palace’s own pages are the baseline: Schönbrunn opening times and tickets and tours, checked October 2026.
- Palace: open daily, from 8:30am. Closing runs from 5pm in winter to 6pm in July and August. Last admission is 45 minutes before closing.
- Fixed entry times: palace admission is by time slot, so book ahead in busy months.
- Price pattern: at our October 2026 check the adult Palace Ticket was €42 and State Apartments €30. The Classic Pass (palace plus four garden attractions) was €49 for the summer season.
- Bigger passes: the Classic Pass Plus (€81 for adults) adds the zoo, the Palm House and the Desert Experience House, and covers one to two days.
- Seasons: the garden attractions and the Classic Pass run to early November. Fountains are switched off from mid-October to mid-April. Check what is open after that.
The palace tells visitors to buy only from its own channels, so start there and compare any resale offer against it.
Guided tour or not
Not really. The Palace Ticket includes an audio guide. A live guide is worth it if you like stories more than furniture. The palace sells a Guided Tour Maria Theresia at set times, with English departures during the day. Third-party tours mostly add a guide, a skip-the-queue slot or a combination with another sight. See our tickets and tours guide for how to weigh these.
Getting there from the Hofburg
Schönbrunn has its own U4 station, called Schönbrunn. The U-Bahn is Vienna’s underground railway. Trams 10 and 60 stop at Schloss Schönbrunn, and bus 10A also serves it.
From the Hofburg, take tram 1, 2, D or 71 from the Burgring stop to the Oper stop beside Karlsplatz. Then take the U4 from Karlsplatz to Schönbrunn. Karlsplatz and Schönbrunn are both on the U4, so you do not change again. Use the Wiener Linien planner for live times. Our getting there guide covers wider options.
One practical tip
Go early and use the free park as a buffer. Gates open at 6:30am, so you can walk the grounds first and take a palace slot later, or the other way round. The park closes between 5:30pm in winter and 9pm in summer, so you can always return after your tour. If you buy the Sisi Pass, which bundles Schönbrunn with the Sisi Museum in the Hofburg, check the Sisi Museum page first. The museum area is closed until the redesigned museum opens on 19 November.
The park has rules worth knowing: no dogs, no cycling, no drones, no selfie sticks and no flash photography.
How it fits with a Hofburg visit
Treat Schönbrunn as the other half of a Habsburg day. Do the Hofburg in the morning, where the main guide lists the rooms and tickets, and travel out after lunch. The Vienna itinerary suggests where it slots in. If you only have time for one more palace, the Belvedere is on a direct tram line from Burgring and focuses on art rather than imperial rooms. Choose Schönbrunn if you care most about the Habsburgs themselves.
