"Schonbrunn Palace" a Vienna Travel Page by reeka

As part of our "Vienna Sightseeing" hop on hop off tour, we had the option of seeing Schonbrunn and Belvedere Palaces. We didn't have time to see them both, and the Schonbrunn had been described as "the jewel of our city" by one local, so really there was no contest. The Schonbrunn it was.

Again, lots of tour coaches were outside dropping groups of people off, but I guess at one of this city's main attraction it was only to be expected. Still I felt like one of the hoarde, which I was, but I didn't like the feeling.

The palace itself is only able to be viewed on a tour. It doesn't have to be with a guide, if you want, there is the option of taking the tour with a free audioguide which is handheld.

There are two kinds of tours:-

IMPERIAL TOUR
Duration 35 minutes. You can visit 22 state rooms. The apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph 1 and Empress Elisabeth.
Cost 8 Euros

GRAND TOUR
Duration 50 minutes. You can visit 40 state rooms. Same as above, plus the chambers of Marie Theresa and emperor Francis Stephen of Lorraine.

The private gardens of Elisabeth, the maze, the zoo, and other attractions within the palace, which I cannot remember at this time, are an additional cost of approximately 2.50 Euros.

We took the Grand Tour, and the two hours that we had there, we still hadn't seen all that I would have liked to. I guess you can easily spent the best part of a day there.

****More pictures to come as they are developed....****