I'm ready to start booking hotels, but first I want to make sure I'm on the right track. Would you please look this over and give me your thoughts? We are 70, in good shape, but don't have the energy that we used to. We have never been to Austria. We are going to continue on to Switzerland for 6 nights after Salzburg. How does this look? Too much down time? Not enough down time? I so appreciate your advice! Thursday 9/10/26 ORD to Vienna
Arrive 8:20am
Vienna - 5 nights

Day 1 – Fri 9/11
Morning/Afternoon: Check in (and hopefully store luggage) at Hotel Altstadt Vienna. Explore the 7th district and MuseumsQuartier.

Visit the Leopold Museum.

Optional chamber concert at St. Peter’s Church or Mozarthaus if we can stay awake for it. Otherwise do this another night.


Day 2 – Sat 9/12
Morning: Attend the Spanish Riding School Morning Exercise (10:00–11:00).
Visit Kunsthistorisches Museum. Lunch at the museum café.
State Opera performance


Day 3 Sun 9/13
Morning: Attend 10:00 AM Mass at Augustine Church with choral music.
Afternoon: Visit Belvedere Palace



Day 4 – Mon 9/14
Day trip to Melk Abbey, then take a Danube cruise
Return to Vienna early evening.



Day 5 – Tues 9/15
Morning: Take U4 metro to Schönbrunn Palace. Strudel demonstration?
Classical concert at Schönbrunn Orangery?



Day 6 – Wed 9/16
Train to Salzburg (2 nights)
Concert at Marabelle Palace
Marionette show
Walking tour of Old Town

"Day 2 – Sat 9/12
Morning: Attend the Spanish Riding School Morning Exercise (10:00–11:00).
Visit Kunsthistorisches Museum. Lunch at the museum café.
State Opera performance"

You're giving yourself only a handful of hours in the KHM before heading to the Opera--that might be rushed depending on your interests. (And, BTW, I would skip lunch at the KHM Cafe. Overpriced and underflavored everything. You would do better to grab a Käsekrainer from a street vendor.)

"Day 5 – Tues 9/15
Morning: Take U4 metro to Schönbrunn Palace. Strudel demonstration?
Classical concert at Schönbrunn Orangery?"

I might suggest enjoying Schönbrunn and skipping the Strudel demonstration. Enjoy the time instead over lunch at the palace cafe. Though it's a "chain," (Landtmann,Schönbrunn, Schloss Hot and one other I can recall)).

Thanks Four For Travel. Yes, whoops -- I got my cafes switched. Good point about not leaving enough time for the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Maybe I should skip the Spanish Riding practice that morning and instead combine it with the Schonbrunn Palace? I know I have a lot of time to work out the particulars, but I just wanted to make sure I could fit everything in five nights vs. six nights.
Thanks again,
Laurie

I can't tell you how to prioritize your sightseeing, but we really enjoyed the Spanish Riding School practice session. Rather than watch a tourist-inspired strudel demonstration, I'd rather go to one of the iconic/historic coffee houses. Central, Hawelka, Sacher, Goldegg, etc.

Your plan for Vienna sounds good. You didn't mention Hofburg, Augustinergruft, etc. but I suppose you will pass through this central area anyway.
Same remark for the tons of monumens, like Johann Srauss Denkmal, Plündererdenkmal or for the beautiful cathedral Stephansdom.
May be you will be interested in Prater too, a several centuries old typical Vienna fun park.

As to the Salzburg aea,all depends on the time you will really stay there.
If you want to proceed from there to the Engadin/Bernina area, it's just a 5 hrs trip with change from train to bus at Landeck and from bus to train at Scuol-Tarasp (alpine thermal spa with castle).
If you plan to go to a place like Muerren instead, the journey will take the whole day (about 9 hrs).

Thanks so much for your input! It's much appreciated. I'm going to skip the strudel demonstration and may take an actual strudel cooking class in Salzburg. My grandmother was from Czechoslovakia (escaped with my mother during the war) and my mother told me how she would help her make strudel on the weekends so I'm interested in the process.

I think I may also try and get tickets for a performance at the Spanish Riding School instead of just practice.

I will be continuing on to Murren after Salzburg but will spend the night in Luzerne to break up the long day of travel.

Thanks again for your help.

The Vienna Boys Choir performs Sunday Mass at the Imperial Court Chapel (Hofburg Chapel) most Sundays at 9:15 am. Their schedule is not yet published for next year so you would have to check it out.

So instead of going to the church you’ve selected for mass, I’d pick the Imperial Court Chapel but get there early! It was standing room only out in the outer room when I was there. I could watch the boys on TVs out there.

After mass, I went to the performance at the Spanish Riding School since they are so close together.

You may want to revisit your itinerary for those days if any of this interests you?

Thanks, Joann. That's a tough one!! I wish I could do both! Always hard decisions when traveling.

I'm also considering skipping the interior of Schonbrunn Palace and just tour the garden, combining it with The Spanish Riding School performance so I'm not so rushed.

I may have missed the time of year you will be in Austria. The Schönbrunn gardens are prettiest in Autumn, then late Spring followed by Summer (crowded and with too many social media influencers and bus-disgorged tour groups) and Winter, at least in my opinion. I would put the interior of the Schloss in the Top Five of most beautiful castles in Europe; this written, if you've seen Versailles or Hapsburg history isn't really your thing (we dove in because we lived there and made weekend outings out of seeing how many we could tour), you'll be fine skipping the interior tour.

YouTube tour of the interior of Schonbrunn:


Longer video of a walk through the gardens:


The palace interiors are unsurprisingly very opulent and stuffed with treasures and collections. Some rooms are really OTT. But, just once, I'd love to tour a royal palace and see some of the "downstairs" and more personal spaces. Kitchens, silver/china/linen storage, clothing storage, laundry/ironing/sewing areas, bathrooms, servants' quarters, etc. It's like that observation about ducks swimming. Everything is calm above the water, but there's a lot of hard work going on below the surface. I want to know about what happened below the surface.

I agree. I always enjoy the downstairs tour the most.
Thanks for the videos!
Laurie