Vienna Travel Card: Tickets, Prices and Value

By The Travel Fieldbook September 27, 2026 October 7, 2026

A Vienna streetcar passing a landmark building, a reminder of the city’s extensive public transport network. (Alex Kalinin · Pexels License · Edited)

Vienna’s central sights often make a good day on foot, but a journey to a more distant museum or back to your accommodation can change which ticket makes sense. The Vienna City Card is a transport ticket plus partner discounts, not a requirement for using the city’s buses, trams and underground. Count the journeys you will actually make before paying for a card.

Which ticket suits your visit?

Criterion	Single tickets	Ordinary 24-hour ticket	Ordinary seven-day ticket	Vienna City Card with transport	City Card Discounts Only
Useful when	Mostly walking; occasional rides	Several rides within 24 hours	Regular rides across several days	City rides plus usable partner discounts	Walking plus usable partner discounts
City transport	One continuous one-way journey each	Unlimited for 24 hours	Unlimited for seven days	Included for selected transport period	Not included
Partner discounts	No	No	No	Yes, for card discount period	Yes, for seven days

Walk for a compact central sightseeing day; buy a ticket when your plans take you further out. A standard single permits one journey in one direction in Vienna’s city travel area, with as many transfers as needed, but no interruption to visit somewhere along the way. A short walk between vehicles to make a connection is allowed. The 24-hour and seven-day ordinary tickets cover repeated city journeys without counting each ride.

Against matching-format singles, the ordinary 24-hour ticket costs less from four one-way journeys within its validity, whether bought on paper or digitally. Across seven days, the paper ticket beats paper singles from ten journeys, while the digital ticket beats digital singles from nine. Transfers on a continuous one-way trip do not count as separate singles. These thresholds compare fares only, not the value of sightseeing discounts.

The transport-inclusive City Card covers Wiener Linien metro, trams, buses, Nightline buses and S-Bahn within Vienna’s city travel area. One child up to age 15 or one dog can accompany each cardholder free of charge. Its partner offers span sightseeing, music and theatre, tours, food and drink, shopping, transport, recreation and accommodation. Count only discounts at places you intend to use, then compare that saving with the extra cost over the ordinary ticket you would otherwise buy. If you expect to walk and use several partner offers, Discounts Only separates the discounts from city transport.

A weekend sightseeing plan for Vienna can help you count likely rides and mark the attractions you would pay to enter, rather than guessing how much of a card you might use.

Ticket prices and validity

Adult product	Price	City travel	Partner discounts
Single, paper / digital	€3.20 / €3.00	One continuous one-way journey	No
Ordinary 24-hour, paper / digital	€10.20 / €9.70	24 hours	No
Ordinary seven-day, paper / digital	€28.90 / €25.20	Seven calendar days	No
City Card 24-hour	€19	One 24-hour ticket	24 hours
City Card 48-hour	€31	Two 24-hour tickets	48 hours
City Card 72-hour	€37	One seven-day ticket	72 hours
City Card seven-day	€39	One seven-day ticket	Seven days
City Card Discounts Only	€9	None	Seven days
City Card Airport Transfer add-on	€22	Airport services only	Not applicable

A City Card’s discount period is not always its transport period. The 72-hour version gives you a seven-day city transport ticket, but partner discounts stop after 72 hours. The 48-hour version instead contains two 24-hour public transport tickets. Choose the start date and, for hourly tickets, the exact start time when configuring the card. Seven-day travel is counted by calendar days. The ordinary 24-hour ticket runs for 24 hours from your chosen start, while the ordinary seven-day ticket starts on the selected date.

Ordinary 48-hour and 72-hour Vienna transport tickets are no longer sold. If you need city travel across those lengths of stay, compare the available ordinary day and seven-day products with the City Card versions rather than assuming that a similarly named ordinary pass exists. A single ticket allows transfers on the same uninterrupted one-way journey, but leaving the route to sightsee calls for another ticket.

The Airport Transfer add-on belongs to the City Card, not the ordinary city fare. It allows repeated airport journeys within seven days, and two children under 15 can travel free with it. The transport included in a basic City Card and the airport services covered by the add-on are different entitlements.

City travel, the airport and Vienna PASS

Neither an ordinary city ticket nor the basic Vienna City Card takes you all the way to Vienna Airport. City travel coverage ends at the boundary near Schwechat. If you already hold an ordinary city ticket, buy an additional VOR single for the section from that boundary to the airport. At an ÖBB station machine, choose Vienna Airport and the option excluding the Vienna city fare. At a Wiener Linien underground ticket machine, select the VOR ticket from the city boundary. You can also buy the extra ticket at an ÖBB counter or at an airport ticket machine.

With a City Card, the Airport Transfer add-on covers journeys in either direction on the City Airport Train (CAT), Vienna Airport Bus, S-Bahn S7 and ÖBB Railjet in first class. You can combine those services and make repeated airport journeys during the add-on’s seven-day validity. Without it, you need a separate ticket for travel beyond the city area. Choose between the add-on and an extra ticket according to the airport journeys you actually plan.

The Vienna PASS is a sightseeing product, not an ordinary public transport pass. It includes unlimited Vienna Sightseeing hop-on hop-off bus use during its validity, with the routes available varying by season. Regular Wiener Linien travel is an optional extra rather than included in the basic PASS. The Vienna City Card instead includes ordinary city transport on its transport-inclusive versions and offers partner discounts, rather than treating the sightseeing buses as your everyday network.

Where to buy and how to validate

Ordinary singles, 24-hour and seven-day tickets are sold in the WienMobil app and Ticketshop, at Wiener Linien machines and sales offices, and at Wiener tobacconists. Singles and 24-hour tickets are also sold on Wiener Linien trams. Choose the paper or digital format before you set off, because a ticket marked for validation and a digital ticket start in different ways.

At an underground station such as Karlsplatz, look for validators beside the “Ticket required” barriers before entering, and stamp eligible paper there before passing through. On a tram or bus, stamp it immediately after boarding, before taking a seat. A paper ticket printed as already valid needs no further stamp, but one issued for later validation does. Ordinary digital WienMobil tickets start at the chosen time without stamping.

Platform at Karlsplatz station on Vienna’s U4 underground line — A U4 platform at Karlsplatz, one of Vienna’s underground stations.
*Manfred Werner – Tsui · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Edited*

Buy the Vienna City Card through its official website or ivie app, or through Wiener Linien and other official outlets including tourist information offices and ÖBB channels, but the selection of variants can differ by seller. For an ivie app card, enter the activation code from your order confirmation. A physical card’s transport ticket needs a stamp before its first journey. PDF and app cards need no further validation once their selected start is set. Show the digital card on inspection.

Before your first ride and on inspection

Select a digital ticket start time before travelling and keep the ticket accessible on your phone.
Stamp a paper ticket marked for validation before entering the underground or immediately on boarding a tram or bus.
Show your ticket and, for a named digital ticket, official photo ID bearing the passenger’s name on inspection.

Don’t

Board before your digital ticket’s selected start time.
Leave a paper ticket that requires validation unstamped.
Rely on an order confirmation instead of your valid ticket and required identification.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: fares and charges and services.