My husband and I are spending 4 days in Vienna in August before our tour (motorcycle trip through Austria and Hungry) starts. Being from Los Angeles, we are clueless when it comes to using public trandportation in Austria, or anywhere for that matter, but in Austria we will have to deal with not speaking German. We are staying on Opernring at the Le Merdien, so I know we can walk to plenty of sights, but could use advise how to get to other sights i.e Vienna Woods, Schonbrunn.

There are free transit maps with details about fares, passes, etc. all over Vienna - stations, from hotel desks, etc. Language will not be a problem here and the transit system is WunderBAr!

My husband and I stayed in Vienna last year for our honeymoon in late August and had no car and we did a lot of walking and using the "subway" metro and tram. I always forget how they are called in Austria. I can check at home and repost tomorrow. They have great maps. We used this mode of transportation to get to the Schonbrunn.

We bought a Vienna card from our hotel as soon as we got there -- it gives you 72 hours of completely free transport on the U-Bahn (the subway), trams, buses, trolleys. As I recall it also offers discounts on various museums.

You have to validate your card the first time you board a tram or subway, and then you're good to go.

EL

Good advice. Schönbrunn can be reached by the U-Bahn rather easily. It is on line U4 and other lines intersect with it.

Around the inner city, the tram is a good way to go. Some of the tracks have dedicated areas in which to run so that cars do not impede progress.

We used the tram to get to the Belvedere.

The buses in some cases were good also.

Ask your hotel desk staff. In all cases when I have been in Vienna, the desk staff knew English well.

In fact, I was impressed many times with how well the locals spoke English.

I really got surprised at the Volksoper. We had tickets in advance as purhased via email with a credit card. The box office at the theater itself is quite small. People who had advanced tickets of the "will call" type were being met in the lobby, which is tiny, by a young man who had the tickets arranged in a folder by last name.

He saw me coming, and before I could speak, he had reached in the folder to get my tickets. He handed them to me with a cheerful, "Here are your tickets Mr. Brown. Enjoy the performance." I had not said one word!\

He saw me coming, knew for whom he had tickets, and deduced instantly who I was. So much for looking like an Austrian!!!!!

I think that is one reason I get amused at people who ask how to blend in so the locals will not know the difference. Lots o luck is all I can say.

I cannot even blend in successfully in Wales, Ireland, or Scotland from whence cometh my ancestors. Haircut, clothes, shoes, posture, etc. are all out of character.

Just buy the 72 hr transit pass...Vienna Card not worth the extra charges.

Fear not. There are city-wide maps of the entire transit system in the bus and tram stops, and also in the buses and trams. As you pull into a tram stop, the name of it is in big letters (maybe a foot high) on a sign, so you can easily compare where you are to where you want to be.
We took a bus or tram to Schoenbron from the Opera area, and found that so easy we took a different bus or tram over to the Vienna Woods and wine towns, then a third route back to the Opera. If you can mispronounce Opernring to your husband so he understands what you mean, you're good to go.
PS My opinion: the ferris wheel in the park by the river...I think was 10 or 20 euro a person, and seemed to revolve about once a hour. We declined. Also, we enjoyed the Treasury...talk about crown jewels, there was an opal the size of a grapefruit, and a ruby ? the size of a turkey egg. Don't miss Kunsthistorishe