Schonbrunn Palace or Bratislava?

[jimmymac613]

We'll be on our second Scenic river cruise in May and the day that we're in Vienna we can't decide between the excursion to Schonbrunn Palace or the half day bus trip to Bratislava.  Any recommendations?  We've never been to either of them.

[mozfoz]

Another grand palace or an another quaint town. Pick your poison.  Have a great sailing.

 

[jpalbny]

24 minutes ago, mozfoz said:

Another grand palace or an another quaint town. Pick your poison.  Have a great sailing.

 

 

I like your assessment - and I agree. Both worth seeing. If I hadn't seen either, I'd stay in Vienna and just do everything independently. Schönbrunn is very easy to get to on the UBahn, and you don't need a guided tour. Plus there's a ton of other great stuff to see in Vienna.

 

Bratislava is a cute little town but you can make the circuit in about 2 hours tops. A bus tour there from Vienna is less appealing (to me) than stopping there on the boat, because of the (wasted) travel time.

 

PS can you do both? If Bratislava is truly a half-day tour, you could buy your own tix to Schönbrunn and take the UBahn there when you get back from Bratislava, to visit the palace in the afternoon. One trick: most of the Schonbrunn tickets require you to specify the time you'll arrive and it's binding. BUT the Sisi ticket DOES NOT require you to make a timed reservation. Even though the Sisi ticket is more expensive, in this case it may be helpful.

[Coral]

We did both. Entirely different experiences. If it is raining do the Schönbrunn Palace.

 

If I docked in Vienna - I would probably do Schönbrunn Palace and spend the rest of the day wandering around Vienna (and eating) as opposed to seeing Bratislava and doing the commute back and fourth. I would put wandering around Vienna above Schönbrunn Palace. Vienna is such a pretty city.

 

I liked Bratislava but liked Vienna better. You can't make a bad choice.

Edited February 21 by Coral

[ljandgb]

Agree.  I really liked Bratislava, but not sure it would be worth a 2 hour bus ride.  We were docked city center.  There is soooo much to see in Vienna that I think your time would be better spent there, regardless of what you see in the city.

[Got2Cruise]

I’m surprised Bratislava isn’t a separate stop.

 

How many days in Vienna do you have? 

 

Bratslavia is interesting especially if you take the hike up to the Castle, but Vienna much more worth your time. But it also depends if you want to learn more about Maria Theresa. It’s a lot. Lol 

[lynncarol]

While the four of us were traveling independently in Europe, we took one of the three days we spent in Vienna to go to Bratislava (Primarily so we could check another country off our list), We took the train from Vienna to Bratislava and spent most of the day there. All four of us agreed: We would rather have stayed in Vienna which has so much more to offer.

[jimmymac613]

Thanks for all of your inputs!  Since we're only in Vienna for one day we're going to stay there for the day.