An Art Tour of Vienna, Prague and Berlin
Programme Overview
Duration: 12 days
Ideal for art-lovers, this 12 day special interest tour of Vienna, Prague and Berlin focuses on the exceptional art scene offered by these cities.
Highlights: Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Berlin
Arrive Vienna
Upon arrival into Vienna, meet your local representative and continue on your private transfer to the luxury five star Hotel Sacher. The remainder of the day is at leisure.
Overnight: Hotel Sacher
Vienna
Begin your day with a performance by the elegant, snowy white Lipizzaner stallions and their riders in the baroque Winter Riding School built 1729-1735. Witness the spectacular perfection of the “High School of Classical Horsemanship” with the Pas de Deux and the School Quadrille presented with eight stallions. Enjoy lunch at the Café Mozart, a Viennese institution since 1873, before visiting the Kunsthistorisches Museum, housed in its palatial building on the Ringstrasse. This museum is comparable to the Louvre in Paris.
Overnight: Hotel Sacher
Meal Plan: B,L
Vienna
Enjoy a full day exploring the Museum Quarter. Visit the Leopold Museum housing the world's largest collection of works by Egon Schiele, as well as works by Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka, and the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation including major works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein.
After lunch visit Quartier 21, Vienna’s center of applied arts and design, and Zoom Kindermuseum offering an unconventional approach to learning for children and the adults who accompany them. Explore the Museum Quarter, filled with restaurants, cafes and shops. Afterwards return to your hotel for an evening at leisure.
Overnight: Hotel Sacher
Meal Plan: B,L
Vienna
Take a guided tour of the Vienna State Opera House built in the Neo-Renaissance style in the mid 19th century. Visit the baroque Schönbrunn Palace and its magnificent gardens, the vast summer residence of the Habsburg monarchy, and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visit the 'Hall of Mirrors' in which Mozart performed for the Empress Maria Theresa when he was only six years old.
Enjoy lunch in the celebrated Viennese coffee house, Café Residenz before returning to the city center for time to explore independently.
Overnight: Hotel Sacher
Meal Plan: B,L
Vienna - Prague
Board a train this morning for Prague and enjoy lunch en route. Upon arrival take a tour of the principal architectural and historical sites including the Jewish Quarter dating from the 13th century. Visit the Pinkas Synagogue, dedicated to Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Bohemia and Moravia, and the Spanish Synagogue, often described as the most beautiful synagogue in Europe. See the Jewish Cemetery dating from the 15th century. Stroll through the maze of cobbled streets to the Gothic Town Hall built in 1338 and famous for its astronomical clock.
Afterwards check in to your hotel.
Overnight: Augustine Hotel
Meal Plan: B,L
Prague
No visit to Prague would be complete without a visit to the historic Prague Castle, a monolithic complex of buildings dating from the 10th century and the center of political power today. Visit the Gothic St Vitus Cathedral (1344), richly decorated inside and out and topped by a 280ft Great Tower. Visit the Romanesque St George’s Basilica and the Vladislav Hall, the largest Gothic secular interior space in Central Europe (1493). Visit the Golden Lane inhabited by impoverished artists and writers in the early 20th century – Franz Kafka lived at No. 22. After lunch visit the Kafka museum.
Before dinner walk across the famous Charles Bridge, and then enjoy dinner at Kampa Park, an restaurant overlooking the Vltava River and Charles Bridge.
Overnight: Augustine Hotel
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Prague - Berlin
This morning travel by train to Dresden, capital of Saxony, situated on the banks of the Elbe River and known as the ‘Florence of the North’. On arrival, enjoy a short city tour during which you will see the prestigious Semper Opera House, and the famous Frauenkirche Church. After lunch in a local restaurant, visit the Zwinger Palace and Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.
Continue by train to Berlin and upon arrival transfer to your luxury hotel.
Overnight: Hilton Berlin
Meal Plan: B,L
Berlin
Visit Alexanderplatz, historically one of the busiest squares in Berlin where most of the buildings were destroyed by allied bombing during the Second World War. After the war it became the center of East Berlin. Visit the newly created Potsdamer Platz, dubbed ‘Europe's largest construction site’ during the mid-1990s, and Checkpoint Charlie, the famous crossing point between East and West Berlin. View the East Side Gallery, the largest remaining section of the Berlin wall dividing East and West Berlin during the Cold War - one of Berlin’s most iconic landmarks and the world’s largest open air gallery. Visit the historic Reichstag crowned with a huge glass dome designed by renowned British architect, Sir Norman Foster.
Enjoy lunch before visiting the Bauhaus Archive, one of the most important schools of art, architecture, and design in the 20th century. This evening dinner will be on your own.
Overnight: Hilton Berlin
Meal Plan: B,L
Berlin
Travel this morning to the Museum Island in the Mitte district of Berlin. Here the beautiful Neo-Classical Altes Museum, opened in 1830, hosts a collection of antiquities representing Greek, Etruscan and Roman civilizations. Highlights of the Pergamonmuseum include the Pergamon Altar (170 BC) and the Ishtar Gate from Babylon (6th century BC). After lunch you will visit the New Museum featuring the bust of Queen Nefertiti, and the Bodemuseum featuring sculptures by Donatello, Bernini, and Canova. The Friedrichswerdersche Kirche, Karl Friedrich Shinkel’s neo-gothic masterpiece, is a short walk from the Museum Island, and is best known for its permanent exhibition on the life and works of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Prussia’s renowned architect.
Overnight: Hilton Berlin
Meal Plan: B
Berlin
Enjoy a morning of shopping at ‘KaDeWe’, the biggest and best department store in West Berlin opened in 1907. KaDeWe has a mouthwatering food court on the 6th floor with a selection of food and drink to rival Harrods in London. This area of the city also includes elegant boutiques and specialty stores. Galeries Lafayette, designed by Jean Nouvel, features fabulous French designs, perfumes, shoes and accessories. Visit the world renowned Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Liebeskind, illustrating the history and culture of Germany’s Jewish community. This evening enjoy your farewell dinner in one of the city’s finest restaurants.
Overnight: Hilton Berlin
Meal Plan: B,D
Depart Berlin
Transfer to the airport this morning according to your flight schedules.
Meal Plan: B