Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bike Tours
PedalPower
runstwodifferentthree-hourtoursdailyfromMaytoSeptember.Themorning
tour covers the central district, while the afternoon tour crosses the Danube (€29/tour in-
cludes bike, €49 for both tours, €14 extra to keep the bike for the day, departs at 10:00 and
14:30 from the statue in Schillerplatz in front of the Academy of Fine Arts, across the Ring
from the Opera, tel. 01/729-7234,
www.pedalpower.at
)
. They also rents bikes and offer Seg-
way tours daily in summer (
www.segway-vienna.at
).
For a private bike tour, contact guide
Wolfgang Höfler
(€140/3 hours, mobile
0676-304-4940,
www.vienna-aktivtours.com
,
office@vienna-aktivtours.com
; also leads
walking tours—see listing, later, under “Local Guides”).
Bus Tours
Red Bus City Tours'
convertible buses do a 1.5-hour loop, hitting the highlights of the city
with a 20-minute shopping break in the middle. They cover the main first-district attractions
as well as a big bus can, along with the entire Ringstrasse. But the most interesting part of
the tour is outside the center—zipping through Prater Park, over the Danube for a glimpse
of the city's Danube Island playground, and into the “Donau City” skyscraper zone. If the
weather's good, the bus goes topless and offers great opportunities for photos. Tours start
one block behind the Opera at the main TI—see the map on
here
for the location (€14 ticket
from driver, €2 discount with this topic if purchased from office at Lobkowitzplatz 1—100
yards from where the tour begins; departs hourly April-Oct 10:00-18:00, less frequently off-
season,prettygoodrecordednarrationinanylanguage,yourownearbudsarebetterthanthe
beat-up headphones they provide, tel. 01/512-4030,
www.redbuscitytours.at
,
Gabriel).
Vienna Sightseeing
offers a three-hour city tour, including a tour of Schönbrunn Palace
(€39, 3/day April-Oct, 2/day Nov-March). They also run hop-on, hop-off bus tours with re-
corded commentary. The schedule is posted curbside (three different one-hour routes, €13/1
route, €16/2 routes, €20/all day, departs from the Opera 4/hour July-Aug 10:00-20:00, runs
less frequently and stops earlier off-season, tel. 01/7124-6830,
www.viennasightseeing.at
)
.
Giventhecity'sexcellentpublictransportationandmostlywalkablesights,I'dskipthistour;
if you just want a quick guided city tour, take the Red Bus tours recommended above.
Ring Tram Tour
OneofEurope'sgreatstreets,theRingstrasseislinedwithmanyofthecity'stopsights.Take
ation andaridiculously quickglimpse ofsomemajor sights asyouglide by.Neither tram #1
nor #2 makes the entire loop around the Ring, but you can see it all by making one transfer
between them (at the Schwedenplatz stop). You can use a single transit ticket to cover the
whole route, including the transfer (though you're not allowed to interrupt your trip, except
