Exploring Austria and the Czech Republic: The Best of Vienna, Prague and Salzburg 11 DAYS/10 NIGHTS | GROUP TRAVEL SUGGESTED ITINERARY | CAN BE CUSTOMIZED INCLUSIONS This 11-day tour was designed to take your group from the banks of the Danube, past the Vienna Woods, through historic Bohemian towns, to a fairytale city found along the River Accommodations: Vienna 4 nights, Prague 3 nights, Vltava and lastly to the northern frontiers of the scenic Alps. We guarantee that you cannot Salzburg 3 nights find scenery much better than this! If remarkable royal castles, pretty baroque towns, top- Meals: Continental notch classical music venues, and out-of-this-world landscapes are on your travel bucket list, breakfast daily. Lunch this is the itinerary for you! and dinner as noted in itinerary Air-conditioned, private DAY 2 • DAY TOUR OF DAY 1 • ARRIVAL TO coaching OLD TOWN VIENNA English-speaking Welcome to Austria! Upon After breakfast in the hotel, assistants and guides Admission tickets and arrival an assistant will meet a local guide will meet your sightseeing excursions as your group in the terminal’s arrivals hall group and take it on a full-day guided outlined in the itinerary and accompany it by private coach to the sightseeing tour of Vienna’s Innere Stadt hotel in Vienna. As this is the arrival day, (1st District), which contains its Old Town. HIGHLIGHTS we have not scheduled any activities until This entire area has been classified as an dinnertime. Please note that if your group official UNESCO World Heritage Site. Being Tour Schönbrunn, the arrives before the hotel’s official check-in a political and cultural capital for the House Habsburg’s Winter Palace and a UNESCO time (generally 3:00 pm) you are more than of Habsburg, Vienna served as a capital of World Heritage Site welcome to store baggage with the the Holy Roman Empire, the Austrian reception staff so that you can set out and Empire, and later the Austro-Hungarian Wachau Valley day trip begin to explore Austria’s elegant, riverside Empire. The dynasty’s patronage long featuring Melk Abbey and a Danube River Cruise capital. encouraged art, music and science, and as a result, the city of Vienna today is truly a Free day in Prague The ancient city of Vienna was once home treasure-trove of cultural attractions. to some of Europe’s most powerful rulers, Walking tours in the Today’s tour will take place inside of and their patronage is still evident today in historic Bohemian towns Vienna’s famed Ring. Your guide will show this cultural mecca’s grand boulevards, of Třeboň and Český your group Stephansplatz, which is home to Krumlov superb museums, splendid palaces, and Vienna’s iconic St. Stephen’s Cathedral. unrivaled classical musical scene. This Inside visits to Hofburg You’ll stroll down Kärntnerstrasse, Vienna’s afternoon consider paying a visit to one of Palace, Prague Castle, most-famous shopping avenue and see the Vienna’s impressive museums, or as and Křivoklát Castle! nearby Vienna State Opera House. Austria’s capital is world-famous for its The Sound of Music tour coffee houses, why not pop into one for a Most of your time today will be spent in Salzburg touring the imperial Hofburg Palace, which café and a Viennese pastry (or two)? Day trip to the Bavarian was the winter residence of the Habsburg This evening your group will dine in the Alps in Germany kings and emperors. Today it is the official hotel’s restaurant. residence of the President of Austria. This enormous palace complex plays host to Maria Theresa, and the private apartments many residences, offices and museums of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Sisi, including the Spanish Riding School, the your group will return to the hotel in National Library, the Burgtheater, the Vienna. There is nothing scheduled this Natural History Museum, the Museum of evening. However, as Vienna has such a Fine Arts, and the Imperial Chapel, where the wonderful classical music scene, your group famed Vienna Boys Choir performs on might consider attending a performance at Sunday mornings from September to June. the symphony or opera. Your group will specifically go inside the DAY 4 • WACHAU Imperial State Apartments VALLEY EXCURSION (Kaiserappartements) to see what home was like for the Habsburg emperors and their After breakfast in the hotel, families. You will then continue to the today your group will set Imperial Treasury (Schatzkammer), which is out on an exciting sightseeing excursion to arguably the world’s greatest treasury. the Wachau Valley. This extremely picturesque area, which is found along the The tour will finish up back at the hotel, and Danube River, is another UNESCO World the remainder of the day is at leisure. For Heritage Site. Today’s excursion will take information on Vienna’s nightlife and you west through the Vienna Woods to a excellent restaurant scene, please feel free fairytale land of vineyards, castles, sleepy to ask your guide. villages and historic abbeys. DAY 3 • SIGHTSEEING IN As part of today’s tour, your group will VIENNA leisurely cruise the Danube from the pretty After breakfast in the hotel, wine town of Spitz to the ancient town of your group will dive straight Melk, which is home to the famed back into the world of Habsburg splendor. Benedictine Melk Abbey. This baroque Today’s first visit will be to the masterpiece, which dates back to the 11th Kunsthistorisches Museum, which is Vienna’s century, is a true symbol of Austria and one Museum of Fine Arts. Many of the museum’s of the most-important monastic sites in the collections were amassed by the Habsburg world. Your guide will lead your group on rulers from their extensive territories. Quite an interesting tour of the abbey before simply, this is one of the finest art museums returning to Vienna in the late-afternoon. in the world! (Please note that the Danube river cruises generally only operate from April to Afterwards your group will board its private October. In the event that your group is coach and travel southwest to Schönbrunn, vacationing in Austria outside of this time the Habsburg’s magnificent baroque summer period, this area is still well worth a visit! palace. This UNESCO World Heritage Site, Instead of the river cruise, we could which has well over 1,000 rooms, is the arrange for your group to have a special location where a six-year-old Mozart wowed lunch of regional specialties in Melk). the Empress Maria Theresa (mother of Marie Antoinette) with his extraordinary musical After returning to the hotel in Vienna, talent in the late 1700s. enjoy some time to relax and freshen up before tonight’s group dinner in Grinzing, After touring the palace’s state rooms, 18th- an area located on the outskirts of the century rooms associated with the Empress Vienna Woods. Grinzing is best characterized by its “heurigen” or centuries; until the end of World War I. traditional wine taverns. Today, many of Prague’s magnificent Enjoy a memorable last evening in Vienna cultural and architectural offerings date before returning to the hotel (roundtrip from their reigns. The city’s heritage is so transportation to Grinzing is included). rich that its entire historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. DAY 5 • VIENNA – TŘEBOŇ - PRAGUE DAY 6 • PRAGUE CASTLES TOUR After breakfast and check- out, your group will bid After breakfast in the hotel, farewell to Vienna, head north by private your group will set out by coach, and cross into the Czech Republic. private coach on a full-day royal castles While your destination is Prague, en-route sightseeing tour featuring Křivoklát Castle your group will stop and visit the Bohemian and Prague Castle. Dating back to the 12th town of Třeboň. This historic, walled city is century, Křivoklát Castle was the home of home to some very pretty baroque and Bohemian kings and princes for centuries renaissance architecture. While in Třeboň, (as well as political prisoners during the your group will have free time for lunch, Middle Ages). The castle’s interiors are followed by a guided walking tour before re absolutely stunning; its library and royal -boarding the coach and traveling north to chapel in particular. After touring the castle Prague. and free time for lunch, your castle sightseeing tour will continue with a visit to Upon arrival to the hotel in Prague, check the Prague Castle complex, which is in and take some time to freshen up before composed of many structures including tonight’s group dinner in the hotel’s towers, houses and churches. One can restaurant. Tomorrow you will begin your easily spend an entire day there and still sightseeing in the Czech Republic’s historic not see everything. During your tour this capital! afternoon your group will tour St. Vitus Much of the fairytale-like beauty found in Cathedral, St. George's Basilica, the Old Prague can be credited to its 14th-century Royal Palace, Golden Lane and Daliborka ruler: Charles IV. As both the King of Tower, all of which form part of a UNESCO Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire, his World Heritage Site. patronage ushered in an era of art, culture, The sightseeing tour will finish up back at architecture, and scholarship in Bohemia; a your hotel, and the evening is at leisure for true Golden Age. During his reign, Prague you to enjoy Prague. became the imperial capital of the Holy Roman Empire. A second Golden Age in DAY 7 • PRAGUE FREE Prague took place in the late 16th century DAY during the reign of Emperor Rudolf II, who After breakfast in the hotel, despite being a Habsburg chose to rule enjoy a full day at leisure to from Prague instead of Vienna.