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You have undoubtedly been to Berlin, Paris and London on numerous occasions. Fully understandable, they are always worth a visit. Vienna, on the other hand, is not quite getting the attention it deserves. We at Parnassos.dk aim to change that a bit.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire, with Vienna as its capital, was for centuries one of the most powerful political centers in Europe, with an abundance of cultural and intellectual treasures. Amongst the city’s children you will find Erwin Schrödinger, Sigmund Freud and Gustav Klimt, not to mention classical music’s biggest stars, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Haydn, Mahler… the list is long.
Their music was all composed on the streets of Vienna.
We had two lavish trips to Venna in both 2022 and 2023. With this 3rd trip it hasw become a tradition. Anno 2024 will see yet another lavish tour with one truly unique experience after the other. We are sure you will agree after you have read the below.
When we, Friday 25 October 2024 at approximately 2 pm have been assigned our rooms at the centrally located Hotel Regina, we will go straight to the following first event:
Get an overview of what you will experience on your trip.
Unlike a physical product, a trip is only complete when the trip is over.
Changes will therefore occur and this is also desirable. From the time our trips are offered on the website to the trip itself, it usually takes 6-9 months. It would be quite unusual if an offer did not appear during that period that would be a clear improvement to the overall travel experience. However, significant changes to the overview below will not occur.
All of our trips are based on our guests wanting to join us on new adventures. This is your guarantee that we will strive, to the best of our ability, to ensure that you get a once in a lifetime experience – every time.
We are staying in the recently renovated 5* Hotel Almanac on Ringstrasse in the city center.
In the evening we have rented Oberes Belvedere Palace and Museum, where we have Gustav Klimt’s works to ourselves, among other things.
We are served wine and canapés. Afterwards we go to a popular restaurant and get the best Wienerschnitzel in town.
Guided tour of the center of Vienna, where in the afternoon we visit the Liechtenstein family’s private art collection.
Late in the afternoon we take our own tram to Heiligenstadt, for a private piano concert in the Beethoven Haus, where Beethoven wrote his sonata “Der Sturm”. Champagne is of course served on the tram.
Listening to works in the same room where the maestro composed them is magic. Nothing less. Dinner follows at Beethoven’s regular pub just around the corner.
Guided tour of Vienna city center. In the afternoon we visit the six wine cellars of Palais Coburg.
In the evening we go to either the Vienna State Opera or the Musikverein, depending on the program (which will be announced at the end of April 2025).
Princess Anita von Hohenberg holds a champagne reception for us at Artstetten Castle, just outside Vienna.
In the afternoon we visit Melk Abbey, where we have arranged a private organ concert in its impressive church.
We are alone at the abbey in the evening, where we are served our dinner in their restaurant.
If you are traveling home on day 5, Monday, October 27, take a late flight home as possible, so we have most of the day to continue with a guided tour.
If you choose to extend your stay until the following day, we will arrange a joint dinner in the evening.
This day-to-day description will be updated during the month of March.
13000 DKK
2000 DKK
Hotel Almanac Palais Vienna
Parkring 14, 1010 Vienna
Parnassos.dk, Overgaden oven Vandet 58A, 2. 1415 Copenhagen
45 52736316
overtoner@parnassos.dk
Parnassos.dk ApS is a member of the Travel Guarantee Fund. It guarantees your money, while we guarantee your experiences.
Parnassos.dk ApS is a member of ‘the Vienna Experts Club’ and collaborates with the Scandinavian branch of the Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO).
Oberes Belvedere, ours for one evening on Thursday, October 23, 2025.
After we have been assigned our rooms at hotel Regina, we will go straight to the imposing Palais Coburg and descend into the catacombs of the palace, where its six wine cellars welcome us. One cellar is dedicated to French champagne, followed by the wines of the New World, one for Europe’s finest grapes, one devoted to Spanish and Portuguese wines, one to Austria’s own bottles and finally one to Chateau d’Yquem.
60,000 bottles to admire and envy, including the oldest in the collection, the Rüdesheim Apostolic wine from year 1727.
And of course, there will be time for tastings. You can also buy any wine to bring back with you, including the most expensive from the collection, a magnum bottle for 240,000 euros. It is said to taste great, but let us immediately add, that the bottle is not included in the price of the trip.
We have arrived at Friday morning, where a guided tour will take us to the center of Vienna.
Around the world, there are private museums and art collections that VIP guests can visit undisturbed. Presidents, billionaires and famous pop singers. That kind of thing. You will find such a private collection in the Stadtpalais Liechtenstein in Vienna. We will visit one of these after lunch.
One of Europe’s richest families, the Liechtenstein family, has given us access to the Stadtpalais. A mansion that has just been renovated for the tidy sum of 120 million euros, paid for out of the family’s own pocket. Granted, inflation has been hard on us lately, but we still think that you get a lot for 900 million kroner.
On Friday afternoon they open the gate for us. Two in-house art experts are ready to show us the family’s private museum, closed to the public.
A gasp will pass through our group when we reach the family’s ballroom, which is almost otherworldly beautiful.
Palais Liechtenstein ballroom, Vienna. Grünwald photo.
We have our own tram in Vienna. The building in the background is the Vienna State Opera.
Friday, late afternoon it is time to take our own private tram, which will take us to the evening’s experiences on the outskirts of Vienna.
Our guide for the evening is Vienna’s tourist director Gerti Schmidt, who will take us to Heiligenstadt, where she will tell us about the city’s history and architecture along the way.
While we wait for the green light – literally – from Wiener Linien to connect us to the city’s public tracks, Gerti has made sure that two waitresses serve us champagne in the plastic cups we brought with us.
We rode in the same tram during our previous visit to Vienna in October 2024. For not a few of our guests, especially from Copenhagen, it was also a journey of a nostalgic nature. The sound, the interior, and the tickets or “tickets” were not unlike what you experienced in the trams that ran on the streets and alleys of Copenhagen in the 1970s.
At the foot of the ‘Heiligenstadt hills’ we will visit one of Vienna’s most famous citizens, Ludwig van Beethoven. His home was located at Probusgasse 6 and is today a very elegant museum.
Beethoven lived here – which also functioned as a kind of summer house – from 1792 until his death on March 26, 1827.
We arrive around 6:00 p.m., after the museum’s regular closing time. Two Beethoven experts are waiting for us at the door, ready to tell us about the house’s famous resident.
After the tour, we have arrived at what is central to this travel agency’s goal, to create classical concerts in Europe in music-historical surroundings.
The Beethoven Society has been very accommodating to us. In fact, only the Beethoven Society is responsible for the concerts in the house. But for our evening we have been granted an exemption. And here we will experience tonight’s concert.
Beethoven’s home in Heiligenstadt, Vienna
The Romanian-Austrian Adela Liculescu. The concert pianist for our evening.
One of Beethoven’s works, which he wrote in the very same room where the concert hall is located, was Piano Sonata No. 17, ‘Der Sturm’ opus 31. One dark and stormy evening, Beethoven heard a horse galloping right outside his window. It inspired him to write the 3rd movement of Der Sturm, which lasts almost 7 minutes, here played by Valentina Lisitsa.
The Vienna Museum Institution and the Beethoven Society have warmly recommended the Romanian-Austrian pianist Adela Liculescu for our evening and she has accepted our invitation.
Her program will consist of the aforementioned sonata, as well as works by other Viennese composers, including the following jubilarians: Johann Strauss II (born 200 years ago) and Fritz Kreisler, (born 150 years ago).
At the end of the road we will find Vienna’s most pastoral ‘Heuriger’ restaurant, which was Beethoven’s regular tavern. (His favorite drink was Austrian rosé). Here we will enjoy our dinner before a bus takes us back to our hotel.
We think the evening will be magical. Nothing less.
We have reached Saturday, where the morning is yours.
And the afternoon? If we had to sum up the trip to Vienna in one word, it would be “exclusive”. The next experience of the trip takes place in the imposing building of the Palais Coburg, where we immediately move down into the palace’s catacombs, where its six wine cellars welcome us.
One dedicated to French champagne, one to New World wines, one to Europe’s finest grapes, one dedicated to Spanish and Portuguese wines, one to Austria’s own bottles and finally one to Chateau d’Yquem. 60,000 bottles to admire and envy, including the oldest in the collection, Rüdesheim Apostolic wine from 1727.
And of course there will be time and space for tastings. You can also buy any wine to take home, including the most expensive in the collection, a magnum bottle for 240,000 euros. It is said to taste delicious.
Palais Coburg, where the nuclear negotiations between the great powers and Iran took place.
Interior of the Vienna State Opera
There are two temples of classical music in Vienna: the Vienna State Opera and the Musikverein.
The choice is between these two during our days in Vienna, but which one? We will let the program decide.
The program for the music institutions’ autumn concerts will be announced at the end of April. We will make the choice based on what we consider to be the most cultural value for money.
Just a few words about the Musikverein, home to the world’s finest symphony orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic. The building was designed by the Danish architect, Theophil Hansen, and was inaugurated in 1870. This is where the annual New Year’s concert in Vienna is held. It was also here that the so-called “scandal concert” was performed on March 31, 1913.
The program consisted of music written by composers from the Second Viennese School, led by Arnold Schönberg.
This avant-garde music was too much of a treat for the evening’s audience. There was a commotion and the impresario of the evening’s program, Erhard Buschbeck, subsequently slapped one of the audience members.
The slap became famous due to the testimony of the operetta composer, Oscar Strauss, who told the judge that the slap had been the only harmonious sound of the evening.
Our opera or concert ends around 10:00 p.m. The night will still be young and we will find a place for those who want a post-theatre dinner. This is not included in the price.
On Sunday morning we take a bus to the idyllic Wachau district just outside Vienna. After a stop in a charming little town on the banks of the Danube River, the bus continues and takes us to a very special host.
We are extremely proud to be able to announce that Archduke Ferdinand’s great-granddaughter, Princess Anita von Hohenberg, who lives at Schloss Artstetten, will receive us at her home for a champagne reception on Sunday, October 26.
Her great-grandfather’s fate had incalculable consequences for the European continent. The assassination attempt on him and his wife, Countess Sophie von Chotek, on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, was, as we know, the start of World War I, which set the entire old continent on fire. The couple is buried in the family crypt in the castle basement, which we also visit.
Princess Anita will give us a speech, and there will be an opportunity to ask questions afterwards. We are sure that it will be another highlight of the trip.
Roter Salon, Princess Anita von Hohenberg’s hall for receptions for prominent guests – like us.
The Benedictine Abbey in Melk, inspiration for Umberto Eco’s novel, The Name of the Rose.
On the banks of the Danube River – and a few kilometers from Schloss Artstetten – we encounter one of the world’s most impressive monasteries, the almost 1000-year-old Benedictine monastery in Melk. (consecrated in 1089). The buildings hide countless relics of saints and a wooden splinter of Christ’s cross. Not only that, one of the splinters where you can sense his coagulated blood. We leave it up to you to assess the credibility of this.
We visit the monastery in the late afternoon, where the house’s guide shows us around its halls and rooms, not least the large library that, within the framework of artistic freedom, is found in Umberto Eco’s novel, The Name of the Rose.
In addition, we met Father Ludwig Wenzl from Melk Monastery during an event in Vienna. He has promised to give us a short welcome speech.
After regular closing time, an organ concert is arranged for us in the monastery’s divinely beautiful church, with chief organist Josef Schweighofer at the organ, with a 45-minute program including Buxtehude, Bach and Liszt.
When the organ’s notes have fallen silent, we move to the site’s pavilion where a summer singer tells us about the monastery’s own wines – including tastings.
Afterwards, dinner is served for us in the monastery’s lunch restaurant – they open the doors especially for us. Wine tasting and dinner are included in the price, while the wines for dinner are between you and the restaurant. After that, the bus takes us back to Vienna, quite late in the evening.
This concludes the official program of the trip. If the mood is right, we know the perfect place to end with a drink or two.
Privately arranged organ concert in Melk Stift Kirche on Sunday, October 26, 2025.
The program is, we think you will agree, quite compact. Therefore, when we reach Monday, many of you will probably want to enjoy the city at your own pace. Our experience tells us that about half of our guests go home that day, the other half choose an extra day. (which you can buy during the purchase process).
Our advice, no matter which day you go home, is to choose the lateest flight possible, so you will have one more full day of Vienna in your blood.
It may be that you simply want to spend Monday wandering around the streets and alleys and enjoying lunch in the Naschmarkt district, where you will find restaurants for every taste.
If you haven’t had enough museums during our program, there are another 100 museums to choose from in Vienna.
This year’s choice has fallen on Hotel Almanac, a five-star hotel whose rooms take you back to the 19th century. With full enjoyment of 21st century facilities, of course.
It is very elegant and is located on the Ringstrasse itself.
There is a spa, a fitness center and a swimming pool, which for the latter is very unusual for a hotel in the center of Vienna.
And the breakfast? It is a buffet, but instead of you having to pick it up yourself, the buffet is of course brought to your table. That way you don’t have to walk back and forth. There’s one more thing: Breakfast is served until 2:00 PM.
AUSTRIAN AIRWAYS – Thursday, October 23 at 09.50
The trip to and from Vienna is not included in the price. In our opinion, it is clearly preferable that you choose the departure and return time and place yourself, so that it fits into your plans.
If you want to travel to Vienna as a ‘group’, you can choose to fly with Austrian Airways with departure on Thursday, October 23 at 09.50 from Copenhagen Airport. For those who take that flight, there will be a bus waiting for you at Vienna Airport. The bus will take us on to the hotel. The bus ride is included in the price.
If you choose another departure, it is still easy and cheap to reach our hotel by public transport from the airport. Google Maps will help you and if you need tips and advice, you are also welcome to contact us by email or phone 5273 6316. If you want to extend your stay, you can read more:
About half of our guests take advantage of the offer to extend their stay during our trips. Now that you’re in the city, why not take an extra day or two in addition to the program Parnassos has put together? The city is very tolerant of you going exploring for an extra day or two.
So if you want to take an extra day BEFORE the “official” start of the trip – we can call it the overture of the trip – you can add the extra day during the purchase process. The price for a double room at Hotel Alamanac is exactly 2,000 kr.
Vienna incinerator, designed by artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.
What exactly do you get for your 13,000 kr.?
An extra day: October 27th - 28thIf you want to take an extra day AFTER the “official” end of the trip – we can call it the coda of the trip – you can add the extra day during the purchase process. The price for an extra night at our hotel is 2,000 DKK for a double room.
If you book extra days, it is tempting to visit either the Musikverein or, conversely, the Vienna State Opera in the evening, depending on what our joint Saturday evening offers.
We will then see what Vienna has to offer for our extra evenings. And if there is nothing really to our taste, we can always have dinner together. Or you can choose to just enjoy the city alone.
We want to create exclusive experiences – without excluding anyone.
Granted, our tours are not among the cheapest, but they are still accessible to most of those who walk in the footsteps of Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish poet who once said, ‘to travel is to live’.
The ‘trick’ is to be a large group. We’re talking about around 40 people. Being many has its own dynamic. And a larger budget allows us to offer truly unique adventures that surely will be beyond most of us if we acted on our own. Sometimes we will split up in 2 groups of 20 when that makes more sense.
Our purpose is to tear us away from our day to day lives, to ensure that when you are back home again, you will ask yourself, ‘did I really experience what I think I experienced’?
What exactly do you get for your 13,000 kr.?
• 4 nights at the 5* Hotel Almanac in the center of Vienna
• Thursday, October 23rd: Reception and guided tour at Oberes Belvedere in the evening, where we will be served wines and canapés.
(Dinner on Thursday evening at a nearby popular restaurant is at the guest’s own expense).
• Friday: Access to the Liechtenstein family’s private art collection. Private tram, where champagne is served. We have the Beethoven Haus at our disposal on Friday evening. Private piano concert. Dinner on Friday evening is included in the price.
• Saturday we go on a guided wine tour in Palais Coburg and included in the price.
Opera in the evening. Standard ticket for around 100 € is included in the price. You can upgrade to a Parterre ticket. Late Saturday evening we go to a lively and youthful pizza bar. Pizza is included in the price.
• Sunday we have an audience with Princess Anita von Hohenberg. In the afternoon guided tour and organ concert in Stift Melk followed by dinner at the monastery restaurant, which is included in the price.
• We have an easy access to lunches. These are at the guest’s expense. Wines for dinners are between the guest and the restaurant.
The amount covers the stay and events during our days in Vienna. It does not include the flight as this give our guests much more flexibility.
If the trip is cancelled, whatever the reason, we will reimburse the value of your air ticket.
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