susanrich

Traveling to Vienna for 4 nights, Salzburg, 3 nights then back to Vienna to go on to Prague for 3 nights. My husband and I are looking for 4 star hotels in the 325 range.
Any suggestions? Also Vienna Philamonic tickets, and would love to see Carmen in Prague. Can we secure tickets prior to the trip? Where? Any help would be welcome.

yk

All Vienna Philharmonic tickets are sold out by subscription, however, you can still try to buy tickets one week before the concert. From the Vienna Philharmonic website:

<i>Ticket Information: A limited number of tickets is available on commission beginning one week before the concert by telephone 505 65 25 or at the Ticket Office of the Vienna Philharmonic, Kärntner Ring 12, 1010 Vienna</i>

AFAIK, these tickets are "podium seats" - chairs placed on the podium behind the orchestra. We sat there in 2006; not ideal but at least we were there.

Another option would be try going through 3rd party ticket agents, but expect to pay a premium for those tickets.

One more option would be contact the hotel in Vienna you're staying at. The concierge may be able to help.

Pisana

About getting tickets for concerts in Vienna, I would recommend buying at Concert Vienna, http://www.concertvienna.com, because they are official, and have reasonable prices.

Always book in advance, if you try to find tickets when you are already here, it is too late, and you pay much more.

Best regards,
Pisana

molker

Concert vienna is a ticket broker - certsinly not the " official "

A quick comparison will show a mark up on many tickets sold for better venues .

book direct for things you wish to do the following actual official sites of major music venues

www.staatsoper.at

www.volksoper.at

www.konzerthaus.at

www.musikverein.at

www.srs.at
and others
a quick look for State Opera "Concert vienna " - Rosenkavelier . April 23 top ticket 199 top price by the Broker -at the State Opera buying direct is 167- save 30 euro and have a nice dinner.

Even the ticket broker has no start time no available.- actual official website shows the start times

so much for a broker.

Cathinjoetown

Am not sure of their star ratings but Hotel Konig von Ungaren and the Kaiserin Elizabeth are both very good, small to medium-sized hotels with excellent locations. You might consider them.

I believe the major hotels near the Staatsoper are 5-star--Hotel Sacher, Grand Hotel Wien, The Bristol--worth checking for special offers.

The concierge at the Hotel Konig was excellent but that was four years ago. Overall, the hotel's service was excellent.

iris1745

Ji; Agree with 'Cathin' on the Hotel Konig Von Ungarn. Great location behind the Cathredral. Richard www.kvu.at

annhig

hi susan,

may I ask why you are going back to vienna to travel to Prague? i looked on www.bahn.de and found that there are trains from Salzburg to Prague several times a day. you do have to change twice - at linz and Ceske Budejovice - and it takes 6 hours or so, whereas there is a direct train from wien simmering to Prague, which takes about 4 1/2 hours, but I'm not sure it's worth going all the way back to Vienna to "save" 2 hours!

alternatively, could you start in Salzburg, then go to Vienna and onto Prague directly?

sounds like a great trip, anyway.

regards, ann

Pisana

Well, Concert vienna are official ticket brokers, that's what i meant. in vienna there are many people who sell tickets in the street, or in front of the opera, and that's not official and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

i find ConcertVienna prices very reasonable, i have shopped several times and was always very happy with the service. they have small commissions only for certain events.

it is very good to go to the site of the organiser, of course, this is what i always do as a first step, but the problem is that many performances are sold out. For example - all of Anna Netrebko's performances in April and May.

iris1745

Hi; Have you considered renting a car for three days. We have driven from Salzburg to Prague [about five hours], with a stop in Chesky Krumlov. Many people do not like to drive in Prague, but entering the city on the eastern side was not bad. Then it's four hours to Vienna and you could find a stop and drop the car off when entering Vienna. You would need permission from you car rental company to enter the CR. For us, we just try to enter a city when we think it's off peak traffic. Our last trip to Germany, I never wanted to rent a car with GPS, but we received an upgrade and it was included. Huge help. A little info. Richard For Prague www.inyourpocket.com

annhig

iris - did you have to pay a large one-way drop-off fee?

iris1745

No drop off fee, Salzburg to Vienna. But the VAT is expensive. If I were to do this again, I would do city to city and skip the airport tax. Richard

annhig

hi again, Richard,

I asked about the drop-off fee as i think the OP is going from vienna to salzburg, back to Vienna, and onto Prague.

i'm not sure it's very economical or even possible to pick up a car in Austria and return it in the czech republic.

iris1745

Hi annhig; Your right, but there have been suggestios about different routes to take and I guess my thoughts were another suggestion. I certainly agree with you, not good to pick up in one country and return to another.