My time in Vienna was a last minute add-on to a business trip I had last year in Bologna. I was looking to maximize the time I would be spending overseas and trying to prevent some lost productivity by jetting back and forth across 6 time zones over the course of 4 days (international road warriors, I don’t know how you do it!). My boss agreed to give me a couple of extra days on my round trip transatlantic flight (and I saved the department about $600 by doing it!) and I decided to hop an inexpensive round-trip flight on Austrian Air and explore Vienna on my own dime for a few days.

The first thing I always research when going to a tourist destination city is the entry fee for all of the museums and attractions I want to go to. I’m very spoiled living in Washington, DC, where all of the Smithsonian Museums are free of charge, and I got a rude wakeup call during my last trip to Paris, where my ticket to the Louvre set me back €15, which was approximately 21% of my daily budget. In some cities, buying their city pass will save you more than the value of the card. To continue my Parisian example, I spent €15 on my entrance fee to the Louvre, €12 on admission to the Musée d’Orsay, €20 on admission to Versailles, and €10 on admission to the Rodin Museum; where the 2-day Museum Pass costs a total of €48 euros and would have granted me free entry to all of these museums (and another 46 museums and attractions in and around Paris). So lesson learned, I always do my research before arriving in-country.

Vienna is home to a host of cultural sights and museums, and you can snag deals on all of them if you know when to go and where to look. Below is a list of where I went and what discount I leveraged to get the price I paid.

• Treasures of the Hapsburgs Ticket, €20 (Includes entrance to Kunsthistoriches Museum and the Imperial Treasury, €26 if purchased separately)
• Sisi Ticket, €29,90 (Includes one entrance each to Schönbrunn Palace, the Imperial Furniture Collection, and the Hofburg Palace to view the Imperial Apartments, the Sisi Museum, and the Imperial Silver Collection; €40,90 if purchased separately)
• Single Upper Belvedere Ticket, €15 (You can purchase a combined ticket to view the rotating exhibits in the lower Belvedere, but if you’re more interested in just the permanent collection and the Klimts, it’s not worth the extra €7)

These tickets were enough, in combination with a discount ballet ticket (which got me into the Opera House and I got to see a show for €11!), to keep me occupied for the three days I was in Vienna. I also bought a 72-hour transit pass for €17,10, which allowed me to hop on and off trams, buses, and the underground without worrying about having exact change or fiddling with the ticket machines in the train stations. I was able to get around the city fairly easily and it worked to get me out to Schönbrunn as well, which is quite a ways out from the city center.

Besides discount tickets, I also saved a bit by staying in a Pensioner hotel. When I first booked my room, I wasn’t quite sure I’d qualify to stay. It turns out pensioner hotels are like a half step between having a private room in a hostel and staying at a traditional hotel, and they’re for people of all ages. I had my own room and an ensuite bathroom, but breakfast was not included and there was no turndown service while I was staying with them. All of the basics were included in my room, including linens, towels, and mini-toiletries, and given the central location, it felt like a steal at €68 (inclusive of taxes) a night. Most of the hostels in the area only offer private rooms, and they run closer to the €80-100 range. If I wanted a more traditional hostel experience at a lower price, I would have had to be much further from the center. My hotel was just off of Neubaugasse and was a ten-minute walk to the Ringstrasse.

For Viennese locals and frequent visitors, what are your best tips for saving money while still experiencing all of the splendor of Vienna?