Visiting the Vienna State Opera (also known as the Wiener Staatsoper in German) is an absolute must-do if you’re in Vienna! Whether you’re going to make a night of it and see a show or hop in for a tour during the day, there is a way to fit it into your itinerary. Here are my top tips for visiting the Vienna State Opera.
Book your tour in advance
If you’re looking to book a tour, make sure you do so well in advance! They offer many different languages and time slots, but the groups are small and they fill up fast. I visited in early December (which is peak Christmas market season), and only had one day/time that was available for an English tour when I booked a few weeks out. If you speak more than one language, you’ll have more options available to you which is a plus!
Print your tour tickets at home
When you book your tour, you’ll have the option of picking up your tickets at will call or printing them at home. I opted for will call so I could have a nicer souvenir, but I almost missed my tour! When I arrived at the opera house, it was difficult to find the correct entrance since the building is so massive. Here is an exact pin (at the corner of Operngasse and Opernring). Once I was in the right entrance though, I had to wait in line at the will call window which ended up taking a really long time. By the time I got my ticket and made it through the line, my group had just started moving! Thankfully I got through just in time. Save yourself the stress and print them at home ahead of time!
What to expect on the tour
I thought the tour was a great way to see the famous opera house while also not taking up too much time out of the day! The tour is advertised as about 45 minutes long, but ours took a little more than an hour. The group will be guided throughout the main auditorium, royal suites, through the grand foyer and up the staircase, and throughout the many rooms in the opera house. If you want good pictures of these places, I always recommend being at the back of the group. That way when they all start moving onto the next, you have a few moments to yourself before catching up!
When we visited, they were setting the stage for that evening’s performance of A Winter’s Tale. It was really interesting to see this behind the scenes look (no pun intended) into what goes into making these shows go on day after day. Our guide was really knowledgable without being overbearing. It was the perfect guided tour!
Seeing a performance can be affordable
We can probably call this poor planning on my end, but I just assumed going to see an actual performance at the opera house would be expensive. I then learned in my tour that that’s not the case at all! While ticket prices certainly vary by seat, if you don’t mind sitting in the upper decks, you can get a ticket to the show for only a few euros. And if you don’t mind standing for the performance, those tickets can be even cheaper. When you consider the tour cost 15€, seeing a performance turns out to be a pretty good deal!
No German? No problem!
Don’t speak German? Don’t worry! Another reason why I talked myself out of seeing a show at the opera house was the fact that I don’t speak German and wouldn’t understand what was being said in the show. Turns out, that’s not an issue! In front of every seat in the theatre are small digital screens that live translate the show into 8 languages: German, English, Italian, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. Honestly, had I done a little research about this (and the ticket prices mentioned above), I definitely would have booked a ticket to a show!
Visiting during the holiday season? Click here for my top tips for visiting Vienna’s Christmas markets!
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