When in Vienna, use Wien Karte (Vienna Card) – travel tip
When you get to Vienna you will want to walk, visit different touristic objectives and of course see the city. For all this you will most likely choose the public transport: subway, tram etc.
First of all let me explain why I do recommend the public transport:
– very good coverage of the city – no matter where you want to get, you will be able to do that using the public transport, maybe even with only one change at most;
– parking places – parking in Vienna is quite expensive and it’s not very easy to find a parking place where you need one. Thus using the public transportation makes life a lot easier;
– it’s comfortable – usually (maybe excepting rush hour – around 6 pm and 7-8 in the morning) going with public transport doesn’t involve traffic congestion. You may even find seats!
– freedom – if you decide to change a route and go somewhere else, you simply look on a city map or GPS device and find out what will get you at your new destination.
Now let’s see why the Vienna Card – Wien Karte.
The Wien Karte is, simply put, a ticket for 72 hours of freedom through Vienna using subways, tram, buses and night buses (within zone 100). Info about exact timetables for public transport are available here www.wienerlinien.at
But the Vienna Card (Wien Karte) is much more than a ticket, because it comes with a coupon book listing all benefits and where you can find all the information needed for using the card. Some of the coupons are required in order to benefit from the discounts offered to the Wien Karte users. “With the Vienna Card you can visit the most attractive sights of Vienna for 4 days at special price reductions. Vienna is waiting for you! Reduced rates for museums, exhibitions, guided tours, theatres and concerts, cheaper shopping, advantages in cafés, at “Heurigen” taverns and restaurants.” – that’s what you’ll see on the official site: //www.wienkarte.at/EN/?l=e.
I therefore recommend the Vienna Card (Wien Karte) for these reasons:
– you can go anywhere via public transport for 72 hours;
– important discounts for almost any museum as well as many exhibitions, restaurants, bars, coffee houses etc.;
– useful coupons (some discounts are accessible only with these coupons);
– easy to buy – from most hotels or almost everywhere – and
– an accessible price – 18,50 Euro (in 3 days, if you visit many museums and use the coupons and the card itself you’ll notice that the deductions cover a big part of the initial cost, and since the Wien Karte coveres public transport for 72 hours you can see that it’s more of an investment than spent money).
For instance last year we were 7 days in Vienna. We bought 2 Wien Karte for each – 6 days of covered public transport, and in the last day we decided to go by foot near the hotel (we stayed near Prater) – so we actually saved quite some money using the Vienna Card – Wien Karte.
